Summons:

A summons is then drafted and forwarded to Court to have issued and to the Sheriff for service. When the loan agreement or indemnity is signed by you, you choose an address as your chosen domicilium citandi et executandi (which means that you accept service of all documents at that address and therefore the summons does not have to be served on you personally. If you are buying a property for renting purposes and you personally will not be staying on that property, please ensure that you choose the address where you currently reside as your chosen domicilium so that you can know of all documents which are served on you and in this way you will be in a position to protect your interests and possibly save yourself from getting a judgement against your name without knowing about it).

Likewise if you first bought the property for yourself and at a later stage you rent the property then you must advise the Bank or Financial Institution of your change of chosen domicilium and your change of domicilium has to be done in writing.

Once a summons has been served on you or at your chosen domicilium address, you will have five Court days in the Magistrate’s Court and ten Court days in the High Court (Monday to Friday only not counting Saturdays; Sundays or public holidays) within which to enter an appearance to defend and in this regard, you should contact an Attorney to assist you with this.