In short
If your account is blocked, first ask the bank in writing for the enforcement office of the block, the file number, the date and the amount. A deduction from wages is not the same as this block. The notification that goes to a third person is in the article on an attachment notice.
Download the account statement at the same time. If there is in particular a wage, a pension, social assistance, or money that belongs to a third person, documenting these sources on the same day is important.
An attachment of a bank account does not mean the bank is living a personal dispute with you. The bank often applies the notification that came from the enforcement office, and notifies whether there is a claim belonging to the debtor in the account. The lifting of the attachment requires a different path according to a reason such as payment of the debt, the unlawfulness of the proceedings, or the protected character of the money. This content is general information; a definite result cannot be given before the file and the account movements are seen.
How is an attachment of a bank account applied?
The creditor can ask, in enforcement proceedings that have become final, for the attachment of the debtor's rights and claims at the banks. The enforcement office sends the bank an electronic or a written notification. The bank checks the account within the scope of the notification and the existing balance, applies a block, and answers the file.
Four dates are important in this process:
- The date of the enforcement proceedings and of the payment order
- The date the payment order was served on the debtor
- The date the attachment notification reached the bank
- The date the bank placed the block and answered
These dates help to understand why the debtor did not learn of the proceedings earlier, how much was in the account at the moment of the block, and which money entered the scope of the attachment.
Which documents should be obtained in the first hours?
Receiving only the answer that there is enforcement, by telephone, is not enough. Written information should be gathered from the bank and from the file:
- The enforcement office that placed the block, and the file number
- The amount of the attachment, and the date of the bank's answer
- Which accounts were affected, and how much of the balance
- The account statement of the last three to six months
- Transfer records described as a wage, a pension or social assistance
- The payment order, the service and the current balance in the enforcement file
If there is money in the account that belongs to a business, to a spouse, or to another person, the contract, the invoice and the transfer descriptions that show this should also be kept. Records at the date of the transaction provide stronger evidence than general explanations formed later.
Watch false attachment messages
Clicking links that appear to come from the bank, and paying a fee to lift the attachment, carries a risk of fraud. If the block appears only in the mobile application, it should be confirmed through the bank's official channel. A payment should not be made to the IBAN in the message before the enforcement-file information is verified through UYAP and the relevant office.
The check of the debt and of the service
An attachment of the account is often applied after the proceedings become final. If the debtor never saw the payment order, the service papers in the file should be examined. If there is an old address, a wrong addressee, or a problem of electronic service, a claim of irregularity can come onto the agenda. Learning that the account was blocked can matter, however, as regards the date of actual learning; the application should not be delayed.
If the debt does not belong to you, or if it was paid before, the bank does not resolve this dispute. Paths such as an objection, a complaint, or an action for a negative declaration are assessed according to the nature of the file. The defence relating to the merits of the proceedings, and the non-attachability of the money in a certain account, should be separated from each other.
How is the money in the wage account assessed?
A certain part of the wage is protected for the livelihood of the employee and of their family. When an attachment of wages is applied at the employer, a part of the wage is generally deducted in ordinary claims. Placing a block on the whole of the remaining amount immediately after it is paid into the bank account can give birth to a complaint of non-attachability, if the character of the money as a wage can be followed clearly.
These records are useful for the proof:
- The wage payroll drawn up by the employer
- The description wage or remuneration on the bank transfer
- The statement that shows the regular monthly entries of the account
- The enforcement deduction already made at the employer, if there is one
- The movements that show the account was not used for another purpose
The money being accumulated in the account for months, or being mixed with different sources, can make it harder to determine the identity of the wage. Making the application with the current statement when the block is learned is therefore important. The detail relating to the wage deduction itself is taken up together with the general attachment rules within the scope of an attachment of wages.
The pension and social payments
Pensions have a wide protection because of the purpose of the social state. Exceptions such as maintenance claims, provisions of a special statute, or the person's valid consent can nevertheless exist. The account having been opened under the name pension account may not of itself suffice; it should be shown that the money in the account really came from the pension.
Social assistance, a disability pension, a scholarship, a birth benefit, or public payments allocated to a certain purpose can also be protected from attachment according to their own legislation. The character of each payment is examined separately. The institution and the payment description on the bank statement should therefore be preserved.
If other incomes are also paid into the account, the protected amount may need to be separated. The two extreme approaches, that this is a pension account and every sum of money inside it is protected, or, the reverse, that the whole protection ends after it is paid into the account, are not correct.
An excessive attachment, and blocks at more than one bank
When the creditor does not know at which bank the debtor has an account, they can send an attachment notification to more than one bank. When each bank places a block on the balance at itself, the total block can, in appearance, exceed the debt. How much money was actually transferred to the enforcement file, and how much amount is waiting at which banks, should be determined.
