Continuing Writs of Garnishment in Florida
Occasionally, I get questions from creditors trying to collect judgments in Florida. Some of the questions are relevant to asset protection planning. Here's one. An out of state creditor had a judgment against a Florida resident who owned rental real property in Florida. The creditor wanted to see if he could garnish the tenants' rent payments. The creditor wanted to know if he could get a continuing writ of garnishment against the tenants so that each month the tenants would sent their rent payment to the creditor instead of their debtor/landlord.
Florida law permits continuing garnishment of wages. Creditors cannot get continuing garnishments of any other money such as rents, accounts receivable, or promissory notes. Other than wages, a creditor is only entitled to garnish what money is owed to the debtor at the time of the garnishment. Future receipts cannot be garnished (except wages). In this case, the creditor's garnishment of the tenants will only attach to rents currently owed to the landlord. Future rents must be paid to the landlord unless the creditor serves a new garnishment when the future rents become due. In theory, the creditor would have go serve new garnishments on the first of each month to get that month's rents.
posted by Jonathan Alper, asset protection and bankruptcy attorney, Orlando, Florida
Can't you freeze the debtors accounts and take the rents (note payments, accounts receivable) as they are deposited? Unless the debtor is willing to rip up the rent checks rather than deposit them that would seem an effective creditor's tool.
I have no knowledge of creditors' rights and have now been asked by one of the senior partners at my firm how we can collect on a judgment. One proposal was to garnish the debtor's bank accounts. Supposedly, the debtor has been repeatedly changing banks to evade collection on our judgment. Any suggestions regarding collecting on a judgment and where to look to determine the appropriate procedure for that course of action?
I have read the comments. However, there is no definition of wages? What do wages include?
Can creditor garish my wages if I'm head of household, in Florida and they is out of state creditors.
I recently had a writ of garnishment against me in Florida for $10,000 plus costs totally $12k. I only had $8,500 in my checking acct. which is not frozen and i've been left with no money to live on. I am single and no dependents. Do I have any rights on getting this money back?
Few years ago I had crdit card account with Bank of America and personal checking account with the same institution. My credit card was charged off and BOA took all money from my checking account resulting 2 checks to be bounced in anout of $3000.00. My account was ovedrawn. Now they have obtained Writ of Garnishment agains my bank account.
I am president of a corporation and have 2 corporate bank accounts. Can the court garnish this accounts?
About 10yrs ago I had a credit card, I know I owe some money on it. Now they are garnishing my check a 2nd time around after going to court with them about 5yrs ago and filing a claim of exemption. My question is after a company has tried to garnish your wages before and a court order was given to dissolve this writ can that same company be allowed to do it again, and although that was 10years ago?