Bank Account Frozen in Saudi Arabia: Reasons and How to Unfreeze

Your salary arrived on Thursday morning, and when you tried to buy something your card was declined. The app shows your full balance, but it is a balance you cannot touch. On Najiz (the Ministry of Justice e-services portal), the enforcement request still shows the same amount, as if nothing happened.

The short answer: people often confuse two things, money being seized and money reaching the creditor. And before both comes a simpler question: where did the freeze come from? It may be an enforcement seizure, a precautionary seizure ordered by a court, or a freeze by the bank itself, for example because your ID expired. Each one is lifted in a different place.

The new Enforcement Law comes into force 180 days after its publication in the Official Gazette on 14/11/1447H (1 May 2026), around the end of October 2026, and replaces the Enforcement Law of 1433H (Article 65). This guide is based on the law in force today. A separate section explains what changes.

Why is my bank account frozen? Three different sources

The bank usually carries out an order from another authority. So lifting the freeze starts with knowing its source and the request number linked to it:

• Enforcement seizure: there is an enforcement request against you based on an executive instrument, and five days passed after you were served without payment or disclosure, so the enforcement judge ordered disclosure and seizure of your assets (Article 46). This is the most common case, and you will find it on Najiz.
• Precautionary seizure (hajz tahaffuzi): issued before judgment to protect an apparent right that is due, for example when the creditor fears the debtor will hide assets. It is made only by order of the court or the body hearing the dispute (Articles 24, 27, 28 and 29).
• Freeze by the bank itself: the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has referred to cases where a bank freezes an account, including an expired customer ID (for expats, an expired iqama), incomplete "know your customer" requirements, and a dormant account. This has nothing to do with the court and is solved with the bank directly.

A precautionary seizure has a strict deadline. The debtor and the bank must be notified of the order within ten days of its issue, and the creditor must file a claim to prove the right and confirm the seizure within the same ten days, or the seizure is treated as cancelled (Article 31). The body that issued it may lift it on its own initiative where needed, or at your request, after notifying the creditor (paragraph 33/3 of the regulations). If the right is proven by judgment, the precautionary seizure becomes an enforcement seizure (paragraph 33/2).

How is an account seized in an enforcement request?

Among the Article 46 measures, the enforcement judge orders disclosure of the debtor's current and future assets up to the amount of the instrument, and their seizure and enforcement. Article 60 then sets how seizure works at banks, through the supervisory authority:

• Current account: the bank stops the account holder from withdrawing from the credit balance and from later deposits. With the judge's approval, the bank may deduct debit obligations that arose on the account before the seizure.
• Investment account: withdrawals from the cash balance and additions to it are blocked, except the balance allocated to investment positions opened before the bank was notified.
• Term deposit: the debtor cannot withdraw it, and the judge is informed of its nature and maturity date.

The bank informs the enforcement judge of the result within three working days of receiving the order. The regulations (paragraph 60/1) state that the employer and the bank must not allow the debtor to move his salary deposit to another bank without the court's permission.

Seizure is one thing, transfer to the creditor is another

Seizure only restricts what you can do with the money. After that, the enforcement judge orders the bank's supervisory authority to transfer the seized balances to the court's account up to the amount of the debt (Article 60(3)), and then they are paid to the creditor. So you may see an amount seized that covers the whole debt, while the request is still open because the transfer is not complete.

Ask about three figures: the amount seized, the amount actually transferred to the court's account, and the amount paid to the creditor. If you have more than one request, your bank statement alone will not show which request each amount went to.

Can more than the debt be seized?

As a rule, no. Article 22 allows seizure of the debtor's assets only up to the amount of the debt claimed, unless the asset cannot be divided. The enforcement judge may choose the assets to be enforced against in the way that gets the debt paid fastest. If the judge selects specific assets, he orders the seizure lifted from the rest (paragraph 22/1 of the regulations). A dispute that the seized money exceeds the debt, or a claim to return money collected by mistake, belongs to the enforcement judge (paragraph 3/2).

You may also deposit an amount that covers the debt in the court's account, and the seizure then moves from your assets to the deposited amount (Article 22). The deposit must include seizure and enforcement costs (paragraph 22/2).

