Bailiffs seized the card: what to do and how to lift the arrest

Imagine the situation: you come to the store, fill a cart full of food, and at the checkout they tell you that your card is not being serviced. If this is not a technical glitch or scammers, then most likely your card was seized by bailiffs.

This situation is possible if you are required by court to pay someone a debt, but have not yet done so voluntarily. We have a separate article about the work of bailiffs.

It should be noted that bailiffs do not always behave strictly according to the law. You will find out for sure whether they have exceeded their authority by consulting with a lawyer. We will talk about the rules for blocking cards by court below.

Seizure of cards used to pay child benefits

Many debtors are worried whether bailiffs can seize a social card on which child benefits or other social payments are received. According to the law, they have no right to seize a “children’s” card.

But when receiving information from the bank, the bailiff does not check where the funds were transferred to the debtor’s account. That is why quite often the accounts into which social payments and child benefits are received are blocked or the debt is written off from them.

To prevent bailiffs from seizing the card on which social payments are received, it is necessary to notify the FSSP within the time limits established in the resolution about property and accounts that are not subject to collection.

If, after all, the funds have been blocked, you need to proceed as follows:

1. Contact the bank and ask for a copy of the order to seize the account and an account statement showing where the funds came from.
2. Contact the Social Insurance Fund or Pension Fund to obtain a certificate, which will contain information about the account to which social benefits were transferred, the amounts and dates of the transfers.
3. Submit the application and the above documents to the bailiff who opened the enforcement proceedings.

How to reduce your deductions

Article 434 of the Civil Procedure Code makes it possible to apply for an installment plan or change in the form of execution of a court decision. The main thing is to find a good reason and contact the FSSP with an application. This could be a living wage.

In St. Petersburg it is 12,079.5 rubles.

Let’s assume that Sidorov’s monthly income is 20,000 rubles, after deducting personal income tax, 17,400 rubles remain. For debts on the loan, by order of the bailiff, 50% of his salary is taken from him. It turns out that Sidorov is left with only 8,700 rubles to live on. This means that he has every right to challenge the decision and demand that no more than 5320.5 rubles be deducted from his income.

Template for application for reduction of deductions

Seizure of a bank account by bailiffs

As a rule, a bailiff seizes a bank account, and blocking an account entails automatic blocking of all cards linked to it. It is worth noting that the FSSP does not have the right to seize all accounts.

By law, a bailiff can collect:

• from a salary account;
• from the account to which the income of self-employed and individual entrepreneurs is received;
• from a pension card.

The amount of the penalty should not exceed 50% of the proceeds. In cases where alimony arrears are being repaid, compensation for health damage caused to another citizen, or compensation for damage associated with the commission of a crime, the amount of the penalty is 70% of the salary. If the debtor has a difficult financial situation, has young children or has become disabled, the recovery can be reduced to 25% of income.

The bailiff does not have the right to seize the entire salary card. But just like with bank cards for child benefits, the FSSP can block funds in your salary account. If the bailiffs have seized the salary card, you need to contact the bank for an account statement and the accounting department at work for a certificate indicating the amount of the salary and the bank account to which it is transferred. To remove the seizure from your salary card, you need to come to the bailiff with these documents and submit an application.

Please note that if the arrest of accounts by a bailiff was carried out without notice, it can be appealed. Only a court has the right to block bank cards without warning and only within the framework of criminal proceedings.

Marina Aksenova Lawyer, website author

Expert commentary

What to do, how to challenge?

In each of the cases discussed above regarding the unlawful seizure of a bank card, a citizen must file complaints and petitions with the prosecutor’s office or court. Evidence of the illegality of the seizure of accounts must be attached to the application.

For example, in the case of blocking a bank credit card, a loan agreement is usually attached; and in case of seizure of a salary card, the citizen must provide evidence that his salary was received on this card (at least for the last few months). If a person proves that the actions of the bailiffs were unlawful, the blocking of the specified account, and accordingly the card, will be canceled.

The same should be done if funds were unlawfully written off from a citizen’s accounts to pay off debt obligations. The money written off will be returned to the card in full.

