You have received a letter

Your letter clearly explained.

Who is the Bailiff?

The judicial officer is a public official, appointed by the Crown. His official work includes summoning persons to appear in court, the so-called summons. And he executes court judgments and restraining orders. A judgment or injunction states what you must pay, and why you have been ordered to do so.

To make sure that you do not ignore that judgment or restraining order, someone has been appointed to exercise any necessary coercion. And so that’s the bailiff. If the judgment or restraining order is not complied with, he can seize, for example, your salary or benefits, your house or its contents. Thus, your debt will then still be paid.

It is also the bailiff’s job to clearly and clearly show you the way and tell you the best thing to do and not to do when you have received a summons, judgment or restraining order.

Amicable phase

Exhortation or summons

If you have received a reminder or summons from us, you are still in the so-called amicable phase. This is the phase with the lowest cost. This letter stated that you must pay an amount including our collection costs. Through this website you can pay in pay at once or in case you cannot pay a payment plan request. If you have any questions about this letter please also contact us. If you have paid the claim and collection costs after our demand or summons, the case is thereby settled.

Judicial phase

Subpoena

You have not paid the reminder or summons previously received. Therefore, you will receive a subpoena from us. A subpoena is a letter indicating that you are being summoned to appear in court to be heard on our client’s claim. Read below to see what else you can do?

Explanation of the subpoena

Here’s what to do if you get a subpoena has received. This depends on whether the claim is disputed by you or not. In other words: do you agree with the claim or not?

The claim is correct
In that case you do not have to appear at the hearing. If it is possible for you to pay the claim and the costs already incurred for the hearing, you are advised to do so in a timely manner. This means no later than three working days before the hearing takes place. The payment must then be credited to our account. If you have any questions, please contact us by telephone. By paying in full for the hearing, you prevent the hearing from actually going to court and thus also that extra costs such as court fees have to be paid.

If you are unable to pay the claim and our costs before the hearing because you do not have the means (immediately) to do so, please contact us or complete the Payment Arrangement form on our website. In many cases, our clients are willing to allow a payment arrangement. Please note that the client will not immediately decide to withdraw the case from the court on the basis of a proposal for payment in installments. They often still want a court ruling to have the claim established.

You do not agree with the claim
In that case you are advised to put up a defense. It is important to know before which court you have been summoned.

If you have been summoned before the subdistrict court chamber of the court (the subdistrict court judge), you may defend yourself against the claim. You may make this defense orally at the hearing. However, we recommend that you submit a written defence. You don’t have to do that yourself. You can be assisted by a lawyer or bailiff. If you are assisted by another person, you must give this person a written power of attorney.

If you are summoned before the Court or a higher court, you must always be assisted by a lawyer. You may not appear yourself, unless this is expressly expected of you.

Funded legal aid
You may be eligible for (partially) funded legal aid. The Legal Aid Board can give you further information on this. For more information, visit: www.rechtsbijstand.nl

Verdict

You have received a judgment. In the judgment, the judge ordered you to pay. The court may have imposed other obligations or prohibitions on you. The judgment has been delivered (served) to you by the judicial officer to notify you of the judgment and the sentence contained therein. In addition, the bailiff will summon you to comply with this judgment. If you do not voluntarily comply in this, the law offers our principal the opportunity to force compliance from you. If it is a monetary debt, for example, your income, bank account or assets may be seized. Read below to see what else you can do?

Explanation of the verdict

You have received a verdict. You may not agree with the conviction. It depends on whether you have appeared in court or whether you can still object or appeal against the judgment.

Resistance
If you have not appeared before the court, there is a so-called default judgment. You can object to this under certain circumstances. You must now summon our client for this. It is not easy to draw up a summons, which is why it is wise to ask for legal assistance. Please note that the period for lodging an objection is, in principle, four weeks after you have personally received the judgment or have indicated that you are aware of the judgment or the measures ensuing from it. So do not wait too long! If there were also other co-defendants and one of them did appear, the judgment rendered against you is not a judgment in absentia but a judgment in contradiction (see below).

Appeal
If you have appeared before the court, then there is a so-called inter partes judgment. Under certain circumstances, you can appeal against this if the claim as filed by our client (not necessarily the amount ultimately awarded by the court) amounts to more than € 1,750. To appeal, you must hire a lawyer. In principle, the period for lodging an appeal is three months after the day on which the judgment was rendered by the court.

Please note: most judgments are declared “provisionally enforceable” by the court. This means that even if you object or appeal to our client, we can still have the judgment enforced, for example by garnishment. Our client does not have to wait for the result of the objection or appeal first. Of course, if you are proven right afterwards and the judgment is overturned by the court, you can appeal to our client for reimbursement. It is recommended to obtain legal advice from the Juridisch Loket (www.juridischloket.nl), from a lawyer or another legal adviser. You can always contact us to ask for an explanation of your rights and obligations.

