How long does it take to be paid after winning a court case?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

There is no fixed time. It depends on when the judgment becomes final, on whether the losing party pays voluntarily and, if they do not, on the assets they have. If nobody appeals and the losing party pays, payment may come within a few months of the judgment. If there has to be an attachment, money in bank accounts usually arrives sooner than money from a flat, which has to be auctioned. If the debtor has nothing, you may not be paid until assets come to light. The time limits set by law Before it comes to attachment, there are some periods laid down by law: The judgment has to be final. If nobody appeals, it becomes final when the time limit for appealing ends. If it is appealed, you have to wait for the appeal to be decided, although provisional enforcement can be applied for in the meantime. Once it is final, the losing party has twenty days to pay voluntarily before enforcement can be applied for. Once enforcement has been applied for, the court grants it and orders the attachment without first having to serve a formal demand for payment on the debtor. The debtor has ten days to object, but the objection does not stop the attachment. How long each type of attachment takes Once enforcement is under way, the pace is set by the assets that are found: Money in bank accounts. The court traces the accounts electronically and orders the banks to freeze the balance. This is usually the quickest, although normally only what is in the account at that moment is frozen. Salary or pension. Whoever pays it withholds the attachable part each month and pays it into court, so the money comes in little by little, over as many months or years as it takes. A flat, commercial premises or a car. It has to be attached, valued and auctioned, which usually takes quite a few months, longer still if it is a property. What is recovered is paid into the court's deposit account (“cuenta de depósitos y consignaciones”), from which the court then transfers it to you. If the debtor has nothing that can be attached, the enforcement may be provisionally shelved and revived when assets come to light, because once applied for it does not lapse. The wait is compensated While you remain unpaid, the amount awarded in the judgment earns post-judgment interest (“intereses de mora procesal”) from the date the judgment was given at first instance. This is the statutory interest rate plus two percentage points, which in 2026 is 5,25 % a year, unless a different rate was agreed or a law sets another one. For example, an award of 20.000 euros earns 1.050 euros of interest in a year. The costs of the enforcement are, in principle, borne by the debtor. What shortens the wait most is applying for enforcement as soon as the twenty days have passed and giving the court all the information you have about the debtor, such as their job, their bank accounts or their properties.