Thoburns Enforcement: Council Tax, CRAR and Fines

(thoburns.co.uk/ and thoburns.co.uk/local-government/, both accessed 2026-08-22) Those two figures cannot describe the same starting point, and this page records the discrepancy rather than picking a winner, since neither has been checked against a primary record such as the Companies House incorporation date below.

Who are Thoburns?

Thoburns Enforcement Services Limited is registered at Companies House under company number 02461030, incorporated on 18 January 1990, with its registered office at Design Works, Unit 12, William Street, Felling, Gateshead, NE10 0JP. (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02461030, accessed 2026-08-22)

It has been accredited by the Enforcement Conduct Board since October 2023. (enforcementconductboard.org/directory/ and /members/thoburns/, accessed 2026-08-22) Its own site displays an ISO 9001 certification mark and names a separate Body Worn Video Policy among its published legal documents, alongside a distinct Safeguarding Policy covering how it identifies and handles a vulnerable customer. (thoburns.co.uk/body-worn-video-policy/ and thoburns.co.uk/safeguarding-policy/, listed in the site's own sitemap, accessed 2026-08-22) None of that removes the need to check a specific letter independently.

Bailiff, enforcement agent, or ordinary debt collector?

The legal term is enforcement agent; "bailiff" is simply the word most people reach for. A standard debt collector cannot enter a property or remove anything at all without first suing and winning a county court judgment, which is a wholly earlier and different stage.

Thoburns only becomes involved once that earlier stage is finished: a council already holds a liability order, a landlord already meets the conditions for Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery, or a magistrates' court fine is already unpaid. From that point it acts under Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, which allows taking control of goods, the fixed statutory fees, and, in narrow circumstances, reasonable force. See bailiffs and debt collectors.

What Thoburns is instructed to collect

Thoburns groups everything outside council tax, business rates and CRAR under a general "Sundry & Miscellaneous Debt" service on its own site, (thoburns.co.uk/sundry-misc-debt/, accessed 2026-08-22) which is where a magistrates' court fine is likely to sit. That page does not itself name a specific court body or government department as a client, so the safest approach on any letter naming an unfamiliar creditor is to check, in writing, exactly who says they instructed Thoburns.

Council tax and business rates: the liability order

Both debts need the council to obtain a liability order from the magistrates' court first. That order proves the sum is due; it says nothing about forcing entry, and it is the trigger that opens the taking control of goods procedure rather than something that starts it automatically.

Regulation 34(3) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 gives the council six years to apply for that order, counted from when the sum first fell due. It has nothing to say about how long the order itself lasts once granted, so it offers no help to anyone whose case has already reached Thoburns. See council tax bailiffs.

Commercial rent arrears

CRAR works only for a landlord against a business tenant, never a residential one, and only once a written lease exists and at least seven days' net unpaid rent is owed, a test applied both at the notice stage and again when goods are first taken control of. It is aimed at collecting the arrears while the tenant stays put, which is the opposite of forfeiture, a separate remedy that ends the lease altogether.

Court fines change the entry rule

Where the underlying debt is an unpaid magistrates' court fine rather than council tax or business rates, the ordinary household protection against forced entry does not straightforwardly apply; an unpaid criminal fine sits in one of the narrow categories where forced entry can be authorised at all.

Even then, force is not automatic. Paragraph 20 of Schedule 12 requires the agent to apply to the court for a warrant authorising it in the specific circumstances that apply, so the question worth asking at the door is which power is actually being relied on, not simply whether the paperwork uses the word "warrant." Anyone who believes a fine is wrong, already paid, or attached to the wrong person should go to the issuing court urgently rather than treating it as an ordinary billing query. See when bailiffs can force entry for the full detail.

Can Thoburns force entry for council tax or business rates?

Not into a private home, on a first visit, for either debt. Entry has to be peaceable, through a door voluntarily opened or one already unlocked, and nobody is obliged to answer. Business premises carry wider powers than a home under Schedule 12, and a broken controlled goods agreement can bring the paragraph 19A re-entry power into play as well.

What each Thoburns stage costs

However long the firm has actually operated, the fee scale itself is fixed by regulation and identical across every certificated enforcement firm.

These figures apply to instructions taken on under the scale in force from 1 May 2026. An older instruction may remain on the earlier scale.

More than one debt at once

Regulation 11 of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 keeps the three charges separate once several powers are being used together: the £79 compliance charge is payable for each power, while the £247 and £116 charges are capped at a single instance where the powers can reasonably be dealt with on the same visit. A council tax arrears case running alongside a business rates case at the same address should therefore add up to two £79 charges and a single £247 charge, not two full sets of both.

Reading the Notice of Enforcement

Nothing can be taken into control before a Notice of Enforcement reaches the debtor, and where the instruction dates from 1 May 2026 that notice must give a floor of 14 clear days. Unless the debt is a non-eligible business debt, a recognised debt advice provider asking in time can push that floor up to 28 clear days.

The day the notice lands and the last day of the period are both excluded from the count, so the real deadline runs a little later than the raw figure suggests.

Exempt goods and a vehicle at risk

Only goods belonging to the debtor can be taken into control at all. On a business address, anything belonging to a customer, a supplier or a finance company is not available just because it happens to be on the premises, though establishing that usually needs paperwork.

