Asset Seizure
At the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC, our collections attorneys use asset seizure as a means of helping you get paid when your debtor is not willing to repay what is owed post-judgment. Once we win the judgment on your Massachusetts debt collection lawsuit and receive the (appropriately named) execution from the court, we can direct asset seizure from the sheriff and sell all or some of your debtor’s property.
Before seizing these assets, however, we search the records of the Secretary of State’s office, corporate division, to see if there are any creditors secured by a uniform commercial lien. Any attaching creditors would have to pay the entire amount of the secured debt. However, UCC security investments have to be advanced every few years, and a lien that is not properly advanced is not a lien.
Subject to existing liens and depending on the amount of equity available to pay your debt, our collections attorneys will instruct the Sheriff to seize and sell the debtor’s belongings, with the net proceeds from the asset seizure paid to you!
Sometimes, the presence of a deputy sheriff with an execution is enough to spur payment. These instances are not always the case, however, and a security party sheriff sale may be warranted.
Despite what you may be inclined to believe, asset seizure is not limited to seizing and selling personal property. Once we have an execution, we can seize and/or sell the debtor’s saleable interest in real estate. Initially, we may direct the deputy sheriff to levy and suspend the sale of the piece of real estate. If we had obtained a prior real estate attachment, the levy would “marry” to the amount of the attachment.
For instance, if at the time of the allowed real estate attachment, there was just a mortgage following the deed into the debtor, and then during the time that the collection litigation was ongoing, there were three more attachments and a mortgage. Once we obtain a judgment for you and have the execution recorded within thirty days of it being issued, the execution is not behind the subsequent attachments or mortgage. The execution instead leapfrogs any attachment and mortgage after your initial attachment up to the amount of the court-allowed attachment. This means that if you were to sell the property at a sheriff’s sale, you’d get paid before the later attaching creditors, even though your execution is recorded after the three subsequent attachments and one subsequent mortgage.
Although the power of asset seizure is subject to certain statutory exemptions, the right to seize and sell is an important collection tactic in our experienced collection attorneys’ arsenal. When you need timely and effective debt recovery methods in Boston and throughout Massachusetts, choose the aggressive, relentless, and ethical Massachusetts business debt collection attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC. Call us today at 508-763-6604 or email us via our contact form.