Empira: Bailiffs or Debt Collectors, and What They Can Do

Empira acts as an enforcement agent for council tax, business rates, County Court judgments transferred to the High Court, and commercial rent arrears. It also collects private parking charges on behalf of landowners, and that work sits on entirely different legal footing. One is bailiff enforcement with statutory powers behind it. The other is a contract claim with none. Work out which one your letter concerns before you decide how worried to be.

Who are Empira?

Empira Ltd is registered at Companies House under company number 13256532, incorporated on 10 March 2021, with its registered office at Unit B, 1st Floor, 210 Cygnet Court, Centre Park, Warrington, WA1 1PP. The company's registered SIC code is 69109, which covers legal activities rather than ordinary debt collection agency work, a coding also used by firms built around High Court enforcement.

Empira is a young firm by enforcement industry standards and is independently owned rather than part of a wider enforcement group. The public register records Mr John Llewellyn Gladstone Davies as the person with significant control, holding 75% or more of the shares and voting rights since the company was incorporated. Mr Davies has been a director from incorporation, joined on 1 April 2021 by Gary Robert Carr and James William Metcalfe, who remain the other two directors. According to Empira's own website, Mr Metcalfe is the firm's resident High Court Enforcement Officer, which is the authorisation that allows Empira to act under High Court writs rather than only under council-instructed warrants.

Empira's entry on the Enforcement Conduct Board's register of accredited firms dates from October 2023. Empira's own website also states that it is a member of the Civil Enforcement Association (CIVEA), holds Cyber Essentials certification, and is accredited under the International Parking Community's Accredited Service Provider scheme, which covers its private parking work. Those are the company's own claims about its memberships rather than facts drawn from the public register, and they are worth knowing when you check a letter.

Are Empira bailiffs or debt collectors?

Both, depending on which piece of work your letter concerns.

For council tax, Empira acts under a liability order; business rates use their own liability-order regime; High Court judgment enforcement uses a writ of control; and qualifying commercial rent arrears can be enforced through the statutory CRAR procedure, which does not require a prior court order. In each of those modes Empira is acting as an enforcement agent, which is the role most people mean by "bailiff", and the taking-control powers come from Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007. They cover taking control of goods, adding the fees fixed by regulation, and reasonable force in a small number of tightly defined situations. High Court writ work sits under a separate authorisation, Schedule 7 of the Courts Act 2003.

For a private parking charge, the position is different. A parking charge issued on private land is not a fine and Empira is not enforcing a court order when it collects one. It is closer to ordinary debt recovery: a claim for an alleged breach of contract, formed by the signage on the site. Nobody, including Empira, can remove goods over a parking charge alone. That can only happen after the operator has sued in the County Court, won, and then had the judgment enforced, at which point the position becomes the High Court or warrant route described above.

If you are unsure which applies to your letter, see bailiffs and debt collectors.

Which kind of Empira letter have you received?

The document itself usually settles which mode applies. A Notice of Enforcement, a liability order reference or a writ of control point to genuine enforcement. A letter that only describes an alleged parking contravention, with no enforcement power named, is the collection mode.

Council tax and business rates enforcement

Council tax is enforced through a liability order obtained by the council from the magistrates' court, and business rates follow the same route. Neither order lets anyone break into a home; what it does is open the taking control of goods procedure.

There is a time limit worth knowing about. Under the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, regulation 34(3), a council cannot make a liability order application once six years have passed from the day the sum fell due. An order already granted does not expire under that rule, so it rarely helps once Empira already holds the case.

After the handover, expect the council to point you back to Empira rather than take payment itself. Recalling a case stays within the council's gift, and evidence of vulnerability is the strongest lever for asking, but it is a discretion rather than a right. Our council tax bailiffs guide covers the wider process.

Private parking charges: not a bailiff matter, at least not yet

This is the mode most often confused with the others, and the distinction is legal rather than a matter of tone.

A parking charge on private land arises from an alleged contract, not a penalty imposed by a public authority. Empira collecting one has no more power than any other party chasing an unpaid invoice: no right to enter a property, no power to remove or clamp anything, and no authority to add the enforcement fees described further down this page.

