Attachment of wages and receivables (udlæg i lønkrav og fordringer)
Also known as attachment of earnings, garnishment, attachment of receivables
Attachment can reach what the debtor is himself owed — wages, money due from his own customers, funds in his bank account.
- Reaches
- What the debtor is owed
- Requires
- Notice to whoever must pay
- Suits
- Debtors without assets
In practice
A debtor with no car and no property is not necessarily a debtor with nothing to attach. If he has a job, he has wages. If he runs a business, he has customers who owe him money. Both can be attached.
The mechanism is that the attachment is directed at whoever has to pay the debtor — the employer or his customer. Once they are notified, the amount goes to the creditor instead. It is often the most effective route against a debtor who otherwise looks empty on paper.
With wages there is a limit. Enough has to remain for reasonable subsistence, and that is what the statutory subsistence allowance sets the frame for.
Where it commonly goes wrong
- Giving up because there are no assets. Income is something too, and it comes round again every month.
- Attaching without notifying the debtor’s own debtor. The attachment only bites once whoever has to pay knows where the money should go.