Writ of enforcement (Alberta)

Under section 25.1 of Alberta’s Civil Enforcement Act, a judgment creditor may require the court clerk of the judicial centre where the judgment was entered to issue a writ of enforcement at any time the judgment is in force, subject to section 25.1(2) for a judgment payable within a specified period. An undated Alberta Courts guide describes it as a document filed with the clerk and then registered with the Personal Property Registry, which entitles the creditor to enforce the judgment. A buyer of a business may meet one when searching the seller. What a writ found in a search means for a particular deal is a question for your lawyer.

Where it is registered, and for how long

Section 26 says a creditor may not start writ proceedings on a money judgment against personal property unless the writ is registered in the Personal Property Registry. For land under the Land Titles Act it must also be registered under that Act; land not under that Act follows the regulations. Under section 28 of the Act, a registration in the Personal Property Registry is in effect for 2 years from the day it is registered, or any longer period the regulations prescribe, and may be renewed. A registration under the Land Titles Act is in effect for the duration of the judgment (section 29). A writ is in force only while the judgment is, and under section 27 a judgment is not in force once it has been satisfied, or 10 years after it takes effect unless it is renewed or an action is brought on it within that period.

What it binds, and who takes free

Section 33 says a writ does not bind a debtor’s interest in personal property other than while it is in force and registered in the Personal Property Registry. Section 36(2) says a buyer or lessee of goods sold or leased in the ordinary course of the seller’s or lessor’s business takes free from a writ that binds the goods. Sections 36(3) and 36(4) set different conditions for consumer goods and serial-number goods. Section 34(1) says that, except as provided in sections 35 to 40 or another enactment, an interest acquired in property after the property is bound by a writ is subordinate to the writ. Ask your lawyer how these rules apply to an asset purchase or a share purchase.

Civil enforcement sale

Under the Act, seized property is sold by the agency, meaning a civil enforcement agency (or a sheriff acting under section 9(7)). Alberta’s Sheriff – Civil Enforcement page says bailiffs employed by these agencies may seize and sell property when enforcing a judgment or debt. For personal property, section 48 lets the agency sell by any commercially reasonable method and requires at least 15 days’ notice of the method of sale to the instructing creditor and the enforcement debtor, subject to the expeditious-sale exceptions in that section. Subject to section 34(2), the buyer obtains only the interest of the enforcement debtor and of any other person with an interest who consented to the sale. For land, section 74 requires the agency to serve notice of the method of sale on the enforcement debtor, and anyone else the regulations specify, at least 30 days before offering it. Who runs the sale is covered in civil enforcement agency.

• Search the Personal Property Registry by the business debtor’s legal name before buying, and by registration number for any expired or discharged registration
• Ask whether any writ is registered against the seller, the company or its land
• Ask your lawyer how Land Titles records are searched, as the sources read here do not set that out