Rundles: What They Enforce, and Can They Force Entry?

That includes the answer to whether they can force entry, so the sections below take the debt types one at a time.

Who are Rundles?

Rundles is the trading name used by Rundle & Co. Limited, a company on the Companies House register under number 03231767. It was incorporated on 31 July 1996 and has its registered office at 3rd Floor, 10 Lloyd's Avenue, London, EC3N 3AJ. As with most firms in this line of work, it is filed under SIC code 82990, the broad "other business support service activities" category rather than an enforcement-specific one.

Its board currently comprises Amy Victoria Collins, Nicholas Sean Tubbs and Tom Frans Vanoverschelde. Ownership sits with CDER Group UK Limited, recorded on the public register as holding 75% or more of the shares and voting rights. That relationship shapes a good deal of how Rundles operate, so it has a dedicated section further down.

Rundles are listed with the Civil Enforcement Association (CIVEA) and have carried Enforcement Conduct Board accreditation since October 2023. Neither rests on the company's own assertion; CIVEA and the ECB each publish their own membership and accreditation lists.

Enforcement agent or debt collector?

On the debts covered here, Rundles are enforcement agents, the role the word "bailiff" usually points to. That is a stronger position than a debt collector holds. A collector can pursue you for payment but cannot enter anywhere or lift anything; to get to that point it would first have to take you to court and win.

When Rundles are acting on council tax, rates or a traffic penalty, the winning-in-court step has already happened, at a court, a tribunal or the Traffic Enforcement Centre. The resulting power lives in Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, which is what permits an agent to take control of goods, to charge the fixed fees, and, in tightly drawn circumstances, to use reasonable force. If you cannot tell which kind of letter has arrived, bailiffs and debt collectors explains the difference.

What lands on Rundles' desk

The first five lines are Rundles' bread and butter. The final line stands apart. An overpaid benefit or a departed tenant's rent arrears is an ordinary civil debt, not something already carried by a liability order, so no goods can be taken over it until the council or landlord has been to the County Court, won judgment, and moved on to a warrant of control. Only then do the rules on this page begin to bite.

Where a council tax or rates case comes from

The council has to obtain a liability order in the magistrates' court before council tax can be enforced, and business rates and the BID levy arrive by the same door. None of those orders lets anyone force a way into a home; each one only opens the taking-control-of-goods process.

There is a time bar to keep in mind. Regulation 34(3) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 bars a council from applying for a liability order once six years have elapsed from the day the sum fell due. It caps the application only; an order already granted does not expire, and the bar has nothing to say about a case that has already reached Rundles.

Once your file is with the firm, most councils stop taking payment centrally and send you to the agent instead. The council can still recall a case, most plausibly on evidenced vulnerability, but recall is discretionary, not something you are entitled to demand. Our pages on council tax bailiffs and liability orders cover the ground more fully.

Parking and traffic penalties

An unpaid council parking or traffic penalty gets registered at the Traffic Enforcement Centre, where the council obtains a warrant of control. Here it is that warrant, rather than any liability order, that Rundles enforce under.

Where the case should not have got this far, there is a way back. If the original penalty charge notice never reached you, an appeal had already gone your way, or you were not the registered keeper at the relevant date, the Traffic Enforcement Centre may provide a route back. For an ordinary council parking penalty anywhere in England, or a council bus-lane or moving-traffic penalty outside London, the usual route is a witness statement on form TE9, with TE7 if you have to ask permission to file late. For a TfL Congestion Charge, LEZ or ULEZ penalty, the statutory-declaration route uses PE3, with PE2 if late. London-borough or TfL bus-lane and moving-traffic cases sit under separate London legislation, so check the form enclosed with the order rather than assuming either route. That step sits apart from enforcement and is worth taking whenever it truly applies. See the Traffic Enforcement Centre and PE3 and TE9 forms.

The entry position on a penalty matches council tax exactly: on a first visit to a home, there is no forcing the door.

Commercial rent and business premises

On the commercial side, Rundles handle business rates by the liability-order route already described, and rent through Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery, usually abbreviated to CRAR.

CRAR belongs to landlords alone, works only against a business tenant of premises let for business use, and can never be aimed at a residential occupier. The two requirements creditors most often overlook are a lease evidenced in writing and a minimum of seven days' unpaid rent standing both when the enforcement notice is served and again when control of the goods is first taken. The CRAR conditions are laid out fully on our Dukes Bailiffs page, Dukes handling a similar blend of commercial and council instructions.

