Many people only find out what the term ‘garnishee order’ means when one has been made against them. Find out what they are and how they can affect your life.

When you take out a loan, you sign a form agreeing to judgments and garnishee orders if you do not pay it back as stipulated. Many who sign this form do not know what a garnishee order is, and are sharply notified of its existence when they start seeing mysterious deductions on their pay checks that they did not anticipate. The key to avoiding this situation is to be aware of all your rights – as well as your obligations – regarding your loan and its repayment.

What is a garnishee order?

A garnishee order is an order taken out by a creditor who has not been repaid for a loan made to a debtor that allows for deductions to be made from the pay checks of the debtors towards the repayment of the loan. When you have not honoured your agreement with a bank or other financial institution regarding your loan, you are in default and the institution will apply for a garnishee order to be taken out against you, the terms of which your employer is obliged to honour – taking a monthly fee from your salary and putting it toward your unpaid loan.

Garnishee orders and the law – know your rights

The garnishee order – in terms of Section 72 of the Magistrates Court Act – authorises an application to attach debt owed (or to become due) to the creditor applying for the order. Technically, it allows a creditor to take the property of a debtor who has defaulted on a legal agreement and owes money – and it is made possible because, for the time before your pay check is issued, your ‘property’ – or salary – is in the hands of a third party. This legal loophole can easily become a noose around your neck when proper procedure is not followed and you are forcibly made aware of your situation by deductions on your pay check as your first notification. The law states, however, that you have to be notified when a garnishee order has been taken out against you.

Fraud and poor management have also been responsible for wrongfully applied or wrongfully valued deductions from workers’ salaries, with as many as 20% of South Africans crippled by often fraudulent demands and deductions, according to consumer rights agency Consumer Assist. In many of these cases, garnishee orders that have not followed the correct procedures (and are therefore invalid) are allowed and deductions are made – illegally.

Educate yourself concerning your rights and obligations when it comes to garnishee orders, and make sure that you are not strangled in the noose that unpaid loans and the wrongful application of the law can become.

About the author: Kayla is currently a first-year Journalism and Media Studies student at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. She is the editor of the Comment & Analysis section of student newspaper Activate and she a writer for the Politics, Business, and Features sections, as well as a sub-editor for the paper. Her other subjects are Economics, English, History and Sociology. She devours books and sees herself as one of the blessed few who actually enjoy working. She is involved with student society SHARC (Student HIV/AIDS Resistance Campaign) at Rhodes and has recently graduated as a certified Peer Educator. She is also a Media Representative for SHARC. She is the community engagement representative for the African Drum Society and is currently working with up-and-coming student society Common Ground in the same capacity. She loves watching art films and her guilty pleasure is shopping.

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