Regulation (EU) No 655/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council

Although Third Party Debt Orders are not the most widely used enforcement route in the UK, possibly because our debtors’ bank accounts are not traditionally showing a credit balance, this new cross-border enforcement tool has attracted a lot of interest across Europe. In many countries, Third Party Debt Orders are the best enforcement route available so UK creditors seeking to recover cash after obtaining a judgement on an EU debtor should be aware of its potential.

This procedure will allow creditors to freeze the amount owed in the debtor’s bank account when it is located in the EU.This would mean that the debtor would be unable to remove the assets value from the account until a judgement is obtained and enforced by the creditor. This would cut down the costs and time that it takes for a creditor to obtain provisional measures to preserve assets in bank accounts held in another Member State.