If you have a county court judgment - one option to enforce and secure your interest ahead of other creditors might be placing a charge on the debtor's land. We can help you do this
If the debtor solely or jointly owns some land or a property, then you can ask the county court to place a legal charge on the property to secure your debt. In the event that the property is later sold, then the debtor will be required to pay back the money they owe you (and any other charges, such as mortgages) before they receive the proceeds of the sale themselves.
If you obtain a charging order against the debtor’s property, in some circumstances, it may be possible to then ask the county court to grant an order for sale, forcing the debtor to sell his property, so that the money can be repaid to you sooner.
Before considering applying for a charging order to secure your county court judgment, you will need to consider how the debtor owns the property, whether it is on his/her own or jointly with another person and whether there are any other charges against the property. It is a good idea to try and obtain an estimated valuation of the property to see if there is any equity in the property after the mortgage has been paid.
Mortgages will often rank first amongst any charges on a property and so they will be paid off first in the event that the property is sold. It may be that you do not recover all the sums owed to you in the event the property is sold.
Consider the scenario below:
- a debtor owes you £20,000.00 and owns a property worth £100,000.00 with a £90,000.00 mortgage. If the property is sold, the first £90,000.00 of the sale proceeds will be used to pay back the mortgage and the remaining £10,000.00 will be paid to you. However, you will still be out of pocket by £10,000.00.
- if however, the property is worth £120,000.00, then the first £90,000.00 is used to pay back the mortgage, the next £20,000.00 can be used to pay you and the debtor will only receive £10,000.00 from the proceeds of sale.
We have helped 100’s of clients recover their debts – many successfully through the use of charging orders. Let us help you too.
Please contact one of our expert enforcement team now for your informal and friendly consultation. At Francis Wilks & Jones, we have all the county court and enforcement experience needed to handle any type of issue. We offer quick and effective county court advice, whatever your situation. Don’t delay. Call now for a friendly consultation.
