Author: Natalia Trujillo Varela
Seeking to promote the culture of paying fines, traffic secretaries can request the seizure of your account.
The bank account seizure strategy is applied in different municipalities by decision of the traffic secretariats.
The seizure of bank accounts for debts owed to the traffic secretariats is a reality in Colombia, if you have a debt for a traffic fine or, if you have a vehicle that has been in the traffic yards for a long time, you can risk the traffic secretariats mobility ask the banking entities where you have authorized accounts to be seized and thus, in a certain way, put pressure on the debtor to pay off their debts.
Daniel Jaime Castaño Calderón, Secretary of Transit and Transportation of Armenia, explained that the delegated agency for coercive collection actions against fines and taxes can make the request for any fined vehicle.
“In those cases when there is that debt, we can order the seizure of financial products, of personal property, to be able to seek the recovery of that portfolio and that begins with the payment orders that become like the judicial titles that are going to become effective. through these measures, such as embargoes,” said the official.
When a driver commits a traffic violation, the competent authority issues a fine. This fine can be delivered to the scene of the violation or sent by mail. The violator receives a notice of the fine, which includes details about the violation, the amount of the fine, and the deadline for paying it. In some cases, you are also informed about the possibility of appealing the fine.
After the times allowed by law for the payment of the obligations, the fines owed to the traffic secretary, the debtors go to a coercive collection in which, as established by law, seizures can be ordered, but they must be Keep in mind that, in advance, the transit secretariats must notify you that you are entering into an account seizure process if you do not settle the referenced debt.
If the offender does not pay the fine within the established period, the fine is considered in arrears. From this moment, the transit authority can initiate actions to ensure payment. Such as seizure, for which a formal seizure notice is issued to the offender, indicating that the property will be seized to cover the amount of the unpaid fine.
Read: TAQ declared authorization for the concession of Setta services invalid
If the fine remains unpaid after the seizure notification, the transit authority may proceed with the seizure of property. This process may include: garnishment of wages, bank accounts, vehicles or property.
In addition to the repossession, failure to pay a traffic ticket can have other consequences, such as the suspension of your driver’s license, an increase in the cost of car insurance, or the inability to renew your vehicle’s registration.
Castaño Calderón explained that as the traffic secretary, the obligation is to issue the order and it is sent to 18 banking financial entities, and these entities are the ones that must review whether or not the accounts can be seized because there are accounts that enjoy the benefit of non-seizureability; For example, reviewing the Substantive Labor Code, a current legal minimum wage cannot be seized. But people who earn more than one minimum wage are already eligible to have their accounts seized. The decisions to make it effective must be made by the banking entity depending on the number and the values that apply for it.
“When the bank considers the embargo ordered by the Transit Secretariat to be appropriate and they retain the money, what is done is to transfer it to a judicial titles account held by the Transit Secretariat, then some deposits are made to the Agrarian Bank account and a Once we are informed that these resources have been deposited in the judicial deposits, they are transferred to municipal administration accounts and in this way the payments can be applied and if there is any balance left in favor, return it to the person so that they can claim it and the corresponding payment is issued. peace and safety.”
The secretary mentioned that a person cannot really be affected in their credit life because reports are not made to risk centers, “what we do report is to the database of delinquent debtors and that already brings different effects but as such people’s credit life is not affected.
Precisely, the Ministry of Traffic and Transportation of Armenia has already ordered nearly 8,000 seizure orders so far this year for debts due to traffic fines, the majority of which are due to motorcyclists who are normally fined for not having the Soat technomechanics up to date. or driver’s license.