Regulation 4 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 sets a list that cannot be touched whatever the debt: everyday clothing and bedding, equipment a household needs to function, items needed for medical treatment or for caring for a child, a disabled person or an older relative, and pets, assistance dogs or a vehicle showing a valid disabled badge. Tools and equipment used for work fall under one aggregate limit of £1,350 across everything claimed, not a per-item allowance.

A car parked outside is often the first thing dealt with, since it avoids anyone needing to come indoors. Ownership settles the argument in most cases: a car belonging to another household member was never the debtor's to lose; a Motability vehicle is leased rather than owned; and on hire purchase or PCP, the finance company can still hold title until the agreement is paid off. See what bailiffs can take and can bailiffs take my car.

Arranging payment with Thoburns

Its own site describes a team of enforcement agents making doorstep visits daily, working alongside office-based staff who look into the reasons for non-payment before pushing recovery any further, (thoburns.co.uk/local-government/, accessed 2026-08-22) and it publishes a dedicated page for proposing a payment plan online. (thoburns.co.uk/propose-a-payment-plan/, listed in the site's own sitemap, accessed 2026-08-22) Whichever route is used, the arrangement is usually a controlled goods agreement: the listed items stay where they are, provided the terms are met. Check every item genuinely belongs to the debtor, that nothing exempt appears on the list, and that the balance and fees are right before anything is signed.

A missed instalment under this agreement carries more consequence than an ordinary missed payment elsewhere, because breaching it opens the door to the paragraph 19A re-entry power outlined earlier. Get in touch with Thoburns ahead of a payment being missed, rather than afterwards.

Where the figure is not realistic

Raise it straight away, backed by real numbers rather than a general statement that the debt cannot be paid. Thoburns' own site links out to a debt-advice signposting page, (thoburns.co.uk/debt-advice-signposting-and-information/, listed in the site's own sitemap, accessed 2026-08-22) alongside the usual free services such as the National Debtline, StepChange and Citizens Advice, for building the figures an offer can be based on.

Disputing what Thoburns says is owed

Whoever is actually owed the money, the council or a landlord, is where a dispute about the underlying debt belongs, not Thoburns by itself. An enforcement agent cannot alter a council tax account, amend a rates bill, or vary a fine or a rent ledger; all it does is collect what it has been told to collect.

Ask Thoburns to set out exactly when and why the debt arose: the liability order, CRAR notice or fine that authorises it, and a line-by-line breakdown of the balance and fees charged. Tell Thoburns in writing, at the same time, that the amount is disputed and who else has been told.

If the debt belongs to a previous occupier

Act on it straight away, with something that proves who lives there now: a recent utility bill, a signed tenancy agreement, or a council tax bill already in the current occupier's name will usually settle it. Paying a debt that is not owed solves nothing, and ignoring the letter does not help either, since an address query left unresolved can turn into a dispute over goods that genuinely belong to whoever is living there now.

Vulnerability and welfare support

Thoburns' own Safeguarding Policy, published alongside its complaints documents, sets out how it identifies and responds to a customer in vulnerable circumstances. (thoburns.co.uk/safeguarding-policy/, listed in the site's own sitemap, accessed 2026-08-22) Circumstances decide who is covered rather than a fixed list: serious illness, disability, bereavement, pregnancy, age-related difficulty, a language or literacy barrier, recent trauma and a household crisis regularly apply, often more than one together. Raise it with Thoburns and with the creditor as early as possible, ideally in writing.

None of this cancels the debt itself; only how it is enforced changes, through outcomes such as handling by a welfare specialist, extra time before the next step, an adjusted way of keeping in touch, a fresh arrangement that is actually affordable, or a temporary hold on the case.

Checking a Thoburns letter is genuine

Find contact details independently, through Thoburns' own website or the council's published list of the enforcement agents it uses, rather than relying on a number printed only on a letter that turned up unannounced. Every council has to publish that list.

Before paying anything, check which debt is being settled, what stage has been reached, and which fees are included, then get a reference and keep the receipt. Somebody at the door can be paid without letting them into the house.

Complaining about Thoburns

Thoburns runs a documented two-stage internal process. (thoburns.co.uk/complaints-handling-procedure/, accessed 2026-08-22) Stage one goes to a Customer Service Advisor, with an initial response due within 5 business days and a full investigation completed within 20; it can be raised by letter, email, phone, or an online form. Stage two is an appeal decided by a senior manager acting as Appeal Handler, resolved within a further 20 business days, and it must be raised within 20 business days of the stage-one outcome.

If that process does not resolve things, the next step depends on who instructed Thoburns in the first place: the relevant council's own complaints officer, or the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for a council tax or business rates matter, since the Ombudsman can look at an agent collecting on a council's behalf but not one acting directly for a court, and the Enforcement Conduct Board where the underlying debt is a magistrates' court fine instead. (thoburns.co.uk/complaints-handling-procedure/, accessed 2026-08-22) A dispute over an individual agent's own certificate is a separate application to the county court that issued it.

Record dates, keep correspondence and photographs, and note down who was spoken to at each stage.

What to do now

1. Work out which debt and which creditor is involved: council tax, business rates, commercial rent, or a court fine.
2. If it is a court fine, contact the issuing court urgently, rather than treating it as an ordinary billing dispute.
3. Check the stage reached and the fees charged against the tables above, and apply regulation 11 if more than one debt is involved.
4. If the debt is wrong, write to the creditor today, not only to Thoburns.
5. If it is correct but unaffordable, put together real figures and make a realistic offer.
6. If vulnerability applies, say so now, in writing.