Warrants of arrest and council tax committal

This is the strand of Rundles' work that catches people off guard, and it is a different animal from taking control of goods.

At the rare and severe end of council tax enforcement sit committal proceedings. Once an agent has reported back that there are not enough goods to clear the debt, a council can go to the magistrates' court, which, under regulation 47 of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, holds a means inquiry into why the debt is still unpaid. Only if it finds wilful refusal or culpable neglect can it commit the debtor to prison, for up to three months, with earlier release on payment.

If the debtor does not turn up to that inquiry, the court can issue a warrant to have them brought in. A number of local authorities instruct Rundles to execute exactly those warrants, together with the bail and commitment warrants that go with the same committal process.

The crucial point is that this is a warrant aimed at getting a person to court, not a licence to enter a home and carry goods away, and it belongs at the extreme edge of council tax enforcement rather than the everyday stages. If a committal hearing has been mentioned to you, treat it as serious and get free debt advice straight away rather than waiting for the date to arrive.

What each stage adds to the bill

Regulation fixes these fees, and they are identical for every enforcement firm working in England and Wales.

Those apply to instructions taken under the scale that came in on 1 May 2026. Older instructions can sit on the previous, lower figures, so where you are checking a charge, it is the start date of the instruction that decides which scale is right.

Several debts, one visit

They do not all attract a full set of fees. Regulation 11 of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 permits the £79 compliance fee once per enforcement power, but caps the £247 enforcement fee and the £116 sale fee at one each where the debts can reasonably be run together. Two council tax orders handled on a single visit should therefore reach £405, rather than £326 twice over. Where a visit fee has been charged on each debt separately, put a query in writing.

Can Rundles force entry?

On council tax, business rates or a traffic penalty, not on a first visit to a home. Entry must be peaceable, which means a door you open or one already off the latch. There is no obligation to answer it, and no penalty for staying put behind it.

Turned away, an agent has to leave. They remain free to take control of a vehicle sitting accessible outside, to add the enforcement-stage fee once its conditions are met, and to try again another day.

The carve-outs are narrow. Business premises attract wider powers than a private home does, and coming back after a broken controlled goods agreement can justify reasonable force where the statutory conditions hold. The warrant-of-arrest work above is different again: it is about producing a person at court, not entering premises after goods, and of itself it authorises no break-in. Our guide to when bailiffs can force entry sets out how each paragraph of Schedule 12 fits together.

Which goods are reachable

Control can be taken only over goods that are the debtor's own. Items belonging to a partner, to someone else in the house or, at business premises, to a supplier or finance provider are not fair game merely for being present, though as a rule it takes paperwork rather than assertion to establish that.

Regulation 4 puts certain things beyond reach whatever the debt: everyday clothing and bedding, the equipment a household needs to function, whatever is required for medical care or for the care of a child, a disabled person or an older person, domestic pets and assistance dogs, and a vehicle carrying a valid disabled person's badge. Tools and equipment needed for work are exempt as well, capped at £1,350 in total, a single limit across everything claimed rather than one per item.

Attention usually falls first on the car, since it can occasionally be handled with nobody going indoors. Ownership settles most of these arguments: a Motability vehicle is leased, not owned; a car under hire purchase or PCP may remain the finance company's until the final payment; and a vehicle belonging to another member of the household is not the debtor's to forfeit. See what bailiffs can take and can bailiffs take my car.

Agreeing a way to pay

On an enforcement debt, an arrangement generally means a controlled goods agreement, under which the listed items remain yours for as long as the payments hold. Before adding your signature, check that everything listed is genuinely yours, that nothing exempt has crept on, and that the balance and the fee stages are stated correctly.

Breaking that agreement counts for more than an ordinary missed instalment. It can create a power to re-enter that was not there before, and, where the statutory conditions are met, that re-entry can carry reasonable force. Make contact ahead of a payment you are about to miss, not once it has gone.

If the figure is beyond you

Raise it at the earliest point, and support it with figures instead of a general plea of inability to pay. An offer grounded in an honest income and expenditure picture carries far more weight than a number chosen at random, and you can get free help assembling one from National Debtline, StepChange and Citizens Advice.

How Rundles take payment

The official routes are listed on rundles.org.uk under payment options. Most payments go through the online portal at customer.rundles.org.uk, and there is a 24-hour automated card line on 0800 081 6000, option 1, with the same number reaching an adviser in office hours. Standing orders, bank transfers and postal payments are accepted too, in each case quoting the Rundles reference printed on the firm's correspondence.

