Since 1 May 2026 an enforcement agent must give you 14 clear days’ notice before taking control of your goods — double the old seven — and 28 clear days if a debt adviser asks for the extension. The fees rose the same day: £79 when your case is handed over, £247 the first time an agent attends, £116 at sale. On a £600 council tax debt that is £442 of fees on top. What did not change is the thing that matters most: for council tax, an enforcement agent still cannot force their way into your home.
This is the law in England and Wales, and it is more on your side than most people think. Below: fees, entry, exempt goods, vulnerability, the council tax route, Breathing Space, complaints, and where the promised statutory regulator has got to. Scotland and Northern Ireland come at the end.
What changed on 1 May 2026
The rules date from 6 April 2014. Apart from temporary coronavirus changes in 2020 and 2021, the notice period and the fees were left alone until the Taking Control of Goods (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026 came into force on 1 May 2026.
- The notice period doubled. Regulation 6 now requires notice “not less than 14 clear days before the enforcement agent takes control of the debtor’s goods”. Sundays, bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day do not count, so it is usually longer than a fortnight.
- A debt adviser can extend it to 28 clear days, if the request is made before the notice period expires. Not for non-eligible business debt.
- The notice must now tell you free advice exists, give contact details, and say the longer period can be requested.
- Fees rose about 5 per cent — the first rise since 2014 — and the balance at which the percentage fee starts rose by roughly a quarter.
- The £520 second enforcement stage got harder to reach. In High Court cases it now bites only where the debtor does not pay in full or agree a repayment arrangement or controlled goods agreement, or breaks one.
Announcing the package on 9 June 2025, the Ministry of Justice said the longer notice “will give people more time to access debt advice, and/or set up a payment agreement”. A saving provision means none of it affects enforcement action taken before 1 May 2026.
The fees, and exactly when each one lands
Fees are fixed by law, not by the firm. The amounts sit in the Schedule to the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014: three stages for ordinary debts such as council tax, four under a High Court writ.
| Stage | What triggers it | Fixed fee | Extra percentage fee | High Court writ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compliance | Agent is instructed and sends the notice. No visit needed. | £79.00 | None | £79.00 |
| Enforcement | The agent’s first attendance at your premises. | £247.00 | 7.5% of the sum above £1,900 | £200.00, plus 7.5% above £1,200 |
| Second enforcement | High Court cases only — a further attendance to remove goods. | Does not apply | — | £520.00 |
| Sale or disposal | Attendance to transport goods to sale, or preparing a sale on site. | £116.00 | 7.5% of the sum above £1,900 | £550.00, plus 7.5% above £1,200 |
Two details matter more than the numbers. The £79 compliance fee is charged before anyone knocks, so paying during the notice period stops the bill there. And the £247 fee attaches to the first attendance, not a successful one: an agent who calls while you are out and posts a letter has triggered it.
The percentage fee is worked out on the debt, not on the fees. Take a £600 council tax debt that has been through the magistrates’ court. Compliance takes it to £679, a first attendance to £926, sale to £1,042 — £442 of fees on a £600 debt, just under 74 per cent, all of it avoidable at the notice stage. On a £3,000 debt the percentage bites: £79, then £329.50, then £198.50 — total fees £607.
One protection is easy to miss, and it has a sting. Where an agent is instructed on several enforcement powers against the same debtor that “can reasonably be exercised at the same time”, regulation 11 of the fees regulations lets the compliance fee be charged on each, but the fixed enforcement and sale fees “may be recovered only once”. Charged £247 four times for one visit? Challenge it. The sting is that the percentage fee is then calculated on “the total amount of the sums to be recovered under all enforcement powers”, so several small liability orders can cross the £1,900 line together when none would alone.
When an enforcement agent can come in — and when they cannot
The gap between belief and law is widest here. For council tax, business rates, parking penalties and county court judgments, entry to a home must be peaceable. GOV.UK’s guidance on bailiff powers when they visit your home states the limits plainly: they cannot enter “by force, for example by pushing past you”, cannot enter “if only children under 16 or vulnerable people (with disabilities, for example) are present”, cannot enter “between 9pm and 6am”, and cannot enter “through anything except the door”.
