How to Protect Yourself from Garnishee Abuse

What is an Emolument Attachment/ ‘Garnishee’ Order?

When a debtor falls into arrears or defaults on debt payments, credit providers often appoint debt collectors to serve an Emolument Attachment or ‘Garnishee’ Order on the debtor’s employer, compelling them to deduct monthly instalments directly from the debtor’s salary, on behalf of their credit providers.

This means that the debtor ends up taking home significantly less pay, whether or not it leaves them with little to survive off of, or sometimes nothing at all.

This is an example of garnishee abuse, a rampant issue that has recently attracted a lot of media attention, owing to prominent high court cases that have brought transparency and awareness to the matter.

Garnishee Abuse Rampant in South Africa 

It has been estimated that, on average, consumers are overcharged by R1 000 for every active garnishee order in South Africa. What’s more, +/-3 million active garnishee orders have been recorded, which means consumers are being over-charged a devastating total of R3billion!

To put it plainly, after these garnishees are attached to their hard-earned salaries, these consumers are stolen from for the remainder of the order term – which could easily be the remainder of their lives.

Poor regulation by the Magistrates’ Courts, consumer unawareness of the correct process, and unscrupulous debt collectors and lenders are to blame for garnishee abuse.

Protect Yourself –  Know the Correct Process

Consequently, educating yourself on the correct process should be your first line of defence, if you are to protect yourself from becoming just another garnishee abuse statistic.
Let’s say, for example, you were to default on your debt payments, this is how the correct process would go down:

• Firstly, you would get a Letter of Demand or a Section 129 Letter from your credit providers or their appointed debt collectors, instructing you to contact your credit providers to make payment arrangements.

• If you don’t respond to your credit providers, they will send you a Summons.

• If you further ignore the Summons, your credit providers will apply for Default Judgement, whereby the Court Clerk rubber stamps the claimed amount.

• NB! Before the garnishee order can be finalised, you must be notified of a Court date, allowing you the opportunity to confirm how much you can afford to pay each month.

• However, if you don’t respond to the notice, your credit providers will submit their own amount, which will be rubber stamped by the Clerk of the Court in your absence.

• At this point, the credit providers’ debt collectors would serve a garnishee order on your employer, who would then be compelled to deduct this amount from your salary each month.

If your salary has been garnished, yet you feel the process was unfair or that the deductions are excessive, contact Reckless Lending today.  You may be a victim of garnishee abuse and we’ll fight for you to take home more of your hard-earned pay every month.