Bryan Lecoche: Fees, Force Entry and Who They Are

The company behind the name

Bryan Lecoche Ltd. holds company number 08164787 at Companies House, having been incorporated on 1 August 2012. Its registered office sits at 4 Fenice Court, Phoenix Business Park, Eaton Socon, St Neots, PE19 8EP, while the working office is The Old Mill, 34A Gladstone Street, Bedford. That Bedford address is the one carried on the Enforcement Conduct Board accredited firms register, where the entry records accreditation running since October 2023. CIVEA appears among the membership logos on the firm's own website.

The founder, Bryan Lecoche, came to the work sideways: a Bedfordshire Police officer until 1978, then 34 years at Constant & Co, an agency that likewise combined enforcement with investigation, before setting up on his own account in 2012. His son Richard Lecoche came in as director and co-owner in 2018. Two generations and one office is a very different scale of operation from the national contractors that handle most council caseloads, and it is worth knowing when you are deciding who to telephone.

Three trades, one letterhead

The firm's published service list is broad, and reading it is the quickest way to work out what has landed on your doormat.

Companies House reflects the same spread, registering the business under investigation activities and justice and judicial activities. So a caller giving this firm's name is not automatically a bailiff. They may be tracing someone, serving papers for a solicitor, or working a security contract that has nothing to do with you. Ask, in plain terms, which department they are ringing from and what authority they say they hold.

Bailiff, investigator or debt collector?

These are three different animals. An investigator gathers information and has no coercive power at all. A debt collection agency can write and telephone, but to reach your possessions it would have to take you to court first and win. Only a certificated enforcement agent works under Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and that is what the word "bailiff" usually means in practice. If you are unsure which you are dealing with, the difference between bailiffs and debt collectors sets out the test.

Working out which case is yours

Find the authority quoted on the paperwork. It determines everything that follows.

1. A liability order names a council and a council tax account. The magistrates' court has confirmed the sum is owed, which unlocks the taking control of goods procedure but does not, by itself, let anyone through your door. Background at council tax bailiffs.
2. A warrant of control for a parking or traffic penalty comes through the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton. Where the original penalty notice never reached you, or the vehicle had already left your ownership, the route back is a witness statement on form TE9 or PE3.
3. A writ of control means a county court judgment has been lifted into the High Court. Writs run on their own fee scale and can only be executed under a named High Court Enforcement Officer, so ask which officer holds yours. See how High Court enforcement officers work.
4. An eviction, repossession or commercial rent matter follows a different track again, usually driven by a landlord or landowner rather than a public body.

On the council tax side, one point is regularly misread. Regulation 34(3) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 puts a six-year limit on the council asking the magistrates for a liability order. It places no shelf life on an order the court has already made, so an old order is not a dead one.

The doorstep: what an agent may and may not do

At a home, for a council tax or traffic debt, the answer to the entry question is no on a first visit. The law asks for peaceable entry, meaning a door you decide to open or one that was already standing open. Nobody has to be let in, and choosing not to answer is not an offence or a contempt.

The exception that catches people out is the controlled goods agreement. Sign one, then default on it, and paragraph 19A of Schedule 12 allows reasonable force to be used to get back in. That is a power you hand over by signing, not one the firm starts with. The rules on forcing entry go through the exceptions in full.

What it costs once an agent is involved

Nothing here is set by Bryan Lecoche. The figures below are written into the Fees Regulations and every certificated firm in England and Wales charges the same, for instructions falling under the scale that took effect on 1 May 2026.

Two or three debts do not automatically mean two or three sets of everything. Regulation 11 allows the compliance charge to be raised once per enforcement power, but where the powers can sensibly be worked together, the enforcement stage and the sale stage each attract a single fee across the lot. If your statement shows £247 charged twice for visits made on one day, question it.

The Notice of Enforcement and the clock it starts

Nothing can be taken into control until a Notice of Enforcement has been sent to you. Under the timetable applying from 1 May 2026, that notice has to leave you at least 14 clear days before an agent may attend. Unless the debt is a non-eligible business debt and you are working with a recognised debt advice provider, that adviser can ask for the period to be stretched to a minimum of 28 clear days, which buys time to get an offer together properly rather than in a panic.

Which possessions are simply out of bounds

The starting rule is ownership: only things the debtor owns are available at all. On top of that, regulation 4 ring-fences a list of essentials that cannot be taken whoever owns them. Clothing and bedding in ordinary use are protected. So is the household equipment a home needs to function, anything required for medical care, and anything needed to look after a child, a disabled person or an older person. Pets and assistance dogs are excluded, as is a vehicle showing a valid disabled badge. Tools and equipment you need for work sit outside the list once their combined value passes £1,350.

