Any creditor may look for a judgment against a borrower in an Irish court with respect to non-payment of a debt in cases where such payment is late. When this sort of judgment is given, interest is routinely applied at a legal rate of 8%.
There are a number of options open to the creditor to have the judgment enforced. The common starting point is generally to register the judgment in the Judgments section of the Irish High Court. Anyone who subsequently performs a Judgment Search in respect of the debtor becomes aware of the judgment and such judgments may be published in trade gazettes such as Stubbs Gazette.
There are additional regular journals which may carry judgments and which are available to bank managers, credit controllers and finance houses. A new buyer of property will most likely conduct a search and when any judgments are outstanding against the seller, the buyer will insist on the judgment to be satisfied before parting with the purchase money.
When the borrower owns property, the creditor could possibly swear an affidavit outlining the judgment and file this document in the Land Registry or in the Register of Deeds. If the property is being sold, the purchaser ought to do a search and the debt will have to be cleared from the proceeds of sale of the property. The creditor could also force the sale of the property by acquiring an Order for Sale from the Court and following on from the sale of the property, the debt, interest and costs are discharged from the proceeds of sale.
Other ways of enforcing the judgment that might be open to the lender include: lodging the judgment with the Sheriff, who may possibly seize goods in discharge of the debt; getting 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 as opposed to to the debtor; receiving a Mareva Injunction against the debtor, thereby freezing the debtor's assets and preventing 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.
