Now part of Marston
Rossendales: Now Part of the Marston Group
Rossendales no longer exists as a separate enforcement company. It is now part of Marston Holdings, and has been since 2019. If you have a letter, an old reference, or a memory of dealing with Rossendales, the organisation behind it today is Marston.
- What happened to Rossendales
- Which company holds your debt now
- What to do with an old Rossendales debt
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That is worth stating plainly, because the name is still searched heavily and the confusion it causes is genuine, people receive correspondence from Marston about an account they associate with Rossendales, and reasonably wonder whether one of the two is fake.
What actually happened
Rossendales was a long-established enforcement and debt collection business based in Rossendale, Lancashire. It was absorbed into the Marston group, and the rebrand was formalised in 2019, when a GOV.UK notice confirmed that its Crown Court collections and enforcement agent was thereafter known as Marston Holdings rather than Rossendales (gov.uk/government/news/crime-news-rossendales-now-known-as-marston-holdings, checked 22 Aug 2026).
That 2019 role has since moved again. From 3 February 2025, the Legal Aid Agency's Crown Court means testing (CCMT) debt collection and enforcement contract passed from Marston Holdings to Advantis Credit Ltd, following a competitive procurement (gov.uk/government/news/advantis-awarded-means-testing-debt-collection-contract, checked 22 Aug 2026). So if your letter concerns a Crown Court legal aid contribution specifically, the current collector is Advantis, not Marston or Rossendales; see our Advantis Credit page. Marston continues to enforce magistrates' court fines and other debt types on its own account, which is a separate contract from the Crown Court legal aid one.
Two different companies share the Rossendales name, and the distinction matters if you are checking correspondence.
| Company | Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Rossendales Limited | 01501584 | Active, incorporated 1980 |
| Rossendales Collect Limited | 05070065 | Dissolved on 11 February 2025 |
Rossendales Limited remains on the register as an active company, with Marston (Holdings) Limited recorded as its person with significant control. Its registered office is 77 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, the Marston group address. A company continuing to exist within a group after a rebrand is normal and does not mean it is trading under that name.
Rossendales Collect Limited is a different company, and it was dissolved on 11 February 2025. A dissolved company has no legal existence and cannot enforce anything, instruct anyone or receive payment. If correspondence arrives in the name of Rossendales Collect Limited, that is worth querying in writing: ask which legal entity is actually instructed and under what enforcement power.
Companies House records both, so you can check either number yourself.
The old address, Wavell House, Holcombe Road, Rossendale, is the same one Marston uses today, which is a useful cross-check if you are trying to work out whether correspondence is genuine.
The other names in the same group
Rossendales is not the only Marston-group name you may see. The Companies House register records all of the following with Marston (Holdings) Limited as their person with significant control, all at 77 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 5DU:
- Rossendales Limited (01501584), active
- Engage Services (ESL) Limited (07362435), active
- Swift Credit Services Limited (01159954), active
So a letter from Engage Services or Swift Credit Services is also a letter from a company in the Marston group. Each is a separate legal entity and each debt stands on its own, but the process, the fee stages and the correspondence come from the same organisation.
See our guide to Marston.
Rossendales is an enforcement business rather than a debt collection agency, and the two are not the same: see bailiffs and debt collectors. Where the age of the debt matters, see statute-barred debt.
If you have received a letter
Check the name at the top. If it says Marston, Marston Recovery or Marston Holdings, that is the current business and the guidance on our Marston page applies directly.
If it genuinely says Rossendales and is recent, treat it with more care than usual. Enforcement letters are impersonated, and a defunct brand name is exactly what an impersonator would reach for. A genuine notice names the creditor, your council or the court, gives a reference number, and directs payment to the firm rather than to an individual. If any of that is missing, contact the council directly using a number from their own website before paying anything.
What they collected, and what that means for you
Rossendales worked mainly for local authorities: council tax arrears, business rates, parking penalties and magistrates' court fines. Marston does similar work now; Marston's own site states it works in partnership with more than 280 UK local authorities and government bodies including HM Courts and Tribunals Service, the Child Maintenance Service, National Highways and Transport for London (marstonholdings.co.uk/about-us/, checked 22 Aug 2026), a figure we have not independently verified beyond that self-description.
The debt type matters more than the firm's name, because it determines what an agent may do:
- Council tax, business rates or a parking penalty, no power to force entry into your home. Peaceable entry only, through a door left open or unlocked.
- An unpaid magistrates' court fine, a warrant can authorise entry by force. This is the exception people are usually unaware of.
Fees are set by regulation and are the same whichever firm holds the case: £79 when the case is passed over, £247 once an agent attends in person, and £116 if goods are removed for sale.
