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3. Bank arrestment

• What is a bank arrestment
• When can an account be arrested
• Arrestments in execution (following decree)
• Summary warrant
• Summary diligence
• Arrestment on the dependence
• The banks’ role
• Protected minimum balance
• Stopping a bank arrestment
• Negotiating with a sheriff officer
• Raising a notice of objection in the sheriff court
• The warrant the arrestment was executed on was invalid
• The arrestment has been executed incompetently or irregularly
• Bank arrestment stoppers
• Time to pay order
• Statutory debt solutions

Arrestment is diligence that allows a creditor to attach a client’s moveable property, such as goods or funds. Arrestment can only be used where the assets are owned by the client but are in possession of a third party.

Terminology

The creditor is known as the ‘arrester’.

The client is known as the ‘common debtor’.

The bank or building society is known as the ‘arrestee’.

Bank arrestments are a legal form of debt recovery that must be executed by a sheriff officer or messenger- at- arms. They can only be carried out if a creditor has obtained the ‘authority of the court’ to carry out the arrestment. The legislation which governs them is in the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 and the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007.