Bailiff fees explained

In short

• Fees are set by law and are the same at every firm: £79, then £247, then £116, for cases from 1 May 2026.
• The £79 is added as soon as the firm gets your case. Sorting it out before a visit stops the £247.
• Only one enforcement fee can be charged however many times they visit.
• Each fee you think is wrong can be challenged, with the firm, your council, the Enforcement Conduct Board and the court.

Enforcement agent fees on a council tax debt are set by the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014. They are fixed by law. A firm cannot invent a fee, round one up, or charge for a stage it has not reached.

Every firm charges the same. The name on your letter makes no difference to what you can be asked to pay.

The three fees

There are three stages, and a fee for each. Council tax always uses the scale for enforcement other than under a High Court writ.

The percentage part only applies to the amount above £1,900. On a debt of £1,500 there is no percentage at all.

The fees went up on 1 May 2026

The Taking Control of Goods (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026 raised every fee by about 5%, and raised the point where the percentage starts from £1,500 to £1,900.

Which scale applies depends on when the firm received your case. Cases received on or after 1 May 2026 use the new fees. Cases received before then stay on the old fees for as long as the case lasts, which is how the firms and their trade bodies apply the change.

If you do not know which applies, ask the firm in writing for the date it received the instruction. It has to be able to tell you.

The cheapest moment is the first letter

The compliance fee is added the moment your council passes the account to the firm, before anybody has been near your home. A letter arrives and the debt is already £79 larger.

That letter is the cheapest point you will ever have. Deal with it before anyone visits and £79 is all you pay in fees. Let it reach a visit and £247 more is added. That one step is the biggest avoidable cost in the whole council tax recovery process.

A worked example

You owe £900 in council tax and your council passes it to enforcement agents in June 2026.

• Before enforcement agents £900
• Compliance stage: the first letter £979
• Enforcement stage: an agent visits £1,226
• Sale stage: goods removed £1,342

The debt has grown by about half, and none of it was inevitable. On bigger debts the percentage adds more: on £3,000, the 7.5% applies to the £1,100 above £1,900, adding £82.50 at the enforcement stage and again at the sale stage.

You have at least 14 clear days before a visit

Before an agent can visit to take control of goods, you must be sent a notice of enforcement. Since 1 May 2026 it must give you at least 14 clear days, up from 7.

Clear days do not count the day the notice is sent or the day of the visit. Sundays, bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day do not count either. So 14 clear days is usually about two and a half weeks.

Two things were added in 2026 that are worth knowing:

• The notice must tell you about free debt advice and how to contact a debt advice provider.
• A debt adviser can ask for more time. If a debt advice provider asks on your behalf before the notice runs out, the period must be extended to at least 28 clear days. Council tax counts, because it is not a business debt.

If an agent visited before the notice period ran out, the visit was not allowed and the enforcement fee should not have been charged. Say so in writing.

One enforcement fee, however many visits

Fees are charged per case, not per visit. One enforcement fee covers every visit from the first until a sale begins. If your breakdown shows the enforcement fee twice, it is wrong, and you should challenge it.

More than one liability order

If you owe council tax for more than one year, there is usually a liability order for each year. When the firm receives several orders against you at the same time, the rules are:

• A compliance fee can be charged for each order. Three orders can mean three compliance fees. That on its own is not overcharging.
• The enforcement fee and sale fee are charged only once, where the orders can reasonably be dealt with at the same time, such as on the same visit.
• The 7.5% is worked out on the combined debt, not on each order separately.

How your payments are split

When you pay something towards a debt that has fees on it, the law sets the order in which the money is used:

1. The compliance fee is paid first.
2. Anything left is split in proportion between the council tax and the remaining fees.

If goods are sold, the auction costs come out of the sale money before anything else. You cannot choose to pay off the council tax and leave the fees, or the other way round.

Other costs that can be added

The three fees cover the agent’s work. A small number of other costs, called disbursements, can be added in limited cases, mainly at the sale stage:

• auction costs, capped at 15% of the sale price at an auction house, or 7.5% for a sale elsewhere or online
• storage of goods that have been removed
• a locksmith, where one was lawfully needed to get in or to secure goods
• court fees for any application the court granted

Every cost must be itemised. A charge for a letter, a phone call, a text or a “van” is not allowed.

