The collection process of a debt can become very lengthy and complex for a lay person, especially while dealing with the frustration of going through financial difficulties and you urgently need money in that regard. 

In order for a creditor to be satisfied and recoup his/her money through a court in normal circumstances, due process needs to follow and that process can be quite lengthy.

The first basic step is by your legal practitioner sending the debtor a letter of demand placing such person to terms within a few days. Failure to comply with the said letter of demand shall lead to summons being issued at court, and thereafter same shall be sent to the sheriff for service thereof.

Should the debtor’s days to defend the matter lapse, default judgment may be entered into by the creditor and thereafter execution steps shall take place. When we talk about execution steps, we talk about the process of sending the sheriff to the debtor’s residential place in order to make an inventory of movables which may be auctioned in order to satisfy the creditor’s claim.

Should it then be found that the debtor actually has no property which can be deposed of, a financial enquiry will be held at court in order to determine whether the debtor has any means of paying the creditor. In this enquiry the debtor shall bring his/her bank statements, list of expenses, payslip should he/she be employed, etc. The latter shall place the court in a better position to ascertain the debtor’s actual financial position.

Sometimes you get that other debtors do not have stable employment but do have means of income, it might be by being a loan-shark or whatever, as long as constant money comes into the debtor’s account, a court may make an order it deems fit.