South Australia Court Enforcement Fees — What You Pay and What You Recover

The Core Principle: You Pay First, Recover Later

Enforcement in South Australia is not free. Every application you lodge — Investigation Summons, Examination Summons, Warrant of Sale, Garnishee Order — carries a court filing fee. Most also carry a Sheriff service or execution fee. You pay these upfront through CourtSA using a VISA or Mastercard.

The good news: these fees are automatically added to the enforceable judgment debt. If the debtor eventually pays, you get them back. The risk: if the debtor has nothing to seize and no income to garnish, you absorb the cost.

Fee Categories

The Courts Administration Authority (CAA) sets enforcement fees by statutory regulation, and they update annually. The main categories:

Investigation Summons (Form 143): court filing fee plus Sheriff personal service fee. The Sheriff must serve the debtor in person, which is why this is the most expensive summons to file.

Examination Summons (Form 146): same structure — filing fee plus Sheriff service fee.

Warrant of Sale (Form 141): filing fee plus Sheriff execution fee. If the debtor is in a regional area more than 50km from the court, a per-kilometre travel fee applies. Storage costs for seized goods are also invoiced to you.

Garnishee Order: filing fee. No Sheriff involvement (the order is served on the bank or employer by the court).

Charging Order (Form 150): filing fee plus Land Titles Office registration fees charged by Land Services SA.

Exact fee amounts change each financial year. Check the current schedule on the Courts Administration Authority website or ask the registry before filing.

Sheriff Travel Fees

If the debtor lives in a regional area, Sheriff's officers charge a per-kilometre allowance for execution runs beyond 50km. This can add substantially to the cost of a warrant of sale. For small debts, the travel fee alone may make execution uneconomical — another reason to verify the debtor's assets before filing.

Pre-Suit Notice and Cost Recovery

Where rule 61.7 required a pre-action claim in the original case and the applicant did not serve it before filing, rule 61.13(2) says the applicant is not entitled to recover the costs of preparing, filing or serving the claim unless the Court orders otherwise. This concerns the original action; recoverable enforcement costs are separately included in the judgment debt under rule 201.1.

The Fee-Risk Calculation

Before filing any enforcement application, weigh the fee against the likelihood of recovery. Questions to answer:

• Does the debtor have known income or bank accounts? (If yes, a garnishee order is low-risk.)
• Does the debtor own unencumbered personal property worth seizing? (If unsure, an Investigation Summons reveals this at relatively low cost.)
• Is the debtor in a regional area that will attract travel fees? (If yes, factor the kilometres into your cost estimate.)

The worst outcome is paying for a warrant of sale, having the Sheriff attend, and discovering that everything the debtor owns is protected household property, tools used to earn income by physical exertion within the $4,600 total-value exemption, transport vehicles within the $9,950 aggregate-equity exemption, or property in which the debtor has no seizable interest. You lose the filing fee and the execution fee with nothing to show for it.

Our SA Judgment Enforcement Guide includes a sheriff fee risk calculator and pre-enforcement audit checklist to help you avoid that outcome.

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