Saudi Enforcement Law: Enforcement Requests, the Five-Day Deadline and Service Suspension

What are enforcement instruments?

The rule under the Enforcement Law issued by Royal Decree No. (M/53) dated 13/8/1433H is that compulsory enforcement is only permitted under an enforcement instrument for a right of a specified amount that is due (Article 9). The enforcement instruments under that law are:

• Judgments, decisions and orders issued by the courts.
• Arbitral awards bearing an enforcement order under the Arbitration Law.
• Settlement records issued by authorized bodies or certified by the courts.
• Commercial papers.
• Notarized contracts and instruments.
• Judgments, judicial orders, arbitral awards and notarized instruments issued in a foreign country.
• Ordinary documents whose content the debtor acknowledges as due, in whole or in part.
• Other contracts and documents given the force of an enforcement instrument by law.

The new Enforcement Law, issued by Royal Decree No. (M/237) dated 3/11/1447H, reorganizes this list in Article 7: it expressly names checks, requires bills of exchange and promissory notes to be registered on the national electronic platforms, and names contracts and acknowledgments notarized under the Notarization Law.

Filing an enforcement request on Najiz

Enforcement requests are filed electronically through the “Submit an Enforcement Request” service on the Najiz platform, which covers financial requests, direct enforcement and personal status matters. According to the service page, this requires completing your personal profile, an active bank account in the applicant's name, attaching a copy of the instrument and the required documents, the respondent's details, and a valid power of attorney authorizing enforcement requests if an agent is filing. After submission the request stays under review, and the applicant is then notified that it has been accepted, that missing items must be completed, or that it has been rejected.

The enforcement order and the five-day deadline

Once the request is registered, the enforcement judge verifies the instrument, issues an enforcement order to the debtor and notifies them of it (Article 34). If the debtor cannot be notified within twenty days of the order, the judge orders the notice published in a daily newspaper. On Najiz this order is commonly known as “Decision 34.”

Article 46 provides that if the debtor does not comply, or does not disclose assets sufficient to settle the debt, within five days of being notified of the enforcement order, or of publication where notification was not possible, the debtor is deemed a defaulter. Under the new law the deadline is (five) business days from notification or public announcement, and the respondent gets an additional (ten) business days if they provide a bank guarantee sufficient to settle the right (Article 18).

What does “service suspension” mean? The Article 46 measures

The law does not use the phrase “service suspension.” It is a popular description of the effects of what Najiz calls “Decision 46,” which the Ministry of Justice's user guide describes as effectively a penalty for anyone who has not complied with Decision 34 within the statutory periods. Under Article 46 of the current law, the enforcement judge immediately orders the following:

• A travel ban on the debtor.
• Suspension of the issuance of powers of attorney by the debtor, directly or indirectly, concerning assets and what derives from them.
• Disclosure of the debtor's existing assets and anything the debtor receives in the future, up to the amount of the enforcement instrument, and their seizure and enforcement.
• Disclosure of the debtor's commercial and professional licenses and registrations.
• Notifying a licensed credit information bureau of the failure to comply.

Depending on the case, the judge may also order government entities not to deal with the debtor and to hold the debtor's financial entitlements with them, order financial institutions not to deal with the debtor, and order disclosure of the assets of the debtor's spouse and children and anyone the evidence suggests received transferred assets or was favored.

The new law structures compulsory enforcement differently: notifying licensed credit information bureaus, seizing the respondent's assets including entitlements held by public entities, allowing a fine of up to five thousand riyals per day (Article 18), and a ban on travel outside the Kingdom at the applicant's request for up to three years, extendable to a maximum of six years (Article 19), with the enforcement mechanisms left to the implementing regulations.

How should the respondent handle an enforcement request?

• Pay promptly, or disclose assets sufficient to settle the debt within the deadline; under the new law, sufficient disclosure is one of the grounds for lifting a travel ban.
• File an enforcement dispute with the enforcement court if the objection concerns the validity of the instrument, the conditions for enforcing it or the court's jurisdiction.
• File a grievance against orders and decisions on enforcement procedures within ten business days, under Article 46 of the new law.
• Request that Decision 46 be lifted on Najiz once the request has ended or been fully executed, under the conditions set out in the service's user guide.

A dispute does not by itself stop the enforcement procedures unless the competent authority decides otherwise (Article 47 of the new law), and the new law penalizes concealing or smuggling assets and deliberately obstructing enforcement. Many of these steps can be handled remotely; read about remote litigation and video hearings.

Practical checklist

For the enforcement applicant:

• Confirm that your document is an enforcement instrument and that the right in it is of a specified amount and due.
• Have your IBAN, the respondent's details and a copy of the instrument ready before filing.
• Track notification and the expiry of the deadline before requesting the Article 46 measures.
• Close the enforcement request once you have been paid; the new law requires this within the period set by the implementing regulations.

For the respondent: do not ignore the notice, check the instrument's date and amount, and keep proof of payment. The right course of action depends on the facts and documents of each request; see our Financial Claims & Enforcement service.