When a creditor holds an enforcement order (judgement, notarial deed, coercion…) in order to obtain payment of his claim, he can decide to have seized and sold his debtor’s furniture.

The procedure for the seizure of furniture consists of different phases:

1. Payment order: this is your last chance to avoid the seizure of furniture. Sometimes, this instrument is included in the service in order to limit the expenses.
2. Seizure of furniture: this is an act through which the judicial officer marks your furniture and sets a date and hour for the sale thereof (not earlier than one month after the date of the seizure). As from that moment, in principle, you are no longer entitled to sell or to give away your furniture on pain of possible criminal proceedings.
3. Placard: this concerns a publicity act warning the possibly interested buyers of it that your real estate will go on sale on the given date, at the given hour and the given place (generally, in the auction house of the judicial officers in Bressoux).
4. Record of removal: this is the instrument drawn up by the judicial officer at the time when your furniture is removed by the mover of by the tow truck if it concerns a vehicle. The removed goods are described therein.
5. Record of public sale: this is the instrument drawn up by the judicial officer at the time of the sale. He draws up an inventory of the sold goods together with their price.
6. Distribution of the selling price: all the seizures have a collective purpose. This means that they don’t only benefit the creditor who initiated the seizure, but all your creditors. The judicial officer shall therefore question all of them and share the selling price among them on the basis on the individual privileges.

It can happen that the sale procedure is suspended, e.g. following a repayment plan. If the plan is no longer complied with at a later stage, the judicial officer can resume the procedure for seizure of furniture.

Thereto, he proceeds to the service of a new auction day. As the name implies, the judicial officer sets a new date for the sale of the goods seized at a prior stage and the procedure will be continued as described above as from the item “placard”. Proceed that way is less expensive than initiate a new seizure.

You will have understood that in the absence of reaction, your furniture will be sold in a public auction.

The best option is of course to react as soon as possible in order to avoid the procedure would be continued, with all the trouble, stress and expenses that this generates.

Several options are available:

• Pay the balance at one time. In order to know the exact amount to be paid, you can contact the office or consult your file online, the payment of the balance of course puts an end to the procedure.
• Agree a repayment plan with the office by sending us an application, in writing or by telephone.
• If the seizure has just taken place, you can, within a time period of ten days, (after that deadline, it is no longer possible) proceed to amicable sale of the goods. The purpose of this procedure is that the price in an amicable sale is generally higher than the price in a forced auction. If you opt for the amicable sale procedure, you shall urgently contact the office and in any case before expiry of the time period of ten days.
• If you don’t agree with the seizure (if you consider that the goods should not have been seized, or if the goods belong to someone else, for example) you can under specific conditions lodge an opposition before the attachment judge. However, this carries risks, and it is strongly advised to consult a lawyer concerning this matter.