Pursuant to § 130 of the Code of Enforcement Procedure, a bailiff has the right to seize a debtor’s wages or another similar claim for payment whether regular or one-off.
Upon the seizure of wages, a bailiff obliges the employer to transfer the wages payable to the debtor/employee to the bailiff’s account in the extent of the claim. The debtor has the right to receive the part of the income that is not subject to seizure from the employer to the extent stipulated in subsection 132 (3), i.e. at least the amount corresponding to at least one minimum wage plus one-third of the part of income exceeding the amount not subject to seizure, provided that the wage does not exceed five times the minimum wage in total. If the wages are bigger, the bailiff will seize all of the income that exceeds the minimum wages, provided that the amount subject to seizure does not exceed two-thirds of the total income. If, pursuant to law, a debtor maintains another person or pays alimony to him or her, the amount not subject to seizure increases by one-third of the minimum monthly wages per dependant unless a claim for child support is subject to compulsory execution.
If the debtor’s income is received on a current account seized by the bailiff, the debtor may request release of the part of income not subject to seizure. In other words, irrespective of whether the debtor receives their wages in cash or by transfer to the current account previously seized by the bailiff, the debtor must be able to use the part not subject to seizure. For this purpose, the debtor must submit an application to the bailiff for the application of the minimum not subject to seizure to the debtor’s bank account on which the income is received. In order to avoid any problems, please submit the application for a minimum not subject to seizure before the establishment of the initial seizure by the bailiff. As a rule, this requires the debtor to submit documents about their income (including possible benefits, etc.) and its amount to the bailiff so that the latter can calculate the portion not subject to seizure.
