What action can creditors take against me in Northern Ireland?

When you take out borrowing – whether this is through a credit card, loan, or overdraft – as part of the contract you enter into, you are agreeing to repay the money being borrowed; if you fail to do this, creditors do have the right to take action against you to recover the money they are owed.

The type of action taken against you will depend on a number of factors including:

• Who you owe money to and their debt collection strategies and resources
• The amount of debt you owe
• How long the debt has gone unpaid
• Your ability to repay the debt – even if this is just a regular token payment

If you are struggling to keep up with the repayments on your debts, the best thing you can do is be open and honest about your situation to those you owe money to and seek expert debt help if required.

Ignoring your debt problems with not make them go away, in fact, this is only likely to make the situation worse. The more you engage with your creditors, the more likely they are to work with you to come to an arrangement to pay back your debts without taking further action.

If you are unable to reach an agreement, however, or if you do not communicate with those you owe money to, further action can be taken against you which can include:

• Letters, phone calls, and emails
• Selling the debt to a debt collection agency
• Legal action through the courts

Legal action through the courts

Legal action being taken against you for unpaid debt is certainly a possibility; however, this is typically only done following a lengthy process, whereby multiple chances would have been given for payment to be made which did not involve the courts.

If you do persistently ignore communication from your creditors – such as letters, emails and phone calls – you should expect them to involve the courts if you refuse to engage with them.

While Bailiffs do not exist in Northern Ireland, there are still debt collection agencies and the Enforcement of Judgment Office (EJO) in operation which are often used by creditors seeking to recover the money they owe.

The Enforcement of Judgment Office enforce court judgments and debts across Northern Ireland. If a judgment – such as a County Court Judgment (CCJ) – is made against you, the EJO will gather all the necessary information from both yourself and your creditor and decide the most appropriate route forward.

The EJO will take into account your income and your living expenses before making a decision on how to proceed.

Options available to the EJO include selling your belongings in order to recover money to pay your debts, or imposing an attachment of earnings if you are employed. This will result in money being deducted straight from your wages or monthly salary and passed to your creditors.

If you are being threatened with legal action or your creditors are piling more and more pressure on you to repay your debts, it is vital that you seek expert help and advice in order to stop the situation spiralling out of control.

At Northern Ireland Debt Solutions our team of debt help experts are here to provide the advice and guidance you need when dealing with mounting debt pressure. Call our team today to take the first step.