Dukes Bailiffs Complaints: The Three-Stage Process

Where a council instructed the case, a second ladder runs through the council itself, and it is often the more effective one.

Dukes Bailiffs Limited is registered at Companies House under company number 04418615 and works from Stone in Staffordshire, enforcing council tax, business rates and penalty charges for local authorities alongside commercial rent and High Court instructions. It is a smaller firm than the national groups, and complaints are handled through its head office rather than a call-centre network, which in practice means the person answering stage one may be close to the people who can fix it.

The three stages Dukes publish

The process on Dukes' own customer site starts on the phone: call their customer service team on 01785 825 500 and a contact centre agent will try to resolve the matter there and then. If that does not settle it, they email you a complaints form, which can be completed online or by hand and returned to solutions@dukeslimited.co.uk or posted to their head office.

At stage one, the informal stage, Dukes say they acknowledge a complaint within 48 hours and aim to resolve it within 5 working days, with a complaints officer making contact to talk it through. At stage two, the formal stage, the complaints officer and the head of operations review the case together and Dukes commit to responding within 10 working days of a 48-hour acknowledgment.

One detail in their published process is worth using: Dukes state that they review case notes, telephone recordings and body-worn camera footage where applicable. If your complaint concerns a doorstep visit, say in your first contact that you want the body-worn footage preserved and reviewed, and give the date and time so it can be found. Footage is the evidence most likely to settle a conduct dispute either way.

Stage three: the Enforcement Conduct Board

Dukes has been an Enforcement Conduct Board accredited firm since October 2023, and its published process commits to an ECB review at stage three for events from 1 January 2025. The ECB provides independent oversight of enforcement firms in England and Wales, but it expects the firm's own two stages to have been completed first, so finish the internal process, keep the final response, and take the case to the board with your evidence if the answer does not hold up.

Dukes is also a corporate member of CIVEA, the trade association for civil enforcement firms, which historically operated the industry complaints route. Since accreditation began, the Enforcement Conduct Board is the body positioned as the independent reviewer of agent conduct, and it is the one Dukes' own process names.

Council cases have a second ladder

Where the debt is council tax, business rates or a penalty charge, the council that instructed Dukes remains responsible for its contractor, and a complaint to the council runs independently of anything Dukes' own process is doing. The council can correct the underlying account, instruct Dukes to hold action, or recall the case altogether, none of which the firm can do for itself.

If the council's own handling of that complaint is still unsatisfactory once its process has finished, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman can look at how the council managed its enforcement contractor. That route is slower, but it is free, and findings against a council about its bailiffs tend to produce changes that a firm-level complaint does not.

When the courts offer more than an apology

An upheld complaint usually ends in a corrected fee, a returned payment or an apology. Where the problem goes deeper, because an agent breached the requirements of Schedule 12 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, or the liability order or warrant behind the case turns out to be defective, paragraph 66 of that Schedule gives a debtor a court route: the court may order goods to be returned and may award damages for the loss the breach or the defective instrument caused. It is a stronger remedy with more at stake, so have the paperwork checked by an adviser before starting proceedings.

Where to go from here

The full complaint ladder, with wording that works and the evidence worth gathering, is in our guide to how to complain about a bailiff. Dukes' powers, fee stages and how to check a letter is genuine are on the Dukes Bailiffs profile. If enforcement is continuing while the complaint runs and you need it dealt with now, get help rather than waiting for the timetable.