Getting a debtor to pay: the Third-Party Debt Order

It is obviously quite common for the family court to require one party to pay a sum of money to the other, whether as part of a financial settlement, or for some other purpose.

But getting such an order can be only part of the battle. What if the party ordered to pay refuses to do so?

In such a situation the receiving party (the ‘creditor’) will have to take enforcement action.

There are a number of different types of enforcement actions available, one of which is the third-party debt order (previously known as a ‘garnishee order’).

A third-party debt order freezes money that might otherwise be paid to the debtor – in other words, money that belongs to the debtor but is held by someone else. The order can be made against a person or an organisation, such as a bank or building society – whoever, they are known as the ‘third party’.

After the money has been frozen, the court can order the third party to pay the money to the creditor, in settlement of the sum originally ordered by the court.

A recent case featured an application for a third-party debt order. In the event, the application was not successful, but it does demonstrate the possibilities.

In the case the husband had been ordered to pay maintenance and legal fees to the wife. He had failed to pay the sums ordered, and as a result owed the wife in excess of £450,000.

The wife’s solicitors believed that the husband’s solicitors may be holding funds on his behalf. They therefore applied for a third-party debt order against those funds.

In the event it turned out that, whilst the husband’s solicitors had been holding money on his behalf, they had already used the money in settlement of their own account.

In the circumstances the wife’s solicitors decided not to proceed with the application.

The judge did, however, indicate that, whilst an application for a third-party debt order against a party’s own solicitors is unusual (they are most commonly made against funds held by the debtor in a bank account), there appeared to be no reason why such an order could not be made.

You can read the full report of the case here.

If you need to enforce an order for payment of money to you then you should seek expert legal advice. A specialist family lawyer will be able to tell you what your best enforcement option is. Family Law Cafe can arrange for you to get the advice you need. To contact us, simply complete and submit the form, here.

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