Exceptional attachment orders

An exceptional attachment order is a sheriff court order that lets sheriff officers enter your home, take non-essential belongings and sell them at auction to pay a debt. A creditor can only get one in exceptional circumstances, usually after trying other methods such as arresting your wages or bank account. Essentials such as beds, cookers, fridges and the clothes you need can never be taken.

What is attachment?

Attachment is the form of diligence (debt enforcement) used to seize and sell belongings. Before any attachment, the creditor must have:

• a decree (court order) or other document allowing enforcement
• served a charge for payment, with the time to pay having run out
• given you a Debt Advice and Information Package, if you are an individual

An ordinary attachment can only reach things kept outside your home, such as in a garage, yard or shed. Some items are exempt even there, including tools of your trade up to a set value, a mobile home that is your only or main home, and garden tools.

Belongings kept inside your home can only be attached under an exceptional attachment order.

Attachment cannot happen on a Sunday or a public holiday, and cannot start before 8am or carry on after 8pm, unless a sheriff has given permission.

When can a creditor get an exceptional attachment order?

The creditor has to apply to a sheriff, who must be satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances. That means the sheriff must be satisfied that the creditor:

• has taken reasonable steps to negotiate a settlement of the debt
• has used, or reasonably tried to use, both a bank arrestment and an earnings arrestment
• has a reasonable prospect that an auction would raise at least enough to cover the likely costs plus £100

The sheriff must also decide that making the order is reasonable. They look at things such as the type of debt, whether you live or run a business at the address, whether you have had money advice, whether any time to pay has lapsed, any agreement you have with the creditor, what you have said about your belongings and finances, and whether you have applied for the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS). Before deciding, the sheriff can order that a money adviser visits you.

What can and cannot be taken?

Only non-essential assets can be taken. mygov.scot gives examples such as art, designer clothes, games consoles and some other technology, and vehicles you do not need for work.

The law protects many items, as long as they are reasonably needed by you or someone in your household. They include:

Articles likely to be of sentimental value to you cannot be attached if their total value is £150 or less.

Sheriff officers can only take things that belong to you, but they can start from the assumption that items in your possession are yours, so you may need to prove something is not. Jointly owned items can be taken; the other owner can claim the value of their share.

What happens on the day?

The order lets officers open locked doors and places to carry it out. But they cannot enter your home unless either:

• they have given you at least 4 days’ written notice of the date they intend to enter, or
• someone aged 16 or over is present who can understand what is happening

A sheriff can remove the notice requirement if giving notice would be likely to prejudice the order.

mygov.scot says they cannot take anything if nobody is in, or if the only person there is under 16, cannot speak or understand English, or cannot understand the situation because of a disability. The police may come with them but cannot help carry out the order. You can ask to see the officers’ identity books, as explained in sheriff officers: your rights.

The officer values each item at what it would likely fetch on the open market, and can only remove enough to cover the amount you owe. Items are usually removed straight away. If not, you must be told the date they will be collected.

Can I get my belongings back?

• Redeem them. Within 7 days of an item being attached, you can buy it back for the value the officer fixed. You get a receipt and the item is released.
• Ask the sheriff to release them. Items cannot be auctioned until 7 days after they were removed. In that time you can ask the sheriff to release an item. The sheriff must do so if the attachment was not allowed, if an auction would be unduly harsh, or if it is an item of sentimental value worth £150 or less in total.
• Pay or agree an arrangement. mygov.scot says you may be able to stop further action by coming to an arrangement with the creditor or paying the sheriff officer towards the debt.

How can I stop it happening?

• Time to pay. mygov.scot says time to pay stops the creditor using sheriff officers to take things you own, as long as you keep to the payments.
• A moratorium on diligence. A moratorium stops creditors starting new diligence for 6 months while you apply for a debt solution. It does not freeze interest.
• A formal debt solution. Once a DAS debt payment programme is approved, creditors cannot start or carry out diligence for the debts in it. Sequestration and trust deeds also change how creditors can enforce, and each has fees or consequences. An adviser needs to look at your full situation.

Neither a moratorium nor DAS stops the auction of an item that has already been attached if it has been removed, notice of its removal has been given, or notice of the auction has been given. That is another reason to act as soon as you get any notice.

Official sources

• mygov.scot: taking things you own (exceptional attachment)
• Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002, including sections 4, 10 to 12, Part 3 and Schedule 2
• mygov.scot: asking the court for time to pay a debt
• Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, section 197 (moratorium on diligence)
• Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024, section 18 (not yet in force)