Bailiff Advice for Letters, Visits and Enforcement

For most debts, council tax, parking and traffic penalties, county court judgments, enforcement agents cannot force entry on a first visit. They may only enter peaceably, which in practice means through an unlocked door that you have not been asked to keep shut. Magistrates' court fines and some HMRC debts are the exception, where a warrant can authorise force. Whichever applies, you are never obliged to open the door.

Fees are fixed by regulations, not by the firm. £79 at the compliance stage when the notice is sent, £247 once an agent attends, and £116 at the sale stage, with percentage fees on larger debts. That is why the notice period matters so much: acting inside it keeps the cost at £79 rather than £326. Since 1 May 2026 the minimum is 14 clear days, not the seven you may still see quoted in older advice, and it can extend to 28 clear days if a debt advice provider asks on your behalf, unless the debt is a non-eligible business debt.

Keep the door closed and speak through it or by phone. Ask which company they are from, which debt it is, and which court issued the order, they must tell you. Do not let them in and do not sign anything at the door. Do not move, hide, sell or transfer a vehicle either. Once a Notice of Enforcement has been given your goods are bound, and a sale or transfer while they are bound stays subject to the enforcement power rather than putting the vehicle out of reach. If control has already been taken, interfering with it is a criminal offence carrying up to 51 weeks, and taking control does not need your signature: an agent can do it by securing or clamping the vehicle where it stands, by securing it on a highway, by removing it, or by a controlled goods agreement you sign. A car parked on a public road is not out of reach, and a clamped or listed vehicle must be left alone. What genuinely changes the position is whose vehicle it is. Under an active hire purchase or conditional sale agreement the finance company still owns it, so it is not the debtor's goods. A logbook loan is a different arrangement, a security over a vehicle you were already using, and whether it helps depends on the agreement and on whether the bill of sale was properly registered, so check rather than assume. A vehicle you need because of a disability may also be protected. Then get advice before agreeing to a payment you cannot keep.

No, and it is the most consequential confusion in this whole area. A debt collector acts for a creditor and has no legal powers at all: no right of entry, no power to take goods, no enforcement fees. An enforcement agent acts under a court order and has all three. Letters are often written to blur it, so check whether the paperwork names a court order.

Often, yes. An affordable arrangement can be offered at any stage, and enforcement agents are expected to take genuine hardship and vulnerability into account. The Breathing Space scheme can stop enforcement and interest for 60 days while you get advice. And if the underlying debt is wrong, too old, or the order was made without you knowing, the answer may be to challenge it rather than to pay it.

Not always. Most consumer debts become statute-barred six years after your last payment or written acknowledgement, and cannot then be enforced through the courts. Council tax has its own six-year limit on the council applying for a liability order. Be careful before responding to an old debt: making a payment or admitting it in writing can restart the clock entirely.