SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Randolph Khoo, See Chern Yang, Tan Ei Leen and Sharon Ki, Drew & Napier
2.4 Post-Judgment Procedures for Determining Defendants’ Assets
precluded from pursuing other types of enforcement measures once a bankruptcy or winding-up order is made. The relevant applications are governed by Parts 8 and 16 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Disso - lution Act 2018. In general, bankruptcy or winding- up proceedings may be filed against a debtor if it is unable to pay its debts and is not eligible for any other repayment schemes. A corporate or individual debtor may be presumed to be unable to pay its debts if the debtor fails to respond to a statutory demand requir - ing payment of a sum exceeding SGD15,000 within 21 days. 2.3 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Domestic Judgments The time required to enforce a judgment may typically range from two to eight months, depending on the number and type of proceedings that are taken out, and whether they are contested or heard over multiple rounds of hearings. More time will also be required if there is little to no information on the assets available for enforcement. The following types of costs may be involved in the process: • legal costs; • court filing fees; • expenses of execution and other disbursements (eg, advertising fees, auction fees); and • the sheriff’s commission (see Order 22 Rule 9 (2) of the ROC 2021). Part payment of such costs may be recoverable from the enforcement respondent if the enforcement appli - cations are granted, although this will usually be a fraction of the actual costs incurred. The effectiveness of the enforcement process of a money judgment depends heavily on the types of assets held by the enforcement respondent, while non-money judgments are often enforced through committal proceedings.
If an enforcing party wishes to find out what assets an enforcement respondent has before taking out an enforcement application, it can seek an order for the examination of the enforcement respondent (EER) (Order 22 Rule 11 of the ROC 2021). This is an order requiring the enforcement respondent to appear before the court (on a date to be fixed) and be ques - tioned under oath as to the assets that the respondent has and where these assets are located. Alternatively, the court may require the enforcement respondent to make an affidavit disclosing what these assets are or may require the enforcement respondent to do both. If the order for EER is granted, it must be personally served on the enforcement respondent together with a list of questions the enforcing party wishes to ask. The enforcement respondent will have to complete answers to the questions and provide all supporting documents via affidavit or a statutory declaration prior to the scheduled hearing date. The enforcing party may ask further questions at the hearing and may also request that the hearing be adjourned for the enforce - ment respondent to produce further documents in support of the answers given. If the enforcement respondent does not attend the hearing, the enforc - ing party may apply for a committal order to be made against the enforcement respondent. 2.5 Challenging Enforcement of Domestic Judgments There are several ways in which a defendant may chal - lenge enforcement of a domestic judgment. By way f example, the defendant may dispute the following. • Service of documents – statutory requirements regarding service of the judgment, the enforcement order and any related cause papers must be strictly complied with. • Ownership of the assets being enforced against – any person with a claim to the assets intended to be taken in execution may dispute ownership of the assets by filing a notice of objection and serving it on the relevant parties. If the matter is contested, the court will fix a hearing to decide the issues in dispute. • Validity of the judgment – the defendant may:
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