Peaceable does not mean invited. An unlocked door is an invitation in law, which is why Citizens Advice’s guidance on stopping bailiffs at your door is blunt: “Make sure your doors are locked — bailiffs are allowed to come in through unlocked doors.” The same page notes they “can’t bring a locksmith to help them get in”. You can talk through the door and pay on the doorstep without letting anyone in.
The exceptions that do allow force
They are narrow, and do not cover council tax. GOV.UK says agents “are allowed to force their way into your home to collect unpaid criminal fines, Income Tax or Stamp Duty, but only as a last resort”. A court can also issue a warrant permitting reasonable force, but only on the conditions in regulation 28: an HMRC debt, or goods “deliberately removed in order to avoid control being taken of them”.
Controlled goods agreements
If an agent gets in and you cannot clear the debt on the spot, you will be asked to sign a controlled goods agreement: a list of possessions that stay in your house but are legally under the agent’s control, plus a payment plan. Signing does not undo the fees already incurred. Break it and the agent can serve notice of intention to re-enter and come back for the listed goods.
What they cannot take
The exempt list in regulation 4 is broader than people assume. It protects “items or equipment (for example, tools, books, telephones, computer equipment and vehicles) which are necessary for use personally by the debtor in the debtor’s employment, business, trade, profession, study or education”, capped at £1,350 in aggregate — though that category is switched off entirely for business rates and HMRC debts. It also protects a cooker or microwave, a fridge, a washing machine, beds, a table and enough chairs for the household, medical and care equipment, heating and lighting, and anything needed to care for a child, a disabled person or an older person. Assistance dogs and domestic pets are exempt outright, as is a vehicle displaying a valid disabled person’s badge and used to carry a disabled person.
Goods belonging to someone else are not available, but the burden of proving it falls on you, so keep receipts to hand. Goods on hire purchase are usually out of reach too, though that law is complicated and worth advice.
Vulnerability: what the rules actually give you
The Ministry of Justice’s Taking Control of Goods: National Standards lists who may be vulnerable: “the elderly; people with a disability; the seriously ill; the recently bereaved; single parent families; pregnant women; unemployed people; and, those who have obvious difficulty in understanding, speaking or reading English”. Agents “must withdraw from domestic premises if the only person present is, or appears to be, under the age of 16 or is deemed to be vulnerable”.
Be clear-eyed: it says of itself, “We recognise this document is not legally binding.” The binding protection is narrower and sits in regulation 12 of the fees regulations: where the debtor is a vulnerable person, the enforcement stage fee and its disbursements “are not recoverable unless the enforcement agent has, before proceeding to remove goods which have been taken into control, given the debtor an adequate opportunity to get assistance and advice”. Tell the firm in writing, early, what the vulnerability is. The Enforcement Conduct Board published Vulnerability and Ability to Pay Standards in March 2026 that take effect in January 2027; until then, the National Standards and regulation 12 are what you have.
Council tax: the route that produces most visits
The Enforcement Conduct Board’s 2026 insight report records almost 3.7 million cases passed to enforcement in the six months to 30 June 2025, worth almost £2.2 billion, of which council tax was 64 per cent by value.
The escalation is fast and largely automatic. GOV.UK’s guide to Council Tax arrears sets it out: miss an instalment and the council sends a reminder giving seven days; “if you do not pay within 7 days, you’ll have to pay the whole year’s Council Tax instead”. You get two reminders a year at most. Then a final notice, a summons, and a magistrates’ court liability order — “a legal demand for payment” — with the council’s costs added. With that order the council can take money from your wages, take deductions from Universal Credit, Pension Credit, ESA, Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance, or send enforcement agents. GOV.UK notes you can, in the last resort, be sent to prison for up to three months if a court decides you have no good reason for not paying and refuse to — a sanction Wales abolished in 2019, so in practice England only.