That changes only if the operator sues in the County Court and obtains a judgment. From that point, the case can proceed to a warrant of control or, for a higher-value judgment, a writ of control in the High Court, and the enforcement rules described in the rest of this page begin to apply. Until then, ignoring correspondence does not summon a bailiff to the door, but a claim form is a different matter and should never be ignored. See CCJs and bailiffs for what happens if a claim is issued.

High Court enforcement under a writ of control

This applies once a County Court judgment has gone unpaid and been transferred up.

Under article 8 of the High Court and County Courts Jurisdiction Order 1991, a judgment for less than £600 must stay in the County Court, and a judgment arising from an agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 is enforced only in the County Court whatever the amount. Most credit cards, catalogue accounts and personal loans fall inside that carve-out, so a High Court writ over a debt of that kind is worth checking rather than assuming is correct.

Once a writ of control is issued, Empira's resident High Court Enforcement Officer is authorised to take control of goods, and a Notice of Enforcement giving at least 14 clear days must be sent before an agent may attend. See High Court enforcement officers for the full detail on the writ process and the thresholds involved.

CRAR, lease forfeiture and Empira's other commercial work

CRAR is available to a commercial landlord against a business tenant, and only ever at premises let for business purposes; a residential occupier is outside it entirely. The lease must be evidenced in writing, and at least seven days' worth of rent must be unpaid at two separate moments: when the notice of enforcement is given, and when goods are first taken into control. If you occupy the premises purely as a home rather than to run a business from them, CRAR should not apply to you at all.

Empira's website also advertises commercial lease forfeiture, with peaceable re-entry effected within 48 hours of instruction, and a round-the-clock unauthorised encampment removal service. Both are landlord-facing and neither concerns household debt, but they help explain why Empira's name can surface in commercial disputes that never involve a council.

Empira's fees: two statutory scales

Whichever route a case arrives by, Empira has no discretion over its charges. Two separate fee scales exist, both set by regulation, and which one applies depends on the authority being enforced.

High Court enforcement, under a writ of control:

Ordinary enforcement, under a liability order or warrant of control:

Both scales shown here govern instructions started on or after 1 May 2026; a case opened before that date can remain on the older figures, which is worth checking against the date on your Notice of Enforcement. Note that the High Court percentage threshold is £1,200 rather than £1,900, and that the £520 second enforcement stage has its own defined conditions rather than being a charge for a repeat visit.

Several debts with Empira at once

Regulation 11 of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 splits the answer in two. Each separate enforcement power carries its own £79 compliance fee, but where the debts can reasonably be dealt with on the same occasion, the £247 enforcement fee and £116 sale fee arise once, not once per debt. Two council tax liability orders handled together should come to £405 in fees rather than £652, and a bill showing a separate visit fee for each order deserves a written challenge.

Can Empira force entry?

Not at a home, on a first visit, for council tax or business rates. The agent needs peaceable entry, which in practice means a door somebody opens or leaves unlocked, and declining to open the door is not an offence.

A writ of control starts from the same place: peaceable entry only, at a private dwelling, on a first attendance. The situations where force becomes lawful are narrow, mainly premises used for a trade or business and re-entry after a controlled goods agreement has been broken. Our guide to when bailiffs can force entry maps each situation to the rule that governs it.

Staying inside does not end the matter, though. A vehicle on the drive or the street can be taken into control with nobody entering the building, and once the conditions for the enforcement stage are satisfied its fee is added.

What Empira can and cannot take

The starting rule is ownership: control can only be taken of goods that belong to the person named on the order. A partner's television, a flatmate's laptop or, at business premises, stock still owned by a supplier or equipment on finance is out of scope, although the paperwork proving whose it is tends to decide the argument.

On top of that sits the regulation 4 exempt goods list. It protects the clothing, bedding, furniture and basic household kit a home cannot function without, anything needed for the medical care of the debtor or the care of a child, an older person or a disabled person, assistance dogs and domestic pets, and any vehicle showing a valid disabled person's badge. Work tools and equipment are protected too, but only up to a combined value of £1,350 across everything claimed.

Vehicles deserve particular attention in an Empira case because both High Court and warrant work can reach a car parked in the open. Whether it is really the debtor's is the usual battleground: Motability cars are leased, a vehicle on hire purchase or PCP is normally the finance company's until the last instalment, and a household member's car is simply not available. Gather the documents before a removal is threatened, not after. The detail lives in what bailiffs can take and in can bailiffs take my car.

