5 Debt Enforcement Options
*By Geoff Knight – Obtaining a favourable decision in a Tribunal or through the District Court is often only the first step towards obtaining the relief sought by a plaintiff. The options for enforcement changed last year, providing 5 key ways to enforce such orders.
Although the changes made by the Ministry of Justice to the various tribunal and Court orders were made in April 2014, many are still unclear of just how things changed and what is required. This article, written by a debt recovery expert, provides an outline of what can be done.
There are 5 main options to enforce orders![courtorder]()
1. Agreed attachment order –
Application to gain an attachment order on a debtor’s wages or benefit – now doesn’t require a financial assessment hearing if you know where a debtor works, or you know they are on a benefit. You can also file this application without a hearing. Copies of application have to be served (given) to debtor by creditor – costs – Court filing fee $50, solicitor’s document preparation $155;
2. Financial Statement of Judgment –
File a Financial statement of judgment debtor to allow the Court to determine instalment payment options, where debtor has complied with a Notice to complete financial statement. Alternatively the debtor files their own financial statement with the Court, or the creditor may have sufficient financial information to complete a financial statement for debtor. What are the costs? Court filing fee $65, solicitor’s document preparation $155;
3. Phone assessment “hearing”.
This may be filed by the Court and relate to the debtor’s financial means. There is no requirement for creditor/solicitor to appear. If a debtor is not contactable or co-operative, or won’t answer the phone or return calls when the Court leaves a message on their voicemail to call them back, the Court will issue a summons to a Court bailiff to serve on the debtor, at their known address (which you should have supplied with your application), to appear at the Court for a financial assessment hearing.
A warrant for the debtor’s arrest will be issued for the Bailiff to arrest the debtor if they fail to appear at the hearing. If no address is available for service or the one you submit with your application is found to be incorrect the Court will send a notice to you to submit a new [correct] address. Court filing fee $80, solicitor’s document preparation $155;
4. Financial Assessment Hearing –
This is where the Debtor is summoned to appear at Court. It is used when the above options aare not available. You can serve the summons or have a [Court] bailiff serve the debtor. A warrant for the debtor’s arrest will be issued for the Bailiff to arrest the debtor if they fail to appear at the hearing. Cost – Court filing fee $130, solicitor’s document preparation $155, Service fee $50.
5. Warrant to Seize property – (formerly called a distress warrant).
This is an application for the Court bailiff to take debtor’s unencumbered property and sell them at public auction. Net proceeds are used to pay off the debt. (i.e. cars or goods under finance are still owned by the finance company until paid off, so cannot be taken). Cost – Court filing fee $200, solicitor’s document preparation $310.
Please note if you have to supply another address for service, as per 4-6 above, the Court filing fee is $50. You can only add this to the debt on one occasion.
As we, The CIA Debt Recovery Group Ltd, have specialised in tenancy debt recovery for 18 of the last 22 years, we have found the new attachment order process has been a Godsend as 80%+ of tenancy debts are beneficiaries.
They have been very hard to track down, even with the option to get their WINZ address sent to the Ministry of Justice. The problem has been they are extremely transient.
One has to remember the average length of a tenancy across all tenancies in New Zealand is 9 months. (Information supplied by Bonds processing – MBIE).
Once we know that a debtor is a beneficiary we file for an attachment order to stop the continual tracing and chasing of them.
You can apply for any reasonable rate of repayment. It will be actioned by WINZ in accordance with the usual ruling that 60% of a beneficiary’s income is protected.
*Author Bio: Geoff Knight is the Manager/Director of CIA Debt Recovery Group, a specialist debt recovery company that operates nationally and has specialist ability to recovery tenancy debts.
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