Losing the right to instalments is the moment the problem changes size: one missed payment becomes the whole remaining year. Our guide to being behind on council tax covers the negotiation, and check whether you should be paying less at all — Council Tax Reduction and the discounts and exemptions people fail to claim can cut the bill that caused the arrears.
What changes in April 2027, in England
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s response on modernising council tax administration, published 15 April 2026, says the government “will therefore extend the timeframe before a person loses the right to pay in instalments, until at least 63 days after the first missed payment”, so “enforcement will not begin until at least 3 payments have been missed”, and “will set a cap of £100 on the costs that councils can charge for seeking a liability order”. Label that accurately: a published decision, not yet law. As at September 2026 the statutory instrument has still to be laid; it is intended to take effect from April 2027, and it applies to England.
Breathing Space: the pause almost nobody uses
In England and Wales a debt adviser can start a standard breathing space, giving “legal protections from creditor action for up to 60 days”: most enforcement paused, most interest and charges frozen, creditor contact stopped. A mental health crisis breathing space lasts as long as the crisis treatment plus 30 days. Council tax qualifies once that year’s instalments have fallen due and gone unpaid, or, once a reminder notice has been served, the rest of that year’s liability. You cannot apply yourself — one more reason to ring StepChange, National Debtline or Citizens Advice the day the notice arrives, not the day the agent does.
Work out what you can genuinely afford before you offer it
An offer you can keep beats a bigger one you cannot. Put your real income and outgoings on paper first.
Use the free budget planner →Five things an enforcement agent cannot do
- Break in for council tax. Forced entry is reserved for criminal fines and certain tax debts, or a court warrant on the narrow regulation 28 conditions.
- Come in through a window, or anything but the door.
- Arrest you or send you to prison. Only a magistrates’ court in England can commit someone for council tax.
- Charge whatever they like. The fee schedule is statutory; anything outside it must be a reasonable, evidenced disbursement.
- Take your child’s things, your pet or your neighbour’s car. Goods that are not the debtor’s are off limits.
And a debt collector chasing a credit card or catalogue debt is not an enforcement agent at all: no court authority, no power of entry. They can write, ring and knock, and that is all.
Who regulates enforcement agents — and where the promised regulator has got to
Honest answer: nobody, in the statutory sense. Individual agents must be certificated by a county court judge, and the fee and conduct rules above are law, but there is no statutory regulator of enforcement firms. What exists is the Enforcement Conduct Board, set up in 2022 by the industry and debt charities, which sets standards, accredits firms and takes complaints — voluntarily. Its insight report counts 55 accredited organisations as at November 2025, the 45 private firms among them covering around 97 per cent of the market.
The government wants to change this. Its consultation on regulation of the debt enforcement sector, which ran from 9 June to 21 July 2025, states that “the Government is minded to legislate to ensure oversight of the enforcement sector by an independent statutory regulator”, citing an independent review of body-worn camera footage that found breaches of government standards in around 6 per cent of cases, affecting an estimated 30,000 people a year. As at September 2026 it remains an intention: the consultation page carries no outcome, and in a letter to the Justice Committee dated 26 March 2026 the courts minister placed statutory regulation in a separate, wider programme with next steps to be announced. The fee and notice changes are law; mandatory oversight of every firm is not.
How to complain, and in what order
Order matters: skipping a step gets you sent back. Start with the firm, in writing — dates, times, the agent’s name and certificate number, and what you want put right.
- The creditor. GOV.UK’s guidance on how to complain about a bailiff says to go to the council or Transport for London, then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The council instructed the agent and stays answerable.
- The Enforcement Conduct Board. Second-tier, accredited firms only, after the firm has had its chance. Its complaints guidance covers action taken on or after 1 January 2025, and it can recommend redress.
- The county court. For a certificated agent, form EAC2 goes to the court where the agent is registered. The court can remove the certificate or order compensation. Free, but costs can follow if it finds no reasonable grounds.
