A creditor can look for a judgment against a borrower in an Irish court concerning non-payment of a debt once such payment is late. Where this kind of judgment is given, interest is routinely applied at a statutory rate of 8%.
There are a number of options open to the creditor to have the judgment enforced. The standard starting point is to register the judgment in the Judgments section of the Irish High Court. Anybody who subsequently performs a Judgment Search in respect of the debtor becomes aware of the judgment and such judgments are usually printed in trade gazettes such as Stubbs Gazette.
There are additional regular publications that can carry judgments and which are available to bank managers, credit controllers and finance houses. A purchaser of property will usually undertake a search and when any judgments are outstanding against the seller, the purchaser will require the judgment being satisfied before parting with the purchase money.
When the borrower possesses property, the creditor could swear an affidavit detailing the judgment and lodge this document in the Land Registry or in the Register of Deeds. If the property is being sold, the purchaser need to do a search and the debt will have to be cleared from the proceeds of sale of the property. The creditor can also force the sale of the property by getting an Order for Sale from the Court and following on from the sale of the property, the debt, interest and charges are discharged from the proceeds of sale.
Other ways of enforcing the judgment which may be available to the creditor consist of: lodging the judgment with the Sheriff, who may possibly seize goods in discharge of the debt; obtaining a Garnishee Order from the Court against third parties who owe money to the debtor, thereby ordering them to pay the monies straight to the creditor rather than to the debtor; taking out a Mareva Injunction against the debtor, thus freezing the debtor’s assets and stopping him or her from removing such assets from the jurisdiction or otherwise disposing of them so as to avoid discharging the Judgment debt; obtaining an Instalment Order from the Court, compelling the debtor to settle the Judgment debt on an instalment basis if he or she cannot pay it in one lump sum; applying to the court to have the debtor declared a bankrupt.
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