Yes, of course. As there should be.
- At the minimum, you should expect to face a breach of contract lawsuit.
- In all likelihood, you should also expect to be chased by debt collection / recovery agencies.
- In the worst case scenario, you may be hauled up in front of a bankruptcy court.
I’ve noticed that American and German companies have a very long reach. They somehow manage to get to their debtors, even those that have decamped from their original address / cities / countries.
PS: I’m reminded of IBYO incident in Germany. IBYO is what we’d call a “coworking space” now but, at the time – late 1990s – it was called a “business center”. My employer at the time (let’s call it LSR) had contracted for office space at IBYO, which I occupied when I was working in LSR Germany. When I was there, we had paid all bills on time. Then I left LSR and joined another company in Germany (let’s call it LTZ). I moved out of IBYO. I lost touch with both IBYO and LSR. A couple of years later, I got promoted and transferred to LTZ’s HQ in Pune, India. In circa 2005, I saw a letter in the letterbox of my Pune apartment. It was a legal notice from a law firm in Germany. It mentioned that, consequent to filing for bankruptcy earlier that year, IBYO had gone into administration. This was nearly 5 years after I exited IBYO. This law firm was appointed as the Administrator. It was following up for all outstandings of IBYO i.e. monies owed to IBYO. Apparently, there was a small bill of few hundred Euros not settled by LSR Germany and the Administrator was following up for it. It caught me since I was registered as the CEO of LSR Germany. Remember, when I left IBYO, I did not move back to India. When I finally moved back to India two years later, I was not in touch with IBYO. Still its Administrator was able to find out my address in India three years later and direct the legal notice to me. That’s what I mean by long reach of American and German companies!