- Trade bodies. The Civil Enforcement Association and the High Court Enforcement Officers Association handle member complaints.
Scotland and Northern Ireland
None of this applies in Scotland, where enforcement is done by sheriff officers through diligence and an English agent has no power. For council tax a council obtains a summary warrant, which adds a charge equal to 10 per cent of the debt plus sheriff officer fees; a charge for payment then gives 14 days before wages or a bank account can be arrested. Goods inside a home are better protected: they can be attached only under an exceptional attachment order granted by a sheriff, and essentials are excluded. Complaints go to the firm, then the Sheriff Principal or the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers.
Northern Ireland is different again: private firms do not do this work: the Enforcement of Judgments Office “is responsible for the enforcement of court judgments of money, goods and property”, using instalment orders, attachment of earnings, orders charging land and seizure orders. There is no council tax there; domestic rates are collected instead.
The four things to do first
- Check the debt. If you do not recognise it — a previous occupier, a wrongly ended single person discount — challenge it with the council before paying anyone.
- Use the notice period. Fourteen clear days is enough to get a debt adviser involved, ask for the 28-day extension, and stop the bill at £79 rather than £326.
- Offer what you can keep paying. A defaulted arrangement puts every fee back. Put real figures down with a budget planner, then offer in writing.
- Keep the doors locked and talk through them. You cannot be made to let anyone in for a council tax debt.
Frequently asked questions
How much notice do bailiffs have to give in 2026?
Fourteen clear days. Since 1 May 2026 the notice of enforcement must be given at least 14 clear days before an agent takes control of your goods, up from seven, and a debt advice provider can request an extension to 28 clear days. Sundays, bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day do not count towards the period.
Can bailiffs force entry for council tax?
No. Entry to a home must be peaceable: through the door, not by force, not between 9pm and 6am, and not where only children under 16 or vulnerable people are present. GOV.UK says force is allowed only for unpaid criminal fines, Income Tax or Stamp Duty, as a last resort. An unlocked door counts as peaceable entry.
How much are bailiff fees in 2026?
In England and Wales: £79 at the compliance stage when the case is passed over, £247 when an agent first attends, and £116 at the sale stage, plus 7.5 per cent of anything above £1,900 at each of the last two. On a £600 debt that is £442 of fees. Paying during the notice period caps it at £79.
What can bailiffs not take from my home?
Regulation 4 protects a cooker or microwave, a fridge, a washing machine, beds, a table and chairs, medical and care equipment and heating, plus work or study tools, books, computers and vehicles worth up to £1,350 in total. Pets, assistance dogs and a vehicle displaying a valid disabled person’s badge are exempt, as are goods belonging to someone else.
Are bailiff firms regulated in the UK?
Not by a statutory regulator. Individual agents are certificated by a county court, and fees and conduct are set in law, but oversight of firms is voluntary, through the Enforcement Conduct Board, which covered around 97 per cent of the market in November 2025. The government consulted in 2025 and is minded to legislate, but no response has been published.
Can Breathing Space stop enforcement agents?
It can. A standard breathing space gives up to 60 days of legal protection, pausing most enforcement and freezing most interest and charges; a mental health crisis breathing space lasts as long as the treatment plus 30 days. Council tax qualifies once that year’s instalments have fallen due. A debt adviser has to start it. England and Wales only.
Last reviewed: September 2026. The Taking Control of Goods regime described here applies in England and Wales only, with the fee and notice figures in force from 1 May 2026. The council tax collection timetable applies in England and Wales, but the April 2027 reforms to it, and imprisonment as a last-resort sanction, apply in England only. Scotland uses sheriff officers and diligence, and Northern Ireland uses the Enforcement of Judgments Office and has domestic rates rather than council tax. Figures come from legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK and Enforcement Conduct Board publications; worked examples are our own. This article is general information, not personal financial advice — check your own position, or get free help from MoneyHelper or Citizens Advice, before acting on it.
