Bailiff (Enforcement Agent)

The Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 govern enforcement agents. They must give a minimum of seven clear days' written notice (the 'Notice of Enforcement') before their first visit, unless a court has dispensed with this requirement. Enforcement agents cannot enter a property between 9pm and 6am, nor use force to enter a residential property on a first visit. They must show their certificate and a detailed list of fees. The fee structure is fixed: a compliance stage fee of £75, an enforcement stage fee of £235 (plus 7.5% of any debt over £1,500), and a sale stage fee of £110. Certain goods are exempt from seizure, including essential household items, tools of the trade (up to £1,350), and a vehicle needed for work or disability. Debtors can complain to the creditor, court, or certificating judge about enforcement agent conduct.

In practice, the single most important rule is that you do not have to let an enforcement agent in. On a first visit to a home they have no right to force entry, and if you keep doors and windows closed and deal with them through the letterbox or by phone, they cannot take anything from inside. What they can do is take a vehicle parked on a driveway or the public highway, which is why moving the car matters far more than most people realise.

Worked example: Sarah receives a Notice of Enforcement for £900 of council tax arrears. She has seven clear days before any visit. She uses them: she rings the council directly to ask it to recall the debt and accept an affordable arrangement, she gets a free debt adviser to draw up an income and expenditure statement, and she checks whether she qualifies for Breathing Space, which would stop enforcement action for a set period. She also parks her car away from the property. If a visit still happens and she has already been charged the compliance fee, refusing entry keeps the higher enforcement stage fee from being triggered by a controlled goods agreement she cannot afford.

The pitfalls are worth naming. Signing a controlled goods agreement gives the agent a right to return and remove the listed items, and breaching it can lead to forced entry on a later visit for some debt types. Agents may not take goods belonging to someone else, so keep proof of ownership for items that are not yours. Vulnerability — serious illness, disability, mental health problems, pregnancy, children in the household — must be taken into account, and agents should withdraw and refer back to the creditor. And enforcement fees are fixed by regulation, so an agent adding "van fees" or "attendance charges" outside the statutory scale is charging unlawfully.

Enforcement agents usually appear after a county court judgment or a council tax liability order, and their powers can be paused by a formal debt solution. Read our guides to bailiff conduct and fees, council tax bailiffs, and Breathing Space before the first visit, and get free debt advice rather than borrowing to pay.