Introduction: The Legal Essence of Sealing and Sequestration
The sealing and sequestration of a debtor's property (transferring it to a third party for management and preservation) represents an extreme and highly effective measure in the forced enforcement process for maintaining the physical integrity of the property and protecting it from tampering. Merely placing an attachment on the property is often not enough to ensure its safety. Unscrupulous debtors might damage, hide, or destroy attached property, thereby destroying the creditor's chance to recover the debt. In such cases, sealing is used, which means physically locking the property (e.g., a warehouse, office, machinery) and securing it with an official enforcement seal. Sequestration goes even further—it implies revoking the debtor's right to manage and store the property (usually an operating business, income-generating real estate, or disputed item) and transferring it to a specially appointed impartial person (a sequestrator). The sequestrator's goal is to maintain the property's value and manage it to protect the creditor's interests during the dispute period.
What this Comprehensive Service Includes
The service of property sealing and sequestration covers specific legal and factual measures. The service begins with the creditor's advocate submitting a substantiated motion to the enforcer, proving a real threat of the property's destruction or concealment. If the request is granted, lawyers are present on-site during the inventory, sealing, and the process of appointing a guard. In the case of sequestration, the service includes selecting a manager with appropriate qualifications (sequestrator), legally executing their appointment, and monitoring their activities. The lawyer oversees that the sequestrator properly maintains the property, collects rent or business income, accounts for expenses, and directs the generated profits to the enforcement bureau's account to cover the creditor's debt.
Common Practical Scenarios
In practice, sealing and sequestration are primarily used during large commercial disputes, enterprise bankruptcies, and inheritance conflicts. A typical scenario is when a dispute surrounds an operating hotel, shopping center, or factory. If the debtor manages this facility and squanders the income for their own benefit, the creditor requests the sequestration of the property. An independent manager is appointed who takes over the reins of the business, pays staff salaries, pays taxes, and saves the net profit for the creditor. Another scenario involves warehouses and shops: when there is a risk of selling the goods and hiding the money, the enforcer directly places a seal on the warehouse doors, which halts the business operations until the debt is paid off or the property is sold at auction.