If a court has decided that someone must pay you an amount of money (you have 'obtained judgment against the debtor'), and you have not received a payment, you can try and get your money (called 'enforcing your judgment') by making an Application to the Enforcement of Judgments Office (EJO) The EJO has powers including
If the amount you are owed is more than £750.00, you can also apply to make the debtor bankrupt. Alternatively, if the debtor is a limited company and seems unlikely to be able to pay the judgment quite quickly (say, in three months), this may be an indication of cash flow problems. In these circumstances, you may wish to consider winding up (Insolvency) proceedings.
WHAT CAN YOU DO IF YOU HAVE NO INFORMATION ABOUT THE DEBTOR'S FINANCES?
If the debtor admitted the claim and made an offer to pay before the judgment was made, you will already know something about the debtor's finances. Although if you only know a little about the debtor's financial situation, you may be able to find out more by asking for an 'order to obtain information'.
An order to obtain information is not a method of enforcing your judgment. It is a way of finding out about the defendant's income, assets and spending. This information can help you decide:
- Whether the defendant can pay you; and
- Which method is most likely to get you your money.
You will have to pay a fee for an oral examination. Although the court will add the fee to the money the defendant already owes you, the court cannot return what you have paid if your enforcement method does not succeed.
ATTACHMENT OF EARNINGS ORDER
An attachment of earnings order is sent to the debtor's employer. It tells the employer to take an amount from the debtor's earnings each pay day and send it to a collection office. The money is then sent to you.
NOTE: The debtor must be employed by someone before you can issue an attachment of earnings order. An order cannot be made if the debtor is unemployed or self-employed. Also, the court may not be able to make an order, or may only make an order to pay it back in small instalments, if the debtor's living expenses are greater than his or her earnings. We would caution that applications to the EJO are expensive and it may take a long time for you to obtain a satisfactory remedy by using this route. In addition the collection process is taken out of our hands and is delegated to a division of the Northern Ireland Court Service.
THIRD PARTY DEBT ORDER
A third party debt order is usually made to stop the debtor taking money out of his or her bank or building society account. The money you are owed is paid to you from the account. A third party debt order can also be sent to anyone who owes the debtor money.
NOTE: If the debtor has a bank or building society account, the bank or building society will freeze the account when it receives the order from the court. If the account is overdrawn on the day the bank or building society receives your order, you cannot be paid from the account. The debtor will know about the order and may stop paying money into the account.
CHARGING ORDER
If the Debtor owns a property or land, it is possible to “register a charge” against the property to show that you have an interest in the sale and should secure payment provided that there is sufficient equity in the property. A charging order prevents the debtor from selling his or her property or land without paying what he or she owes you. Any charge obtained will not take priority over existing charges, such as a mortgage.
The Court will initially grant an order known as a “Interim Charging Order”. They will then allocate a hearing date where the debtor and any other owners of the property can attend and if the Court considers that a Charging Order should be made will make a “Final Charging Order”.
NOTE: You will not get your money until the debtor sells his or her property or land. In some circumstances you may be able to ask the court for an order to force him or her to sell the property or land.
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