Highland Council Tax Arrears: Scott and Co and the Summary Warrant

What Highland does before applying for a summary warrant

Highland Council's own guidance on paying difficulty describes a shorter cycle than many councils publish: a single reminder-and-final-notice stage gives seven days to pay after a missed instalment, and if that passes unpaid the right to pay in instalments is lost and the full remaining balance falls due within a further 14 days. Once that second deadline passes, Highland's own wording is that the council is "legally obliged" to apply to the sheriff for a summary warrant, which is the Scottish route into recovery and carries an automatic 10% surcharge, covered in full on our council tax arrears in Scotland page rather than repeated here. In practice, that means a genuine payment problem usually needs to be raised before the second deadline rather than after it. Highland also publishes a dedicated welfare support team line, 0800 090 1004, which can help residents who want assistance before either deadline is reached.

Scott and Co: who acts once an account is passed on

Highland names the firm it uses directly, which most councils in this position do not. Its own page states plainly: "Some of the debt is outsourced to the Sheriff Officer for collection. Scott and Co. act as our debt collection agents." Scott and Co (Scotland) LLP is a firm of sheriff officers, not a certificated enforcement agent, and it carries out diligence, which can include earnings arrestment or bank arrestment depending on the debtor's circumstances, under a court commission rather than anything resembling taking control of goods. It is also the Scottish sheriff-officer business of the same Marston group that operates in England and Wales as Rossendales and under the Marston name itself; our Marston profile covers that ownership and what it means for a letter with the Scott and Co name on it. For how sheriff officers generally operate and what diligence involves, see sheriff officers and diligence in Scotland.

How to pay Highland, or ask for help, directly

Highland's council tax hub links to an online payment portal and a phone line, 0800 393 811, for anyone who wants to pay or discuss an account before it is outsourced. Contacting Highland at this stage, rather than after a summary warrant, keeps a direct payment arrangement available; once diligence has started, arranging repayment usually has to go through Scott and Co instead.

Complaints, and who to contact if it is not the council at fault

Highland runs a two-stage complaints process, described on its own site as a frontline response followed by a formal investigation stage, for dissatisfaction with the council itself. Once that process is exhausted, the next step is the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, which handles complaints about Scottish councils and has no equivalent role for a private firm's own conduct. A concern about how Scott and Co has behaved, rather than about Highland's decision to recover the debt, is usually a different complaint and follows the firm's own complaints route, not the council's, unless the concern is actually about Highland's own decision to refer the case at all.

Local support: Council Tax Reduction and the Scottish Welfare Fund

Highland publishes a Council Tax Reduction scheme, referred to on its own site as CTR, for households on a low income, and separately runs the Scottish Welfare Fund with its own downloadable guide for residents facing a crisis or in need of a community care grant. Neither scheme can pause a summary warrant once one has been applied for, so applying before that stage, ideally alongside a call to the welfare support line above, is often the more useful order of events.