Garnishee Order

Garnishee Order: A garnishee order is a court direction to a third party who owes money to a judgment-debtor — most commonly a bank holding their account — requiring that money be paid to the decree-holder instead. It attaches the debt at source rather than pursuing the debtor.

Why Garnishee Order matters in credit and collections

• Often used in severe corporate defaults.
• Immediately freezes the working capital or salary of a defaulter.
• An extreme escalation tactic deployed when skip tracing reveals unencumbered cash pools.

How attachment at source works

The mechanism requires an existing decree or recovery certificate. The decree-holder identifies a debt owed to the judgment-debtor by a third party — a bank balance, trade receivable or salary — and applies for attachment. The court issues notice to that third party, the garnishee, who must then pay the attached amount to the decree-holder rather than to the judgment-debtor. A garnishee who pays the debtor in defiance of the order does so at its own risk.

Its effectiveness comes from bypassing the debtor entirely. Rather than persuading an uncooperative borrower to pay, the decree-holder reaches the money before it arrives. For a borrower with identifiable bank balances or a small number of large trade debtors, it is often the single most effective execution step available.

The binding constraint is intelligence, not law. You must be able to identify the garnishee and establish that a debt is actually owed. This is why asset tracing and banking-relationship mapping during the pre-litigation phase determine whether execution succeeds later.

How lenders use garnishee orders

• Do the asset tracing before you need it. Banking relationships and major trade debtors identified during underwriting are what make execution possible.
• Prioritise garnishees where the debt is certain and documented, such as a bank balance, over contested receivables.
• Move quickly once a decree is obtained — balances move, and the value of attachment decays with delay.
• Combine with other execution steps rather than relying on a single garnishee; balances are often deliberately kept low.
• Expect the debtor to respond. A garnishee order on an operating account frequently produces a settlement conversation within days.

Garnishee Order — frequently asked questions