Agreeing a payment arrangement with Empira

Empira's website points debtors towards an online portal where a payment arrangement can be set up and managed, alongside contact by phone. Whatever the channel, an arrangement made at or after the enforcement stage will normally be recorded as a controlled goods agreement, with listed goods staying where they are while the instalments are met.

Read the list before signing. Every item should genuinely be the debtor's, nothing on it should be exempt, and the balance and fee stages should tally with the tables above. A broken agreement is worse than a missed bill: it can open the door to re-entry, with reasonable force available once the statutory conditions are met, so raise a problem before the payment date rather than after it.

A parking charge arrangement is a different animal. Until a judgment exists there is no fee scale and no controlled goods agreement, only a negotiation with the operator or with Empira acting on its behalf.

If you cannot afford what is being asked

Put numbers behind the word unaffordable. A budget showing income, outgoings and what genuinely remains carries weight that a bare statement never will, and National Debtline, StepChange and Citizens Advice will each help you build one without charge. A realistic, evidenced offer made early is the strongest thing you can put in front of an enforcement firm.

Disputing an Empira balance

If the underlying debt is wrong, the argument belongs with whoever instructed Empira. No enforcement agent can amend a council tax account, correct a rates assessment or adjust a rent ledger; the council, the landlord, the court or, for parking, the operator or an adjudicator holds that power.

Request the paperwork that lets you check: the billing history, the order or writ date and amount, the period covered, and a running total of payments and fees. Copy Empira in writing so the file records that the sum is contested and where the challenge has been made.

Letters addressed to someone who has moved on

Respond rather than bin it. A short letter with something showing you live there in your own right, such as your tenancy agreement, your council tax bill or a recent utility statement, usually closes the issue. Never pay a stranger's debt for quiet, and never let the letters pile up unanswered, because an agent who still believes the named person lives there may one day stand at your door arguing about your belongings.

Telling Empira about vulnerability

Empira's website describes a specialist welfare team within its enforcement operation, and vulnerability should go to it in writing, with a copy to the creditor, as soon as possible. There is no qualifying checklist: illness, disability, bereavement, pregnancy, age, language or literacy difficulty, recent trauma or a household in crisis can each matter, and combinations matter more.

What follows depends on the case. Referral to the welfare team, longer timescales, communication adjusted to what you can manage, a gentler arrangement or a temporary hold on action are all possible outcomes. The debt itself survives; the way it is enforced is what changes.

Checking an Empira letter is genuine

Empira appears on the Enforcement Conduct Board's public register of accredited firms, and has done since October 2023, which tells you the company has submitted to independent oversight. It does not tell you that the letter in your hand is real.

For that, go around the letter rather than through it. Find the council's, landlord's or operator's contact details yourself, online, and ask directly whether your account has been placed with Empira. A council's website must also list the enforcement firms it uses, which makes the cross-check quick.

Pay nothing until you know which debt the money is for, what stage has been reached and which fees sit inside the figure, and keep the reference and receipt. An agent at the door can be paid from the doorstep; entry is not the price of payment.

Complaining about Empira

Empira publishes a consumer complaints procedure on its website, and that internal stage comes first. Set out the date, the reference, the agent if known, and the rule or error you rely on.

The creditor is stage two, and often the decisive one. A council, landlord or operator can pull a case back, or fix an account, in ways Empira cannot.

Beyond that, the Enforcement Conduct Board accepts complaints about the conduct of accredited firms once the internal route is exhausted. Challenging an individual agent's certificate means applying to the County Court that granted it. And a parking charge dispute Empira cannot settle generally belongs with the operator's trade body or the County Court, because collection work sits outside the enforcement remit.

Hold on to everything as you go: dates, letters, photographs, names.

Where to start with an Empira letter

1. Identify the mode first: enforcement of council tax or rates, a High Court writ, CRAR at business premises, or a private parking charge.
2. For enforcement, match the fees and stage on the paperwork to the two scales above.
3. For a parking charge, no goods can be touched without a judgment, but treat any claim form as urgent.
4. Challenge a wrong debt with the creditor or operator straight away, copying Empira.
5. Build an income and expenditure statement before making an offer you can keep.
6. Raise vulnerability in writing with both Empira and the creditor now, not at the door.
7. Get the ownership paperwork together for any vehicle that could be at risk.