Before parting with anything, match that reference against the letter you hold rather than an older one, and bear in mind that the payment reaches Rundle & Co, not the council or landlord whose debt it is, so keep the confirmation of what it settled.

A partial payment, on its own, generally suspends nothing: a visit can still follow and the fee scale does not freeze. If the full amount is out of reach, put the affordability offer described above to them first, or get help before paying.

Disputing what Rundles say you owe

A dispute over the debt itself belongs with the creditor, not with Rundles alone. The agent collects to instruction and has no authority to rewrite a council tax account, amend a rates bill or alter a landlord's rent ledger. Those corrections can come only from the creditor, the court, or, for a traffic penalty, the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

Request the billing history, the date and amount of the liability order, warrant or CRAR notice, the period it spans, and a complete transaction record. In parallel, notify Rundles in writing that you dispute the sum and state where the challenge has been lodged.

When the named person no longer lives there

Raise it without delay, with proportionate proof of who is resident now: a council tax bill, a tenancy agreement or a recent utility bill in your name. Never clear someone else's debt simply to end the letters, and do not ignore them either, because an unresolved address problem can harden into a dispute over your own belongings if an agent later assumes the named person is still there.

Raising vulnerability with Rundles

Put it to both Rundles and the creditor in writing at the earliest opportunity. Vulnerability is assessed case by case rather than against a set list, and serious illness, disability, bereavement, pregnancy, age-related difficulty, barriers of language or literacy, recent trauma and a household in crisis can each be relevant, often several together.

The response varies with the circumstances and might be extra time, a change in how you are contacted, a more affordable arrangement or a short hold. None of that cancels the debt; what it changes is the manner in which enforcement proceeds.

The CDER Group above Rundles

This is seldom written down, and it matters if letters bearing the CDER Group name have also reached you.

CDER Group UK Limited has held 75% or more of the shares and voting rights in Rundle & Co. Limited since May 2019, taking over from an earlier controlling company that had held the same stake from 2016. The same register also shows CDER Group UK Limited with a matching 75%-or-more holding in CDER Group Limited, a separately incorporated enforcement business at the same London registered office, which we cover on its own CDER Group page.

In plain terms: Rundles and CDER Group Limited are two separately incorporated companies under one owner, not one company wearing two letterheads. If both names have written to you, each debt still has to be handled on its own footing, and neither firm can collect a balance that is owed to the other. All of this is on the public Companies House register and can be checked for yourself.

Confirming a Rundles letter is real

Rundles' ECB accreditation, in place since October 2023, shows the firm has accepted independent oversight, but on its own it confirms nothing about the specific letter in front of you.

To check that letter, phone the council or landlord named on it using a number you have sourced independently, from their website and not from the letter, and ask whether Rundles are in fact instructed on your account. Councils must publish the enforcement firms they use, and that list, backed by a direct call, resolves the question quicker than anything else.

Before paying anyone, be clear on which debt the payment settles, the stage the case has reached and which fees are included, get a reference and keep the receipt. If an agent is at your door, you can pay without letting them inside.

How to complain

Begin with Rundles. Set out the date and time, the agent's name where you know it, the case reference, what took place, and the specific rule or factual error you say is in point.

Next, the creditor, the council or landlord that gave the instruction. This is frequently the step that changes something, because the creditor can recall a case or put right an account the agent cannot alter.

Then oversight. With Rundles ECB-accredited, the Enforcement Conduct Board can take up a complaint about enforcement conduct once the firm's own process has run its course. A challenge to an individual agent's certificate is separate again, made to the County Court that issued the certificate.

Hold on to dates, correspondence, photographs and the names of everyone you speak to.

Your first steps

1. Establish which debt this is, since both the entry rules and the fee scale follow from it.
2. Check the stage and the fees against the tables above, and apply regulation 11 if more than one debt is in play.
3. If a committal hearing or warrant of arrest has been raised, treat it as urgent and seek free debt advice immediately.
4. If the debt is wrong, write to the creditor today, not to Rundles alone.
5. If it is right but unaffordable, prepare an income and expenditure position and put forward a realistic offer.
6. If you are vulnerable, say so now, in writing, to Rundles and to the creditor both.
7. Keep any vehicle that is not yours to lose out of reach, paperwork ready.