This table can be prepared for a claim of an excessive attachment:
- The current file debt and the accessories
- The amount each bank blocked
- The collections transferred to the file
- The approximate value of the other attachments placed for the same debt
The aim is not to prevent the collection of the claim, but to remove a restriction disproportionate to the debt and the expenses. When the money at one bank wholly covers the file debt, it can be requested that a lifting writing be sent to the other banks. That the writings were processed at each bank should be followed separately.
A joint account, and money that belongs to a third person
The names of two persons being on a joint account does not always prove that the balance belongs half and half automatically. Who paid how much money into the account, the joint-account contract, and the manner of actual use are examined. An account holder who is not the debtor can show their own money with a bank slip, a sale document or an income record.
In a similar way, money that belongs to a third person and was sent temporarily into the debtor's account also gives birth to a debate on ownership. An oral explanation in the form it was my friend's money is often insufficient. A transfer description, a contract, an invoice, or a document existing beforehand that shows a relation of deposit, is required.
A third-person claim can be subject to a period as regards the relevant paths of a third-party ownership claim and of a complaint. Waiting for the money to be transferred to the file can make the process of taking it back harder. The third person should therefore also make the application in time, in their own name and with their evidence.
Paths of lifting the block
Which path will be used is determined according to the reason of the attachment:
Payment of the debt
The current file balance is learned together with the principal, the interest, the fees and the expenses. After full payment, the enforcement office must send the bank a writing of lifting. Even if the file has closed, the processing of the writing at the bank is awaited.
An agreement with the creditor
An instalment or a settlement can be made. Whether the existing block will lift, and at which stage of payment it will be lifted, should be written openly in the agreement. An oral promise does not bind the bank without the creditor giving an official statement to the file.
A complaint of non-attachability or of an excessive attachment
If a wage, a pension, a social payment, or a block that exceeds the debt is in question, an application is made to the suitable authority by documenting the source and the amount. Opening a complaint record at the bank may not of itself remove the enforcement transaction.
An objection directed at the merits of the proceedings
If there is no debt, if the payment was made, or if the service is irregular, the legal path directed at the proceedings file is chosen. The request to lift the attachment should be planned together with the state of the main proceedings. The different options are explained in detail in the guide on lifting an attachment in enforcement.
Are new money entries affected by the attachment?
The bank's attachment notification mostly targets the debtor's claim at the moment of the notification. The content of the attachment writing, the bank's answer, renewed notifications, or attachment notices to a third person can give birth to a different result as regards later money entries. A single sentence of practice does not fit every file.
If a wage or a protected social payment will be paid into the account after the block, it should be secured that the source of the payment is open. If necessary, a writing can be obtained from the institution that makes the payment. It should not be forgotten that opening a new account will not remove the debt or the risk of attachment; the creditor can also send an attachment request to other banks.
Practical following of the transaction in Ankara
Your account being at a bank branch in Ankara does not mean the enforcement file is in Ankara. Electronic attachment transactions can run over the central system, and the file can be in another city. The place of the application is determined according to the enforcement office in the attachment writing and the legal character of the transaction.
The volume of work at the enforcement offices in Ankara can affect the speed of preparation or of processing of the lifting writing; it does not change the rules of non-attachability. After the payment or the decision, the lifting record in the enforcement file first, and then the technical lifting at the bank's operations unit, should be confirmed separately.
Mistakes often made in Ankara
These conducts can enlarge the problem in an attachment of a bank account:
- Speaking only with the bank's call centre without taking the file number
- Delaying the statement that shows the source of the wage or of the pension
- Not documenting, bank by bank, a block more than the debt
- Making a payment to the creditor and not following the closing of the file
- Explaining the third person's money in the joint account only with an oral claim
- Sending money to the account in false messages of lifting the block
The healthy approach is first to verify the file and the amount; then to determine which of the objection to the main debt, non-attachability, or the path of payment is necessary. For the general frame of the system of enforcement and of attachment, the page on enforcement and bankruptcy law can be examined.
A final assessment
The block on the bank account can disrupt daily payments; sending money in haste to the wrong account, or trying to empty the account, is not a solution. The file information, the service, the current balance and the source of the money should be gathered in the same file. Claims of a wage, a pension, social assistance, a joint account and an excessive attachment can be examined effectively only with a regular record.
This article carries the purpose of general information. The kind of the attachment notification, the bank's answer and the source of the money in the account give birth to a different result according to the concrete event; before the application, the current legislation and the file records should be assessed together.
This article reads the block slip. This article does not add a rate of deduction. An Ankara lawyer tells the separation with the slip. The office in Çankaya does not choose the competent office in this block.
Conclusion
This article is for general information. The document, the period and the procedure of the concrete event should be read separately; there is no promise of an outcome from memory.