You have successfully obtained a county court judgment against a defendant in respect of money owing to you. Does this mean you will now automatically receive this money?
What happens when you obtain judgment from the court against the defendant?
The court will only send the judgment in the post to the defendant. The court will not do anything without further request, so what are the options?
The next stage for recovering the debt – Enforcement Action
There are various methods of enforcement.
You can apply to the court for one of the following options:
- An order instructing bailiffs to attend the defendant’s property and seize goods up to value of the judgment debt;
- A Charging Order to secure the debt against the defendant’s property (the defendant must own the property). The debt will be paid to you out of the sale proceeds and the defendant will not be able to sell their property without paying the debt which they owe to you. You can sell the property from under the defendant’s feet in certain circumstances;
- An Attachment of Earnings order, which means that the debt will be paid directly from the defendant’s salary and so a percentage of their wage will be paid to you each month. Therefore, the defendant must be employed if you wish to choose this option;
- An order that the defendant attends the court for questioning by a Court Officer regarding their assets and liabilities. The court will then decide how much the defendant must pay;
- A Third Party Debt order in order to obtain payment from a third party who owes money to the defendant.
We can help
If you would like assistance with enforcing a judgment debt, then we can help you both with choosing the appropriate option and taking you through the process from start to finish. Please contact Gemmalucy Smith for further details.