VAT should not normally be added to fees on a council tax debt. VAT is only passed on to you where the creditor is not registered for VAT, and councils are.

Fees you should never see

• A second enforcement fee for another visit on the same case
• An enforcement fee where no agent actually visited
• An enforcement fee for a visit made before your notice period ran out
• A percentage fee on a debt below the threshold
• A charge for letters, calls or texts
• Fees of any kind where there was no valid liability order, or the agent was not certificated

If you are vulnerable

Where you are vulnerable, the enforcement fee, and any costs linked to it, cannot be recovered unless the agent gave you a proper chance to get help and advice before removing any goods.

Vulnerability is deliberately not defined in a closed list. It generally includes serious or long-term illness, disability, mental health problems, recent bereavement, pregnancy, and being a single parent of very young children. Age can be relevant alongside other things.

If this applies to you, say so in writing straight away, to the firm and to your council. Councils have their own duties here and will often take an account back rather than defend it.

How to challenge a fee

Put it in writing, and keep a copy of everything.

1. 1

   Step 1

   Complain to the enforcement firm

   In writing. Say what went wrong, what you want done, and include your evidence.

2. 2

   At the same time

   Tell your council

   The firm acts on the council’s behalf. The council can remove fees or take the debt back.

3. 3

   After 20 days, or a final answer

   Enforcement Conduct Board

   The independent oversight body for accredited firms. Free. Within 3 months of the problem, or 1 month of the firm’s final answer, whichever is later.

4. 4

   After the council’s complaints process

   Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

   Or the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, about how the council handled it.

5. 5

   If fees are wrong

   The county court

   Can assess disputed fees, and hear claims for damages where the rules were broken.

When you write to the firm, say exactly which fee you think is wrong and why, and ask for:

• a full breakdown showing every fee, when it was added and which stage it relates to
• the date the firm received your case, so you know which scale applies
• refunds of any fee wrongly taken, not just removal from the balance

The county court can decide any dispute about the amount of fees on an application. It is rarely needed, but firms know it exists.

Getting the account back from the bailiffs

Challenging fees is worth doing, but the bigger prize is usually getting the account recalled by your council. The debt belongs to the council, the firm collects it on the council’s behalf, and the council can take it back at any point.

Councils do this more often than people expect, especially where there is vulnerability, where the account was passed over by mistake, or where a realistic offer is put to them directly, in writing. See special payment arrangements for how to build an offer that holds.

Questions people ask

• A bailiff is at the door. What should I do?
• Bailiffs and vulnerable people
• Can bailiffs force entry?
• Can bailiffs refuse a payment plan?
• Can bailiffs take my car?
• Can bailiffs take things that are not mine?
• How many times can a bailiff visit?
• How to stop bailiffs for council tax
• Notice of enforcement: what the letter means and what to do
• What happens if bailiffs have nothing to take?
• What is a bailiff? Enforcement agents explained
• What stops bailiffs? Debt Relief Orders, IVAs and Breathing Space
• What time can bailiffs come, and do they work weekends?
• When do bailiffs get involved, and do they need a court order?

Questions people often ask

Who pays bailiff fees?

You do. The fees are added to your council tax debt, and the firm collects them from you, not from the council. That is why dealing with the account before a visit saves so much.

Do I have to pay bailiff fees?

If they have been charged correctly, yes. But check them: each fee should match the stage reached, and only one enforcement fee can be charged per case. If you are vulnerable, the enforcement fee cannot be recovered unless you were first given a proper chance to get advice. A fee charged wrongly can be challenged with the firm, your council, and then the Enforcement Conduct Board.

Can a bailiff firm charge more than these fees?

No. The fees are fixed by law. A firm can only add the listed disbursements, such as auction or storage costs, and only where they genuinely arose.

I have three compliance fees on my account. Is that allowed?

If the firm received three liability orders, yes, it can charge a compliance fee for each. What it cannot do is charge the enforcement fee more than once where the orders were dealt with together.

They came three times. Can they charge for each visit?

No. One enforcement fee covers every visit on the same case.

If I pay part of what I owe, does it go on the council tax or the fees?

The compliance fee is paid first. After that, each payment is split between the council tax and the other fees in proportion.

Is VAT added to bailiff fees?

Not normally on council tax, because councils are registered for VAT.