Cars attract attention because taking one avoids the doorstep entirely. Whether that is lawful turns almost always on paperwork rather than argument. A Motability car is leased and never becomes the debtor's property. A vehicle on hire purchase or PCP belongs to the finance company until the final payment clears. A car registered and paid for by a partner, parent or lodger is their asset, not the debtor's. Keep the agreement or V5C where you can reach it quickly. More detail on what bailiffs can take and on vehicles specifically.

Paying it off over time

An instalment arrangement is normally available, and it is normally documented as a controlled goods agreement: named items stay in your house, in your use, on condition the payments land. Before you put your name to one, read the inventory line by line. Anything that is not yours should come off it. Anything protected by regulation 4 should never have gone on it. And the figure at the bottom should reconcile with the fee stages above.

The critical habit afterwards is telling them in advance. A missed payment converts a document you signed voluntarily into a right to re-enter using force. A phone call the week before a shortfall usually costs nothing; the same call a week afterwards can cost you the agreement.

Where the sums genuinely do not work, go in with numbers rather than adjectives. A one-page income and outgoings sheet moves a negotiation that "I cannot afford this" will not. National Debtline, StepChange and Citizens Advice will help you build one at no cost.

If you say the amount is wrong

Direct the argument at whoever created the debt. For council tax that is the billing authority; for a penalty charge it is the issuing authority. Bryan Lecoche cannot amend a council tax account or cancel a penalty, because neither is theirs to amend. What the firm can and should give you is a breakdown: the date of the liability order or warrant, the original sum, every fee added since, and the reference for each. Ask for it in writing and record, in the same letter, that you dispute the total. Keep paying anything you accept is due while the rest is looked at, so a partial dispute does not read as a refusal to engage.

Letters addressed to someone who has moved out

Deal with it straight away rather than binning it. Send proof of who occupies the property now: a tenancy agreement, a council tax bill in your name, or a recent utility statement. What you should not do is settle a stranger's debt to make the letters stop, because payment tends to confirm the address as a live one and invites the next case.

Illness, disability and caring responsibilities

Raise it at the first opportunity, and put it in writing to the firm and to the council together so neither can say it never heard. There is no official checklist that defines vulnerability, and that works in your favour: what matters is the effect of your circumstances on your ability to deal with enforcement. Serious or terminal illness, mental ill health, a disability, a recent bereavement, pregnancy or a new baby, frailty in older age, difficulty with English or with reading, and the aftermath of domestic abuse have all been treated as relevant. Being recognised as vulnerable does not write the debt off. It changes the manner and pace of what happens next, and in some cases it prevents a visit going ahead at all.

Making sure the contact is really theirs

This firm is a slightly harder case than most, because it genuinely does trace people and serve documents as well as enforce debts, which is exactly the mix an impersonator would choose. So verify the route, not the person. Look up a number on the firm's own website, or on the council's published list of the agents it uses, and ring that. Never call back on a number that exists only on the letter in your hand. Payment can always be made remotely: no agent needs to be standing in your hallway for money to reach the account.

Complaints, in order

1. The firm. Use its published complaints policy. Pin the complaint to specifics: the date and time, which agent, the case reference, and the rule or standard you say was ignored.
2. The instructing creditor. The council that sent the case out remains answerable for how its contractor behaves, and a council complaint often produces movement the firm alone will not.
3. The Enforcement Conduct Board. Bryan Lecoche has held ECB accreditation since October 2023, so once the firm's own process has run its course the ECB can look at the complaint.

Running alongside all of that, a challenge to an individual agent's certificate is a separate application to the county court that granted it, and it is not part of the complaints ladder above.

Your next hour

1. Work out which of the firm's three strands the contact came from. If it is investigation or security work, the rest of this page does not apply to you.
2. Find the authority quoted on the paperwork: liability order, warrant of control, or writ. That fixes the fee scale and the route of challenge.
3. Count the fee stages actually reached and compare them with the table above.
4. If the debt itself is wrong, write to the council or the court today, not to the agent alone.
5. If it is right but out of reach, draft your income and outgoings before you ring.
6. Put any vulnerability in writing now, while it can still change how the case is handled.
7. Locate the finance agreement or V5C for any vehicle on the drive that is not yours to lose.