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How to remove a seizure from a card

You can remove the seizure from a bank account in the following cases:

• when the debt is fully repaid;
• if the claimant revoked the writ of execution (for example, when a new agreement was concluded between the debtor and the claimant);
• when the debtor challenged the legality of the collection through the court;
• if the debtor is declared bankrupt.

Only a bailiff or a court can give an order to remove a block from a bank account.

It is worth noting that the only way to prevent the bailiff from seizing the card is to repay the debt on time. The FSSP has the right to request from banks information about all open accounts belonging to the debtor.

If funds that are not subject to recovery have been debited from the card, or the account to which social payments are received has been blocked, all prohibitions can be lifted without the listed grounds. To do this you need:

1. Contact the bank and get an account statement.
2. Receive a certificate of the amount of social benefits, pensions, etc. and the date of their transfer to the organization that carries out their transfer (PFR, FSS, etc.).
3. Submit an application to the bailiff to remove the seizure from the account.

Please note that if the bailiffs refuse to remove the arrest from the salary card, as well as from the pension account or cards to which benefits are received, their decision must be appealed through the court. To do this, we advise you to seek help from a qualified lawyer.

Marina Aksenova Lawyer, website author

Expert commentary

It is worth noting that it makes no sense to issue a new card in order to bypass the seizure of a salary or any other card by bailiffs, since the FSSP will be able to seize it in this regard as well.

You can check the seizure of a bank account on the FSSP website in the “Data Bank of Enforcement Proceedings” section.

Withdrawal terms

The Ministry of Justice states that in case of a positive decision, canceling the seizure of the account takes no more than a day. It will also take up to 2 business days for the bank to remove restrictions. Thus, the period for removing the seizure from the account by the bailiff is 3 business days.

Comments: 36

Your comment (question) If you have questions about this article, you can tell us. Our team consists of only experienced experts and specialists with specialized education. We will try to help you in this topic:

Author of the article Irina Rusanova

Consultant, author Popovich Anna

Financial author Olga Pikhotskaya

1. Elena
   09/17/2021 at 19:10 If the collector directly took the writ of execution to the bank, the debt was written off completely, do you need to get a certificate of closure of the individual entrepreneur or does this happen automatically.
   Reply ↓ Anna Popovich
   09.17.2021 at 20:05

   Dear Elena, yes, you need to take a document on closing the individual entrepreneur.

   Reply ↓

Which cards are not seized by bailiffs?

In fact, there is no bank card that bailiffs cannot seize. At the same time, in accordance with Article 101 of Federal Law No. 229-FZ, the FSSP does not have the right to collect the debt if the proceeds are:

• alimony;
• child benefits;
• maternal capital;
• survivor's pension;
• compensation (injured military personnel or members of their families, victims of radiation or man-made disasters, citizens who care for the disabled);
• compensation for travel, for purchased medications, etc., carried out in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation;
• insurance coverage for compulsory social insurance (except for old-age and disability insurance pensions, unemployment benefits, funded pensions and fixed-term pension payments);
• one-time government assistance;
• funeral benefits;
• material assistance to citizens who suffered as a result of an emergency;
• a one-time payment of 10,000 rubles for each child in the family.

It is worth noting that not only social benefits, but also other income can be transferred to a bank card. In this case, the bailiff seizes funds that are not social payments, which are not subject to recovery.

What part of the salary cannot be garnished?

A citizen, as a rule, receives several types of payments from an employer. And some of them are inaccessible to bailiffs:

• compensation payments within the framework of labor legislation;
• issuing funds for the purchase or work tools;
• maternity benefits;
• compensation for harm to life and health caused in service;
• business trips;
• payment for travel to the place of work.

Article 101 establishes a broader list of income that is not subject to recovery. But the rest do not come from the employer.

Sequence of payments when seizing an account

In accordance with Article 855 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, there are five write-off stages. First of all, debts under enforcement documents for the collection of alimony and compensation for harm caused to the health of another citizen are written off from the bank account.

Secondly, transfers for wages of employees (if any) and royalties are withheld.

Thirdly, funds are debited from the account for payment documents (to pay employees), to pay off tax debts, and to transfer insurance contributions to extra-budgetary funds on behalf of government agencies.

Fourthly, penalties for administrative fines, legal costs, etc. are withheld according to executive documents.

Fifthly, for the remaining payment documents.