Admitting a Simple Procedure Claim and Requesting Time to Pay in Scotland

When Admitting Makes Sense

Sometimes you owe the money. The invoice is legitimate, the work was done, and the amount is correct. Denying a valid claim wastes time and can lead to an expenses award against you — and for claims over £3,000, those expenses are uncapped.

If the claim is fair but you cannot pay the full amount immediately, Scotland's Simple Procedure gives you a structured way to admit the debt and request a court-ordered instalment plan. The mechanism is a time-to-pay order under the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, applied for using Form 5A.

Who Can Apply

Time-to-pay orders are available only to individual natural persons. If the claim is against a limited company, partnership or other corporate entity, Form 5A is not available — the entity cannot use it to request a statutory time-to-pay order, though it can try to agree a payment arrangement with the claimant.

How to Complete Form 5A

Form 5A is a financial disclosure form. It asks for a detailed snapshot of your household finances so the Sheriff can assess whether your proposed repayment rate is realistic. You need to provide:

• Net income — weekly or monthly wages, benefits, pensions, any other regular income
• Regular outgoings — rent or mortgage, council tax, utilities, food, transport, insurance, childcare
• Dependants — the number of children or other family members you support
• Other debts — outstanding amounts owed to other creditors
• Your proposed instalment amount — for example, £25 per month or £10 per week

Alternatively, you can propose a deferred lump sum — paying the full amount by a specific future date instead of instalments.

Be realistic with your proposed amount. The Sheriff will not accept a figure that leaves you unable to pay basic living costs, but they also will not accept one that is unreasonably low compared to your disposable income. Work out your actual surplus after essential expenses and propose an amount close to that figure.

Submitting Form 5A

File Form 5A alongside Form 4A — on Civil Online, both are completed in the same submission flow. Select Option C on Form 4A (Admit and Request Time to Pay) and complete the Form 5A fields the portal presents.

If filing on paper, submit both forms together to the Sheriff Court counter or by post, and send a copy to the claimant. The same deadline applies: the "last date for a response" on Form 3D.

What Happens After You File

The Sheriff Clerk sends the claimant a copy of your Form 5A with a Form 5B notice. The claimant has two weeks to accept or object. Three outcomes are possible:

The claimant accepts your proposal. The Sheriff or Summary Sheriff may grant the time-to-pay order. The court then issues a Decision Form setting out the terms. You pay according to that schedule.

The claimant objects. They think the proposed amount is too low. The Sheriff or Summary Sheriff must arrange a time-to-pay hearing to decide whether to grant or refuse your application and what payment terms to set, taking your financial statement into account.

The claimant does not respond within two weeks. The Sheriff or Summary Sheriff decides whether to grant or refuse your application; it is not granted automatically.

Partial Admission

You can admit part of a claim and dispute the rest. For example, if £2,000 is claimed but you believe only £1,200 is owed, select Option A (Dispute) on Form 4A, explain in Section D which part you accept and which you deny, and submit Form 5A for the £1,200 you admit.

The admitted portion is dealt with through the time-to-pay process. The disputed portion proceeds to a hearing.

Keeping Up with Payments

Once a time-to-pay order is granted, you must pay on schedule. If you fall behind, the claimant can apply to the court to have the order revoked and the full remaining balance enforced immediately — including through earnings arrestment or bank arrestment.

If your financial circumstances change and you genuinely cannot maintain the payments, apply to the court for a variation before you fall into default. A proactive application is far more likely to succeed than one filed after you have already missed payments.

The Scotland Simple Procedure response guide includes a financial disclosure worksheet to help you prepare Form 5A and a timeline showing what happens at each stage after you file.

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