How much of a salary can be seized, and what cannot be seized at all?

Article 21 allows seizure of wages and salaries only up to one third for ordinary debts and one half for family maintenance (nafaqa). If both exist, half the salary goes to maintenance, and one third of the other half goes to the other debts, shared between the creditors. The same article prevents seizure of the home of the debtor and his dependants and their means of transport, to the extent of need as assessed by the judge, unless mortgaged to the creditor. It also protects what the debtor needs to practise his profession himself, and his personal necessities.

But protecting the salary does not protect the whole account. The regulations say this protection does not cover salary that built up before the seizure order and exceeds the maintenance needs of the debtor and his dependants (paragraph 21/5). So savings that accumulated in the salary account do not automatically get the monthly salary's protection. Transfers and other amounts entering the account are not salary just because they are in the same account.

The debt is SAR 40,000. SAR 30,000 was seized from your account, then you paid the creditor SAR 10,000 directly.

Before you pay anything else, check: were the SAR 30,000 transferred to the court's account and counted? Was the SAR 10,000 recorded through the proof-of-payment service?

If both are done, the debt is fully paid, and you ask the enforcement judge to return any excess.

What if the money in your account belongs to someone else?

The regulations (paragraph 20/3) are clear: any asset registered in the debtor's name can be seized even if someone else claims it, and the seizure is lifted only after the other person's ownership is proven. If the money is held in trust for a friend or belongs to a company, its owner must prove it with documents. A statement alone does not lift the seizure. Moving money to other accounts after service to hide it exposes the person to criminal liability under Article 88 of the law.

What changes under the new Enforcement Law?

The main changes for bank accounts are:

• Article 18: five working days after service without payment, seizure of the debtor's assets and future income, including amounts owed to him by public bodies, starts immediately. If he provides a bank guarantee sufficient to pay, he gets ten more working days.
• Article 25: seizure is limited to the amount of the debt unless the asset cannot be divided. A debtor who proves his assets exceed the debt may name an asset to be enforced against first, and the court accepts it unless it harms the enforcement.
• Article 26: the salary limit stays at one third for other debts and one half for maintenance. Retirement pensions are added, with a limit of one quarter for other debts and one half for maintenance. Government benefits cannot be seized. Protection of the home, means of transport, work tools and personal necessities remains, unless the asset is mortgaged to the creditor or is the creditor's own property.
• Article 27: the body supervising the assets carries out the seizure immediately, and the regulations will set the procedure, including seizure of future assets.
• Article 24: any disposal of an asset after the seizure order is void.
• Precautionary seizure did not move to the new law. Its rules in the 1433H law continue to apply until they are moved to the Law of Procedure before Sharia Courts (Clause Six of Royal Decree M/237).

This is general information based on the official Arabic texts of Saudi laws, which prevail over any translation. It is not legal advice for your specific case.

Practical solutions for both sides

If you are the debtor and account holder:

• First find the source: an enforcement request on Najiz, a precautionary seizure order, or a bank freeze because of your ID or data.
• Ask for a statement of the amount seized and the related request number. If more than the debt, or more than the salary limit, was seized, apply to the enforcement judge with a salary certificate and a statement showing the source of each amount.
• If you paid the creditor directly, record the payment through proof of payment so you do not pay twice.
• If the seizure is precautionary, check whether you were notified and a claim was filed within ten days, and ask for it to be lifted if the deadline was missed.
• If you want to free your account quickly, consider depositing the debt amount plus costs in the court's account.

If you are the creditor:

• Do not count seized money as received until it is transferred and paid to you, and ask for seizure only up to your debt.
• If the debtor proves a direct payment to you, update the balance so the seizure does not continue on what you already received.
• In a precautionary seizure, file the claim to prove the right and confirm the seizure within ten days, and provide a solvent guarantor or security. You are liable for the debtor's damage if it turns out you were not entitled (Article 32).
• If another person claims ownership of the money, ask for proof. The seizure stays until ownership is proven.
• Follow up seizure of the debtor's future income if the current balance is not enough.

If your account has been frozen and you do not understand where it came from or how the amount was calculated, send a screenshot of what your app shows, the enforcement request and your bank statement on WhatsApp, and we will help you read them and decide what to ask the court.