Preservation of tangible personal property - You are a debtor

Verified 12 janvier 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

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  • You are a debtor
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You are present during the input

The Commissioner of Justice must inform you that you have an obligation to inform him if the property is already subject to seizure. If this is the case, you must provide him with the minutes.

The Commissioner of Justice then drafts the act of seizure. The document must contain the following information:

  • Mention of the authorization of the judge or of the document justifying the preventive seizure (enforceable title, unpaid check, unpaid promissory note, court decision not yet enforceable, unpaid accepted bill of exchange, or written residential lease)
  • Detailed description of seized property
  • Indication of the possibility to challenge the preservation.

The Commissioner of Justice shall immediately give you a copy of this act.

The seized goods are then placed in your custody. You can't sell them, you can't transport them.

FYI  

The costs incurred by the preventive seizure are at your expense (unless the judge decides otherwise).

You are absent during the entry

The Commissioner of Justice shall draw up a deed of seizure.

The document must contain the following information:

  • Mention of the authorization of the judge or the title justifying the seizure
  • Detailed description of seized property
  • Indication of the possibility to challenge the preventive attachment
  • Indication that the seized goods are in your custody, and that you can no longer sell or transport them.

The Commissioner of Justice must signify a copy of the seizure order. You have 8 days to inform the Commissioner of Justice of a possible previous seizure and provide him with the minutes.

FYI  

The costs incurred by the preventive seizure are at your expense (unless the judge decides otherwise).

After the seizure has been made, you can challenge the seizure, including for one of the following reasons:

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Seizure is not warranted

If you believe that the seizure is not warranted, you may ask the enforcement judge on which depends your home, the release of the preservation order. It's at creditor prove that the conditions for a preventive attachment are met (a claim based on its principle, circumstances which threaten the recovery of the claim). If the judge orders the release, the creditor may be ordered to make good the damage caused by the precautionary measure.

The creditor does not have an enforceable title

A creditor may make a preventive attachment without enforceable title but, within one month of the seizure, he must assign in court to obtain this document. If the creditor does not respect this deadline, you can ask the enforcement judge to release of the preservation order.

Some assets are elusive, because they are necessary for the daily and professional life of the debtor and his family:

  • Clothing
  • Bedding
  • Linen
  • Objects and products needed for body care and home maintenance
  • Food
  • Household items necessary for the preservation, preparation and consumption of food
  • Heaters
  • Table and chairs for communal meals
  • Furniture for storing clothes and laundry
  • Furniture for storing household objects
  • Washing machine
  • Books and objects necessary for further study or vocational training
  • Children's Objects
  • Memories of a personal or family nature
  • Apartment or on-call animals
  • Farmed animals (and the foodstuffs necessary for their rearing)
  • Working instruments necessary for the personal exercise of the professional activity
  • Fixed or mobile phone
  • Essential items for a disabled person
  • Objects intended for the care of a sick person.

Your other assets may be subject to a preventive seizure, even if they are for example stored in another person's home.

FYI  

A property may be subject to several preventive seizures.

If, though condemned to pay your debt, you do not, the creditor may initiate the conversion of the preservation order into garnishment-sale.

For this, the creditor must contact a commissioner of justice to draft and serve you a act of conversion.

That act shall contain the following information:

  • The reference of the preventive attachment order
  • A reference to the enforceable instrument which established the claim
  • The statement of amounts payable (principal, fees and interest accrued) and the indication of the interest rate
  • One command to pay this amount within 8 days, otherwise the seized goods will be sold.

If you do not pay within 8 days, you then have 1 month to sell the seized goods and pay back the creditor.

If you do not sell the seized property within this period, a forced sale (public auction) is made by a commissioner of justice to repay your creditor.

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