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Tēnā koe Rami,
  
Thank you for contacting the Ministry of Justice. 
  
We acknowledge receipt of your request.
  
This has been forwarded to the relevant business unit for consideration
and response. 
  
You can expect a response by 02/09/2024.
  
The Ministry of Justice may publish the response to your request on our
website, you can expect that if your OIA is to be published that this will
take place at least 10 working days after it has been sent you. Your name
and any other personal information will be withheld under Section 9(2)(a)
(protect the privacy of natural persons). 
 
 Ngā mihi,  

 
Ministerial Relations and Services |
Corporate Services
  Ministry of Justice | Tāhū o te Ture
Level 6 Justice Centre | Aitken Street
DX Box SX 10088 | Wellington
[1]www.justice.govt.nz

 
 
 
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Rami Al-Jiab <[FOI #27917 email]>
Sent: Monday, August 5, 2024 8:50 PM
To: [Ministry of Justice request email]
Subject: Official Information request - Civil enforcement MOJ and lawyer
fees recoverability from debtor
 
Dear Ministry of Justice,
My name is Rami Al-Jiab and I am the creditor in a finalised tenancy
tribunal case and my debtor is not responding to my texts to pay the debt.
I have applied for his contact address through the courts and tenancy
services and this application is finalised. But I am struggling with what
option to use to recover this debt. I know that the debtor has a lot of
assets (many pharmacies and rental properties which I can prove from the
companies office register) and is ignoring my texts intentionally to make
it difficult for me so I want to use a lawyer a) to make sure this is done
properly and b) to deter him from delaying this as each lawyer engagement
will increase his debt dramatically (the latter depending on your answers
for the questions below). I am thinking of first applying for a warrant to
seize property by a bailiff and that if that doesn’t work go down the
other options depending on how rigorous they are in really assessing his
financial means. To be honest I find this whole process backwards and
unnecessarily unfair to the creditor, once an order is issued it should be
an automatic jail sentence for the debtor if they don’t pay in time and if
they can’t pay it is on them to apply to court and show us they can’t pay
and what they can pay, not the creditor chasing them after they have been
ripped off already by them. Anyway that is just my 2 cents on this issue
which would save everybody including the courts a lot of time.
Anyway below are my questions. Please note that these are not legal
questions, I have repeated the term “through the Ministry of Justice” in a
way that may seem redundant but this was done intentionally as when I
called the Ministry of Justice, staff there seem to think my issues are
strictly legal advice, when they are actually not as it is pertaining to
what costs the Ministry of Justice allows to be recompensated when
enforcing an order, no lawyer can tell me this, this is a Ministry of
Justice process that they need to clearly disclose to the clients,
especially that legal advice costs money and no one should be obligated to
spend money for information the Ministry of Justice should be clearly
disclosing to clients regarding processes they have the final say in.
1. Under clause 2(b) of section 146 of the District court Act, it says the
notice must be “accompanied by 2 copies of the approved form for a
financial statement (1 for the judgment debtor to complete and return, the
other for the judgment debtor’s use). Why am I obligated to serve my own
copy to myself also if I send it by email will one copy suffice as he can
make as many copies as possible or can I simply add two identical copies
of the application as attachments to the email just to adhere to that
clause. Please also advise whether this is something the court will do on
my behalf if only the court have his address and hence I will not be
sending anything?
2. How are these three enforcement options: hearing, filing a financial
statement and phone assessment, different in terms of the process used to
guarantee that court registrar has the most accurate information about a
debtor’s assets and hence their true ability to pay in total or not?
3. If there are loopholes in the 3 enforcement options above in terms of
the debtor hiding his/her assets, what procedures outside or through the
courts can I take to ensure he/she doesn’t hide it like some sort of
financial assessment that is through his/her accountant etc?
4. If I or the courts are sure he/she is hiding his assets what action(s)
can they do or I can do through them against this type of forgery?
5. What is the best option out of the 3 above, that is not troublesome
like a hearing but ensures the debtor doesn’t hide his assets to increase
payment time?
6. In an insufficient correspondence with civil enforcement regarding the
question above I got “Each application differs and what one is most
suitable often depends on how much contact information you have for the
debtor.” Please elaborate with examples on how each option is good for
different levels of contact info I have?
7. If I use any of the options through the Ministry of Justice to enforce
the order, will the fees I pay for this be recompensated from the debtor
on top of the debt specified in the order?
8. If I use multiple process options (for example but not limited to a) I
start with phone assessment then a financial statement filing etc or b)
use bailiff process multiple times as part of other processes or c) start
with one process and is unfruitful and then I file a second and or third
and so on) to enforce the order through the Ministry of Justice, will all
the fees I pay for all processes be recompensated from the debtor on top
of the debt specified debt in the order or just the final process, pleas
elaborate in you answer your detailed policies on recompensations
regarding the use of multiple options, for example maximum MOJ processes
fees (whether this is set by a money amount or number of process and
whether different processes have different recompensation rules like
bailiff versus other options) recoverable from the debtor on top of the
debt in the order?
9. If I ask a lawyer or a collection agency to act on my behalf for any of
the procedures discussed above (the 4 different enforcement options and
any other procedure(s) needed to be taken if the debtor is committing
forgery as per your answer for questions 3 and 4), will I be fully
recompensated for the lawyer’s and or debt collection agency’s expenses by
the creditor on top of the debt itself and bailiff and filing fees when
filing through the Ministry of Justice for these processes, please
elaborate in you answer you detailed policies on recompensation regarding
the use of lawyers and collection agencies i.e. conditions when it is
recompensated from debtor and conditions when it is not and how this maybe
relating to the issues addressed in previous questions and if it is based
on a set total amount of money or number of lawyer jobs or other
restrictions?
10. If I apply for a warrant to seize property, does property mean here
anything of value, not just land or houses?
11. If I apply for a warrant to seize property what factors apply that
allow the bailiff to seize a property i.e. for example but not limited to
what constitutes necessary use by debtor that bailiff can’t take, if there
is such a rule?
12. If I apply for a warrant to seize property and the debtor has property
that he doesn’t live in what procedure can I apply for to force him to
sell it to recover my money or does this simply go under a warrant to
seize property?
13. If bailiff targets a rental property of the creditor how does this
affect the renters and how does their tenancy type affect the eligibility
of the property to be sold to recover the debt?
14. How can I obtain his rental properties’ info addresses, whether they
are rented already or not and what type of rental agreement is in place
for each rental property?
 
Thank you so much and look forward to favourable response from you.
 
Regards
Ngā mihi nui
Rami Al-Jiab
 
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Tēnā koe Rami

 

Please see attached the response to your request for information on 5
August 2024.

 

Ngā mihi,

   

Ministerial Relations and Services |

Corporate Services

Ministry of Justice | Tāhū o te Ture
Level 6 Justice Centre | Aitken Street

DX Box SX 10088 | Wellington

[1]www.justice.govt.nz

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.justice.govt.nz/