Civil Enforcement Act
If a court ever awards you a monetary judgment against a tenant or anyone else, you then have to recover the money. The judgement will state the time limit within which the money must be paid. If you do not receive the money, you have to take steps yourself to enforce the judgment- the court does not do this for you. Much of the law about enforcing judgments can be found in the Alberta Civil Enforcement Act.
The process to enforce a judgment can be detailed and will also cost you more money. So you will want to be sure before you start that the amount of money is worth chasing and that the person who should be paying the money has, or will have the funds to pay you back at some point.
In order to enforce the judgment or order you will have to use procedures, forms and agencies that are part of the civil enforcement system. When you take steps to enforce a judgment you become the Enforcement Creditor. The person from whom you are trying to collect the money is the Enforcement Debtor.
The procedures available to enforce a judgment or order are the same whether your judgment or order was from Provincial Court or Court of Queen’s Bench because all the enforcement processes take place through the Court of Queen’s Bench. It is possible for you to follow this procedure yourself, but you may want to consider the assistance of a lawyer.
Processes that are used to enforce payment of a money judgment are garnishee and seizure. If you need to enforce a possession order you will have to apply for a Writ of Possession. The Civil Enforcement Act also contains rules concerning the remedy of distress for rent that can be used by landlords to recover compensation for unpaid rent.
Information about enforcing judgements can be found in the Alberta Justice information booklet “Getting and Collecting Your Judgment in Alberta”. The booklet is available from a courthouse. It can also be seen under “Publications” on the Alberta Courts web site at http://www.albertacourts.ab.ca/ .