Charging Orders Act 1979
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1979 c. 53 |
| Year | 1979 |
(1) Where, under a judgment or order of the High Court F19or the family court or F24the county court, a person (the “debtor”) is required to pay a sum of money to another person (the “creditor”) then, for the purpose of enforcing that judgment or order, the appropriate court may make an order in accordance with the provisions of this Act imposing on any such property of the debtor as may be specified in the order a charge for securing the payment of any money due or to become due under the judgment or order.in a case where the property to be charged is a fund in court, the court in which that fund is lodged;in a case where paragraph (a) above does not apply and the order to be enforced is a maintenance order of the High Court F18or an order for costs made in family proceedings in the High Court, the High Court or F21the family court;in a case where paragraph (a) does not apply and the order to be enforced is an order of the family court, the family court;in a case where F23none of paragraphs (a) , (b) and (ba) above applies and the judgment or order to be enforced is a judgment or order of the High Court for a sum exceeding F31the county court limit, the High Court F1or F25the county court; andin any other case, F25the county court.(3) An order under subsection (1) above is referred to in this Act as a “charging order”.(4) Where a person applies to the High Court for a charging order to enforce more than one judgment or order, that court shall be the appropriate court in relation to the application if it would be the appropriate court, apart from this subsection, on an application relating to one or more of the judgments or orders concerned.the personal circumstances of the debtor, andwhether any other creditor of the debtor would be likely to be unduly prejudiced by the making of the order.(6) Subsections (7) and (8) apply where, under a judgment or order of the High Court F20or the family court or F26the county court, a debtor is required to pay a sum of money by instalments.(7) The fact that there has been no default in payment of the instalments does not prevent a charging order from being made in respect of that sum.(8) But if there has been no default, the court must take that into account when considering the circumstances of the case under subsection (5) .(9) In this section “family proceedings” means proceedings in the Family Division of the High Court which are business assigned, by or under section 61 of (and Schedule 1 to) the Senior Courts Act 1981, to that Division of the High Court and no other.in any asset of a kind mentioned in subsection (2) below, orunder any trust; orthe judgment or order in respect of which a charge is to be imposed was made against that person as trustee of the trust, orthe whole beneficial interest under the trust is held by the debtor unencumbered and for his own benefit, orin a case where there are two or more debtors all of whom are liable to the creditor for the same debt, they together hold the whole beneficial interest under the trust unencumbered and for their own benefit.land,government stock,stock of any body (other than a building society) incorporated within England and Wales,stock of any body incorporated outside England and Wales or of any state or territory outside the United Kingdom, being stock registered in a register kept at any place within England and Wales,units of any unit trust in respect of which a register of the unit holders is kept at any place within England and Wales, orfunds in court.(3) In any case where a charge is imposed by a charging order on any interest in an asset of a kind mentioned in paragraph (b) or (c) of subsection (2) above, the court making the order may provide for the charge to extend to any interest or dividend payable in respect of the asset.(1) A charging order may be made either absolutely or subject to conditions as to notifying the debtor or as to the time when the charge is to become enforceable, or as to other matters.(2) The (3) (4) Subject to the provisions of this Act, a charge imposed by a charging order shall have the like
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