Asking a sheriff court to recall a decree

In Scotland, a decree is a court order that states you must pay the money you owe. It is the Scottish equivalent of a county court judgment (CCJ) in England and Wales¹. If a decree has been granted against you and you think it should not have been, the sheriff court can in some circumstances recall it, which means the decision is set aside and the case can be looked at again.

Recall is not automatic and it is not a general appeal. It is only possible in certain circumstances, and the two the guidance sets out are that you did not return the Response Form in time, or that you did not attend and were not represented at the hearing². Both apply to simple procedure actions, the route used for smaller claims.

The deadlines are tight and they differ by situation. In simple procedure, your application must be made no later than 14 days after you have been served with either a charge to pay or an arrestment under diligence, whichever is served first². If you attended the hearing, a separate rule applies: the application must be made within four weeks of the decision being sent³.

What recalling a decree means in a sheriff court

A decree is the order a sheriff grants when a creditor takes court action and the court is satisfied the money is owed. The people you owe can apply to the Sheriff Court for a court decision or decree, and if you owe the money, the court can grant a decree⁴. Once it exists, the creditor can use diligence, the Scottish term for enforcement, to recover what it says is due.

Sheriff officers are the people who carry out diligence. They start it to enforce the recovery of goods such as hire purchase items, the recovery of money owed, or the repossession of your home⁶. A sheriff officer may visit you over a decree in the Sheriff Court, an unpaid council tax charge for payment, or some types of business debt⁵.

Recall is different from paying the debt off or disputing the amount. It asks the court to set aside its own earlier decision, usually because you did not get a fair chance to take part. The rules for simple procedure cases sit in rules 13.5 to 13.7 of the Simple Procedure Rules⁷. If the court agrees to recall the decree, you can request that the information on your credit reference file be corrected².

There is a separate route for ordinary cause cases, which are the more complex, higher value actions. In those, the sheriff may grant an open decree, allowing the creditor to use diligence straightaway⁸. You cannot recall a decree in ordinary cause actions; instead you need to draw up a reponing note².

When you may be able to ask for a decree to be recalled

The gateway is narrow. Recall is only possible in certain circumstances, and the guidance names two: you did not return the Response Form in time, or you did not attend and were not represented at the hearing³. If neither applies, recall is not the right route, even if you disagree with the outcome.

The courts service puts it slightly differently: in certain circumstances, you may be able to apply to the court to have the decree or decision of the sheriff recalled, for example if you had no knowledge of the case⁷. That example is the common thread. Recall exists for people who were shut out of the process, not for people who took part and lost.

Timing matters as much as grounds. In simple procedure, the application must be made no later than 14 days after you have been served with either a charge to pay or an arrestment under diligence, whichever is served first³. If you attended the hearing, the application must be made within four weeks of the decision being sent³.

There is a separate track for repossession cases. In mortgage arrears in Scotland, an application to recall a court order can be made at any time up until the date of eviction, but you can only make this application once⁹. The same once-only limit appears in the equivalent guidance on rent arrears for private tenants¹⁰.

For eviction orders decided by the Housing and Property Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, where you were not present or represented, the application to recall must be made in writing within 14 days of the tribunal's decision, and only once during proceedings. The landlord can object with a statement of objection within 10 days of receiving the copy¹¹.

How to apply to the sheriff court for a recall

For a simple procedure case, the mechanics are straightforward. You need to complete Form 13B Application to Recall and send it to the court². There is no requirement in the guidance to instruct a solicitor for this step.

If it is the first time that you have applied, the sheriff must order you and the claimant to attend a discussion at the court². That discussion is part of the process, not an optional extra, so you need to be available for it.

The application has to land inside the deadline. In simple procedure, it must be made no later than 14 days after you have been served with either a charge to pay or an arrestment under diligence, whichever is served first³. If you attended the hearing, the four week window from the date the decision was sent applies instead³.

Ordinary cause is a different procedure and a harder one. You cannot recall a decree in ordinary cause actions; instead you need to draw up a reponing note². The courts service recommends seeking legal advice for ordinary cause decrees because the procedure is more complex⁷.

What happens after you apply for a recall

Once the application is in, the case can be re-opened and looked at again. If it is your first application, the sheriff must order you and the claimant to attend a discussion at the court². What the court decides after that depends on whether a valid ground applies.

If the court agrees to recall the decree, you can request that the information on your credit reference file be corrected². That matters because a decree is a public record. Details of Scottish decrees are supplied by the sheriff courts to the Registry Trust¹², and the Scottish Register holds details of ordinary cause decrees dated 1st January 2010 onwards⁷.

Removal from the register is a separate question from recall. Decrees are only removed from the Register if they are recalled by the court, entered in error, or paid in full within one calendar month of the date of decree⁷. If you pay off your decree within one month, you can ask to have the entry removed from the register¹³.

There is a cost risk if the case goes against you. If you lose the case after it has been re-opened, the court may order you to pay further costs and expenses². That is the main financial exposure in applying.

Does applying for recall stop enforcement action such as arrestment?

Not by itself. Diligence can continue while a recall application is considered, and the timing rules matter. For debts where the creditor has a sheriff court decree, a bank arrestment can be carried out before a charge for payment is served; where the creditor has a summary warrant, it can only be carried out after a charge for payment¹⁴.

There is a specific power for earnings arrestment. If the sheriff is satisfied that an earnings arrestment is invalid or has ceased to have effect, the sheriff shall, on an application by the debtor or the person served with the schedule, make a declaration to that effect, and that declaration is not subject to appeal¹⁵.

A decree also has a long reach. If the creditor has a decree, they will have 20 years to use diligence to recover the debt¹⁶. That is why dealing with the underlying position, not just the immediate enforcement, tends to matter.

Other Scottish debt solutions stop enforcement in their own way. Under the Debt Arrangement Scheme, diligence is stopped once your details are placed on the DAS Register, and creditors cannot start a bankruptcy petition¹⁷. If you are considering a formal solution, that protection is worth understanding alongside recall.

Where recall does not apply and other options

Recall is not available for every kind of claim or every kind of court action. Claims for child support, personal injury, defamation and mortgage or rent repossession do not use the simple procedure³, so the simple procedure recall route does not reach them. Ordinary cause decrees cannot be recalled at all; a reponing note is the mechanism instead².

If the problem is the debt rather than the procedure, other options exist. A time order is one: there is no charge for making an application to the sheriff court for a time order, although a fee will be payable to sheriff officers¹⁸. If the court makes a time order and you keep up to date with the payments, your creditor cannot apply for a county court judgment to be made, so a judgment will not appear on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines or on credit reference agency files¹⁹.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme is another route, with its own appeal window: you have 14 days from the date of the DAS Administrator's review decision to register your appeal at the sheriff court¹⁷. Debt Relief Orders do not involve the courts at all²⁰.

Some creditors use court action only as a last resort. For DWP benefit overpayments, sheriff court action would usually only be done if you are no longer claiming benefits and you cannot agree a repayment plan²¹. Payday lenders can raise a county court judgment or decree against you if you do not repay what you owe²².

Where a decree has already damaged your credit file, the general rules on how long information stays and how to correct it apply. Free, impartial help is available from StepChange and National Debtline, both of which publish guides on recall of a decree in Scotland, and from Citizens Advice on debt and court action¹.