Once you have a court judgement, if the debtor does not immediately pay up, you will need to enforce payment of the debt.
Enforcing the decision
At this stage, you will require professional help – either from a sheriff officer or a solicitor. Usually, you have to waive four weeks after the court decision before taking enforcement action.
The first step is for sheriff officers to visit the debtor (your co-owner who has not paid their share of repair costs and lost the small claims case), leaving a formal demand for payment for the amount due with interest and expenses. This is called the charge.
The next step to consider is arrestment of wages or, if the debtor is a landlord, arrestment of rents from any properties they own in Scotland.
You can serve an inhibition which would prevent the co-owner from selling their property before paying off their debt. An inhibition lasts five years but can be renewed.
Finally, if the money owed is £5,000 of more (and therefore will likely have been pursued under the Ordinary Cause procedure) there may be an option to seek to make the debtor bankrupt (called sequestration in Scotland). You should seek professional advice on this matter from a solicitor or a debt recovery specialist.
