What You Need to Know About Property Turnover and Foreclosure
Oct. 10, 2025
Once you’ve won a money judgment, and if you can identify specific property the debtor owns: cars, valuable personal property, or real estate. You can go back to court and ask the judge to order that the property be turned over or sold to satisfy the judgment.
Identify the property.
● You or your attorney often need to know exactly what the debtor owns.
● Sometimes this comes out in a Citation to Discover Assets. Other times you hire a private investigator or use public records.
File a motion for turnover.
● You ask the court for an order requiring the debtor (or whoever has the property) to give it up.
Court orders surrender.
● If the court grants it, the debtor must deliver the property to the sheriff or directly to you.
● If the property is something like a car, the sheriff may seize and auction it.
Foreclosure on real property.
● Instead of just holding a lien, you can ask the court to actually foreclose and force a sale.
● Proceeds pay off higher-priority liens first, then your judgment.
● This is expensive and slow, so it’s usually only worth it if the debtor has substantial equity.
A turnover order is the heavy hammer in collections. If you can pinpoint assets of real value, the court can force their sale and direct the proceeds to you. It’s less passive than liens and more aggressive than garnishment, but it comes with higher costs and practical hurdles.