Third Party

A third party is an individual or entity that is involved in a transaction but is not one of the principals and has a lesser interest. An example of a third party would be the escrow company in a real estate transaction that acts as a neutral agent collecting the documents and money that the buyer and seller exchange when completing the transaction. As another example, if a debtor owes a creditor a sum of money and hasn’t been making the scheduled payments, the creditor is likely to hire a third party, a collection agency, to ensure that the debtor honors his agreement.