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Bailiff Companies: Who Has Contacted You?

If a letter has arrived and you do not recognise the company name, start with one question: can they actually come to your home and take things? The answer is not the same for every firm below, because the powers come from the debt being enforced rather than from the company.

  • Which firm has contacted you
  • What each company can and cannot do
  • How to check a letter is genuine
Find the company Get help
How we produce this guidance

Key facts

Fees are fixed
Identical for every firm. £79, £247, £116
Forced entry
Not for council tax or traffic penalties on a first visit
Check the letter
Call the council named on it, using their own number

Find the company that has contacted you

Enforcement companies work for councils and courts, and the powers they hold come from the debt being enforced rather than from the firm itself. The profiles below cover who each company is, what they enforce, what they can and cannot do, and how to deal with them.

Enforcement companies

  • Bristow & Sutor, council tax and traffic penalties for local authorities
  • DCBL, which works in ordinary debt recovery, private parking charges and High Court enforcement
  • CDER Group, council tax and penalty enforcement
  • Equita, council tax and traffic penalties
  • Jacobs Enforcement, council tax, traffic penalties and magistrates' court fines
  • Marston, one of the largest enforcement groups in England and Wales
  • Newlyn, council tax and penalty enforcement
  • Dukes Bailiffs, local authority enforcement
  • Rossendales, now part of Marston, and what that means if you hold an older letter

The fees are the same whichever firm it is

Enforcement fees are fixed by regulation and identical across every company. No firm can charge more than the statutory scale or add fees of its own.

For instructions under the rules in force from 1 May 2026, the stages are £79 at the compliance stage, £247 once an agent attends plus 7.5% of any sum above £1,900, and £116 if goods are removed for sale.

Acting inside the notice period costs £79. Letting it expire and receiving a visit costs at least £326, which is why the Notice of Enforcement period matters more than anything else in the process.

What none of them can do

For council tax and for parking or traffic penalties, an enforcement agent cannot force entry into a home on a first visit, whichever company they work for. Entry must be peaceable, and you are not obliged to open the door.

The exceptions are narrow and specific, and our guide to when bailiffs can force entry sets out which paragraph of Schedule 12 permits what.

They also cannot take goods that are not the debtor's, or goods that are exempt. See what bailiffs can take and can bailiffs take my car.

Enforcement agents are not debt collectors

When a company on this page acts as an enforcement agent, it uses the Schedule 12 procedure under a particular enforcement power. Depending on the debt, that may be a liability order, warrant or writ, or the statutory CRAR power for qualifying commercial rent arrears. CRAR does not require a prior court order.

A debt collection agency is a different thing entirely. It has no power to enter your home, no power to take your belongings, and must sue you and win before it can enforce anything. Those firms are covered separately under debt collection agencies.

How to check a letter is genuine

Search the company number on the letter at Companies House rather than the brand name, because several enforcement groups operate more than one company and more than one trading name.

Then telephone the council named on the letter, using a number from the council's own website, and ask whether it has instructed that firm on your account. That single call is the most conclusive check available and it settles the question in minutes.

Which debt is it?

What happens next depends on the debt rather than the firm. Council tax reaches enforcement through a liability order, while parking and traffic penalties arrive through the Traffic Enforcement Centre and a warrant of control.

If a High Court writ is involved rather than a council debt, see High Court enforcement officers, where the fee scale and the thresholds are different.

Companies A to Z

Sources

  1. Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, Schedule 12, paragraph 10 legislation.gov.uk
    An enforcement agent may take control of goods only if they are goods of the debtor.
    Checked 2026-08-17
  2. Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014, Schedule 1 Table 1, as amended by SI 2026/366 legislation.gov.uk
    Compliance stage £79.00 0%; Enforcement stage £247.00 7.5%; Sale or disposal stage £116.00 7.5% — percentage of sum to be recovered exceeding £1900.
    Checked 2026-08-17
  3. Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013, regulation 6, as amended by SI 2026/366 legislation.gov.uk
    notice of enforcement must be given to the debtor not less than 14 clear days before the enforcement agent takes control of the debtor's goods. Where, before the expiration of the period of notice indicated in the notice of enforcement, a request is submitted by a debt advice provider on behalf of the debtor, the minimum period of notice referred to in paragraph (1) must be extended to a minimum of 28 clear days before the enforcement agent takes control of the goods. The extension under paragraph (1A) does not apply where the debt is non-eligible business debt. Where the period referred to in paragraph (1) or (1A) includes a Sunday, bank holiday, Good Friday or Christmas Day that day does not count in calculating the period.
    Checked 2026-08-17
  4. Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, regulation 34(3) legislation.gov.uk
    no application may be instituted in respect of a sum after the period of six years beginning with the day on which it became due
    Checked 2026-08-13
  5. Civil Procedure Rules, rule 83.4 (writs and warrants conferring a power to use the TCG procedure — duration and priority) legislation.gov.uk
    This rule applies to— (a) a writ of control; (b) a warrant of control; and (c) any other writ or warrant that confers power to use the TCG procedure… A relevant writ or warrant will be valid for the period in which an enforcement agent may take control of the goods in question, as specified in regulation 9(1) of the TCG Regulations. If a period in which to take control of goods is extended by the court under regulation 9(3) of the TCG Regulations, the validity of the relevant writ or warrant will be extended for the same period.
    Checked 2026-08-17
  6. Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, section 74 (CRAR: lease) legislation.gov.uk
    "Lease" means a tenancy in law or in equity, including a tenancy at will, but not including a tenancy at sufferance… A lease must be evidenced in writing.
    Checked 2026-08-17
  7. Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, section 77 (CRAR: the minimum amount) legislation.gov.uk
    CRAR is exercisable only if the net unpaid rent is at least the minimum amount immediately before each of these— (a) the time when notice of enforcement is given; (b) the first time that goods are taken control of after that notice. The minimum amount is to be calculated in accordance with regulations.
    Checked 2026-08-17
  8. Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013, regulation 52 (minimum amount of net unpaid rent) legislation.gov.uk
    the minimum amount of net unpaid rent for the purposes of section 77(3) of the Act is an amount equal to 7 days' rent.
    Checked 2026-08-17

Next step

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