An old Rossendales debt
If the account dates back some years, two things are worth checking before you pay.
Whether it is still enforceable. Council tax has a six-year limit on applying for a liability order from the date the sum became due, though once an order exists the position changes. Old debts are not automatically written off, but they are not automatically enforceable either.
Whether it is actually yours. Addresses and periods get mixed up over a rebrand and a change of systems. Ask for a breakdown showing the debt, the period, the liability order date and the fees separately. You are entitled to that, and it is the quickest way to spot a problem.
Checking the company is real
Marston Holdings is accredited by the Enforcement Conduct Board and its agents hold certificates granted by the County Court. Any individual agent can be checked on the public certificated enforcement agent register before you let them in or agree anything.
Reviews for the firm, under either name, are poor, which is true of every business in this sector. People very rarely review a collection that went without incident, so the ratings capture the worst experiences rather than the typical one. It is not evidence that a letter is fake, and it is not a prediction about your own case.
What to do next
If the letter is from Marston and the debt is right, the useful move is to work out what you can genuinely afford before making contact, offer that figure, and get any arrangement confirmed in writing before paying. Doing it before an agent attends keeps the fees at £79 rather than £326.
If you dispute the debt, raise it with the council as well as the firm, only the council can withdraw the instruction.
If you are unwell, disabled, pregnant, caring for someone, or have young children at home, say so early. Vulnerability has to be taken into account and can change how a case is handled.
Free advice is available from Citizens Advice, StepChange and National Debtline. If you are holding a letter and are not sure whether it is genuine or what to do with it, we can go through it with you.
How a debt reaches bailiffs
A debt collector cannot send bailiffs. Only a court can, and only after a judgment. These are the stages in between, and each one is easier to deal with than the one after it.
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A collector asks you to pay
No court is involved yet. A debt collection agency has no enforcement powers at all, it cannot enter your home, take goods or add enforcement fees. This stage can last a long time.
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A County Court claim is issued
The creditor, or the company that bought the debt, asks the court to decide you owe the money. This is the stage where the deadlines start to matter, and where a defence such as limitation has to be raised.
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Judgment is entered (a CCJ)
If you do not respond in time, judgment is entered by default, without anyone examining whether the debt was correct. A CCJ stays on your credit file for six years.
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A warrant or writ of control is issued
An unpaid judgment can be enforced. This is the document that authorises enforcement agents to attend, and the point at which a debt collection matter becomes a bailiff matter.
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Enforcement agents can attend you are here
Now there are real powers: peaceable entry, taking control of goods, and statutory fees of £79, £247 and £116 at defined stages. This is the stage the earlier ones exist to avoid.
Which bailiffs would actually attend
That depends on the amount and on what kind of debt it is, and the rule is set by article 8 of the High Court and County Courts Jurisdiction Order 1991 rather than by the creditor's preference.
- Under £600, the judgment can only be enforced in the county court, so county court bailiffs attend under a warrant of control.
- £5,000 or more, and not a regulated credit agreement, it can only be enforced in the High Court, so High Court enforcement officers attend under a writ of control. They charge on a different and higher fee scale.
- Anything else, including a regulated credit agreement of any size, may be enforced in either court.
Whether your agreement is regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 changes which court can enforce it. Credit cards, loans, overdrafts and catalogue accounts usually are; council tax, traffic penalties and court fines are not, and those reach enforcement by a different route entirely.
If several debts are enforced together
This happens often, particularly where one company has bought several of your accounts, or where a council has more than one liability order against you. The enforcement agent is instructed on all of them at once and deals with them on the same visit.
The fees do not simply multiply, and this is where people are most often overcharged. Where the agent is instructed under more than one enforcement power against the same debtor, and those powers can reasonably be exercised at the same time, regulation 11 of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 splits the treatment:
- The £79 compliance fee may be charged for each enforcement power. Several of these is correct.
- The £247 enforcement fee and the £116 sale fee may each be charged only once, however many debts are involved.
So three debts enforced together should cost three compliance fees and one enforcement fee, £484, rather than three separate lots of £326. If you have been charged an enforcement fee for each debt on a single visit, that is worth challenging in writing.
The saving depends on the debts genuinely being enforceable at the same time. Where an agent legitimately attends on separate occasions for unrelated matters, separate fees can apply, so it is worth checking the dates and references on the fee breakdown before challenging it.
Not sure which one is contacting you? How to tell from the paperwork
Sources
- Companies House register GOV.UK Checked 2026-08-13
-
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 -
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 -
GOV.UK — Rossendales now known as Marston Holdings
Legal Aid Agency / GOV.UK
Our Crown Court collections and enforcement agent is now known as Marston Holdings instead of Rossendales.
Checked 2026-08-22
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