Execution Phase

You have been ordered by the court to pay. You have received a judgment from us explaining this. After receiving this judgment, you did not pay. Therefore, we have now taken other measures. The letter you received from us describes what we did. Below is more explanation:

Income garnishment (garnishment of wages)

An attachment has been made to your wages or benefit

The bailiff has informed you that your wages or benefits have been seized. Formally speaking, the bailiff has over-served a writ of enforceable garnishment. Your employer or benefits agency is obliged to withhold part of your income on this basis and to no longer pay you. This part of your income is transferred to the bailiff to pay off the debt.

If you live or stay permanently in the Netherlands, your entire income will not be subject to the garnishment. Part of your income is paid to you. This part is called the batter-free foot. The bailiff will calculate this attachment-free rate. This requires a number of details about your income and expenses. It is therefore important that you provide us with the correct information as soon as possible if it is incorrect. Only then can a proper calculation be made of the attachment-free rate that applies to you. The information you must provide includes how much rent you pay, the amount of your health insurance premium, but also any rent and healthcare allowance.

If you or your partner has other income in addition to the income on which the attachment has been levied (even if you are not married or do not have community of property), you must report this to the bailiff. In particular, your partner’s income should be provided if requested. If you do not do this, we can decide to halve the garnishment-free foot. This means that a larger part of your income is withheld and not paid out to you. If your family situation or income changes, this may affect the amount of the garnishment-free base. Always notify us of changes. If necessary, the fitting-free foot will be adjusted.

You can always contact us to ask for an explanation of your rights and obligations. If you have financial problems that you can no longer solve yourself, it is wise to seek help. Ask your municipality which institution can help.

Bank garnishment (Bank garnishment)

Attached your bank account

The bailiff has informed you that your bank account(s) has been seized. Formally speaking, the bailiff has over-served a writ of enforceable garnishment. If you are a private individual, the bailiff must take into account a so-called amount to be released. An amount that is not included in the garnishment. If you are a legal entity (company), no amount to be released applies. In this case, if the bank account(s) are seized, no part will be excluded from the attachment and everything on the account(s) will fall under the attachment.

Payments that arrive in your account after the attachment are not subject to the attachment. A bank will generally block the account due to the attachment. Therefore, you should contact your bank to get your account back as soon as possible.

If you run into acute financial problems, you can request us to lift or limit the attachment. However, you should bear in mind that in principle we are not prepared to do so.

Seizure of your household effects or car (Seizure of movable property)

There your household effects or car has been seized.

The bailiff has informed you that your household effects or car have been seized. A judgment has previously been issued against you or a writ of execution has been issued after which you have not made (full) payment. The bailiff has therefore seized your household effects or your car. The official report that the bailiff has given or will hand over to you describes which items have been seized and on what date they will be sold in public.

You should bear in mind that prior to the sale, notices must be posted at your home and at the municipality. In addition, an advertisement is placed in a daily newspaper. You will then have to pay all costs for this.

Perhaps our client is willing to make a payment arrangement with you so that the sale does not have to go through. We can tell you exactly whether the creditor is prepared to do so.

Notice of eviction

If you have been ordered by a judge to leave the house where you live, you have been served with an eviction notice. This means leaving your home. Below you can read how this works and what you can still do.

Explanation of eviction notice

If you have been notified of a judicial eviction, the bailiff has been instructed to evict your home. The document that the bailiff has issued to you indicates the date on which this eviction will take place.

In the event of a house eviction, the intention is that the house will be available to the lessor of the house again. This means that all your belongings must be removed from the property.

The bailiff removes your household effects from the home, after which his task is completed. You are responsible for getting your belongings off the street. It should be clear that if your household effects are on the street, there is a high chance of damage or theft of your belongings.

If you do not remove the household effects from the street yourself, the municipality may remove the household effects, but it also happens that the landlord (whether or not at the insistence of the municipality) does this. The policy on this point differs per municipality. It is therefore wise to take care of the eviction yourself and to do so before the date on which the bailiff has announced that he will proceed to eviction. You must hand over the keys to the house to the bailiff or landlord.

You may be able to prevent the eviction by paying the outstanding debt. However, it depends on whether the landlord is willing to let you live in the property. We can tell you whether the landlord is willing to waive the eviction against payment of the claim. So contact us in time and don’t wait until just before the announced eviction date! This does not increase the chance that you can stay and, moreover, the claim can increase with the costs of the eviction.

Your letter clearly explained.

Client

Debtors

Contact details