Enforced collection notices are being sent for unpaid bills from last year, the Vecernji List daily reported on Wednesday, noting that as many as 230,000 households are facing enforced collection.

One in six Croatians is falling behind in paying their bills, rent or hosing loan repayments, according to the daily.

With 16.6% of the population not being able to pay their bills on time, Croatia is the fourth worst member of the EU, after Greece, where more than a third of the population cannot make their ends meet, followed by Bulgaria and Cyprus.

The Czechs are the most regular in paying their bills, where the share of defaulters is only 2.5%, while the average share of defaulters within the European Union is 9%.

Debt collection has become a goldmine for services such as notaries, attorneys and the FINA financial agency.

For one unpaid bill, the cost of an enforcement notice is €60, the number of non-payers has halved since 2011, but 227,000 citizens with a debt of €3.2 billion still have frozen accounts, the daily has reported.