Attachment of Earnings order

Attachment of Earnings Order.

An Attachment of earnings order is a process by which money will be taken from a defendant's wages to pay a debt and is only worthwhile if the defendant is in paid employment.

This is one of the reasons why you should have the tenant's bank account number and sort code before the start of any tenancy.(The Tenancy application)

The two points below must be relevant before you can ask the court to issue an attachment of earnings order:

the defendant must be behind with at least one payment of rent (called 'being in arrears'); and
the amount they owe you must be at least £50 or over.

The court will then issue and send an Attachment of Earnings order directly to the tenant’s employer. The order will tell the employer that they must take a certain amount from the tenant’s earnings each pay day and send it to a collection office. Once the money has ben received at the office it will then be sent to you.

Remember that if the tenant is self-employed or unemployed then you CANNOT ask for an Attachment of earnings order.

The first thing is to complete and send the form with the appropriate fee to the Court which represents the tenant’s home area. Once they have received the fee and the form, the Court will issue the Attachment of Earnings application within 5 to 10 working days.

For your piece of mind it is always best to receive confirmation back that your request has been dealt with (and to know the Attachment of Earnings number), then send the Court a stamped, addressed envelope.
It is important to inform the Court immediately if you receive any payments from the tenant after you have sent your request to the Court.

If the situation stays the same and you have not received any money from the tenant, then the Court will either tell the tenant to pay all the money owed or to give them details about their employment, income and outgoings (‘statement of means’) in a supplied form that has to be completed and returned back to the Court. A decision is then made by a Court officer, after having studied the information given on the tenant’s 'statement of means' on how much the tenant can afford to pay.

Please note: In some cases where the tenant receives low wages, it may not be possible to make an Attachment of Earnings order because of the ‘Protected Earnings Rate’.

Once the decision has been taken by the Court, an order will be sent to the tenant’s employer telling them how much to take and when it is to be taken. After the order is made, you will receive any money collected from the employer. They will send this money every week or month, depending on the terms laid out by the Court from how the tenant is paid and when the employer takes the money from the tenant’s earnings.

The tenant has the right to ask for the order to be suspended if they do not want the Court to contact their employer. Dependant upon the reasons of the request and if the Court agrees, they will tell the tenant to make regular payments directly to you.

If the tenant changes jobs then you can use Court Form N446 to ask the Court to send the Attachment of Earnings order to the new employer. There is no fee for this and no new order is required


	Fill in Court Form N337 and send it off to the Court with the appropriate fee

	The court will issue an attachment of earnings application 5 to 10 working days after receiving your application

	The court will either tell the tenant to pay all of the money owed or complete a ‘statement of means’

	The order will be sent to the tenant’s employer

	The money will be collected from the employer either monthly or weekly (depending on how often the tenant is paid) and will be sent to you

	END