Recovering a Debt in New Zealand
Money disputes have two seats, and the law serves both. Owed money? The path runs demand letter → Disputes Tribunal (now up to $60,000) or District Court → enforcement against wages and property — all on a 6-year clock. Being chased? Collectors have rules, debts have defences, and hardship has options. Call 0800 461 100 free, any hour, from either seat.
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The Limitation Act 2010 gives most money claims 6 years from when the debt arose (with limited extensions). Old debts die quietly — and part-payments or written acknowledgements can restart the clock, which cuts both ways. If your debt is years old, from either side, establish the limitation position before anything else.
Debt Recovery at a glance
You're owed money: the sequence that works
Start with a proper letter of demand: the amount, how it arose, a payment deadline, and what follows if it passes — sent so you can prove delivery. A surprising share of debts pay on a competent demand, and every later forum reads it as evidence of reasonableness. If the deadline passes: disputed debts up to $60,000 go to the Disputes Tribunal — informal, cheap, fast; genuinely undisputed debts can use the District Court's summary machinery, where the absence of any real defence shortcuts the process.Interest and costs follow the paperwork: a contract or invoice term that provides for interest and recovery costs is worth its weight at exactly this moment — and its absence is a lesson for the next invoice. Talk it through with a lawyer now →
From judgment to money
An order or judgment is a licence to enforce, not a payment. The District Court's tools do the collecting: attachment orders deduct from wages and benefits at source; warrants authorise seizure and sale of the debtor's goods; financial assessments put the debtor's means on the record and support instalment orders. Choosing the tool that matches the debtor — employed? asset-owning? benefit-dependent? — is the craft, and persistence is the rest.The honest pre-filing discipline: investigate collectability first. A debtor with wages or assets is worth the process; a debtor with neither may justify only the demand letter and a default judgment held for better days — judgments last, and circumstances change. Talk it through with a lawyer now →
You're being chased: rights, defences, hardship
A demand is not a judgment: if the debt is wrong — not yours, already paid, defective goods behind it, or outside the 6 years — dispute it in writing and make them prove it. Collectors operate under rules: misleading claims about consequences, harassment, and contacting you oppressively breach the Fair Trading Act and can be reported. For consumer credit (loans, cards, finance), the responsible-lending regime gives real options: hardship applications to vary payments after illness, job loss or separation, and complaints to the lender's dispute scheme — free, independent, and binding on the lender — when the lending itself was irresponsible.What not to do: ignore court documents. Judgment by default forecloses defences you may actually have; a response, even a simple one, keeps every door open. Talk it through with a lawyer now →
The moves that serve both sides
Instalment arrangements settle more debt files than judgments do — documented, realistic, and reviewable. Settlements for less than face value are rational on both sides of an uncertain claim, and a one-page settlement letter makes them stick. And on either side, the limitation position, the evidence, and the other party's capacity decide the sensible strategy — which is a fifteen-minute conversation, free, before anyone spends money on process. Talk it through with a lawyer now →Getting a debt resolved, step by step
Debt Recovery — your questions answered
A friend owes me $12,000 on a handshake loan. Can I actually recover it?
Handshake loans are enforceable — the fight is evidence: transfers, messages discussing repayment, witnesses. The Disputes Tribunal handles exactly this, and repayment discussions in writing (even after the fact) firm the record. Send a demand first; friendships and money usually resolve better with paper than with silence.
The debtor is a company that looks like it is folding. Any point?
Move fast and realistically: an invoice trail, a formal demand, and where the debt is undisputed, statutory processes concentrate the mind. But a genuinely insolvent company pays cents at best, and directors are not automatically liable for company debts — before spending on process, get an assessment of what is actually recoverable and from whom (guarantees change everything).
A collector rings me at work daily about a debt I dispute. Allowed?
No — oppressive contact and misleading pressure breach consumer-protection law. Dispute the debt in writing, require contact in writing, and report harassment. Disputed debts belong in a tribunal or court, not in your workplace reception.
The debt is from 2019. Too old to chase (or to be chased for)?
The 6-year clock is the frame — but acknowledgements and part-payments can restart it, and when it started is itself a legal question. From either side, establish the limitation position with the actual dates before spending anything — it decides cases on its own.
I genuinely can't pay a loan after losing my job. What are my options?
For consumer credit: a hardship application to vary the loan (spread payments, extend term, pause), the lender's free dispute-resolution scheme if it says no unreasonably, and budgeting services that carry real weight with creditors. Engage early and in writing — the options shrink as arrears grow.
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