Negotiating with a sheriff officer
It is worthwhile contacting the sheriff officer to negotiate the lifting of a client’s bank arrestment before raising an objection through the court. An adviser’s or their agency’s relationship with sheriff officers often plays a part in how successful they are using these tactics. You can argue that the arrestment will cause hardship, that the client is vulnerable or has mental health issues. The sheriff officer may ask that a repayment plan is proposed and if the client is employed will ask for their employer’s details (often to action an earnings arrestment if the client defaults on a repayment plan). Note that a client’s record of maintaining any previous arrangements will be looked at by the sheriff officers/creditor and, if they have had previous defaults, the negotiation is less likely to be successful.
If the arrestment was for council tax or another local authority debt, the adviser can contact the local authority directly and ask for the arrestment to be lifted on the grounds of hardship, especially if the arrestment means that other debts or priority payments cannot be met – eg, rent payments.
If an adviser is unable to get the sheriff officer or the creditor to agree to lifting or restricting the arrestment, they may need to raise an objection in court