Enforcement agents

This fact sheet is aimed primarily at anyone who is experiencing problems with a bailiff employed by a council or other enforcing authority and may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.

Enforcement agents are what were more commonly known as bailiffs. We will use the term bailiff in this factsheet.

I have a complaint against a bailiff. Can the Ombudsman help me?

In some cases, yes – where the bailiff is acting on behalf of the council. Whether or not we can investigate such complaints varies and this fact sheet can only provide a brief guide.

If your complaint concerns the bailiffs’ actions in collecting council tax, business rates or traffic enforcement penalties then we can normally investigate your complaint. We cannot investigate complaints about the actions of bailiffs in recovering other debt because the bailiff is acting directly for the courts.

If your complaint concerns a bailiff who is evicting you from your home, we cannot investigate this. The bailiff will be acting for the court and complaints about eviction by a council or housing association are considered by the Housing Ombudsman Service.

In some cases you could take the matter to court and we might expect you to do this. The courts can decide whether a bailiff's costs or actions are either excessive or unreasonable (such as the removal of too many goods, or making undue threats). Only the courts can resolve disputes about the ownership of goods the bailiff has removed. However, as long as you havenot started legal action on the point in question, we may choose to investigate.

How do I complain?

You should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint. The council may ask the bailiff to consider your complaint first to see if they can resolve it. If you are still dissatified, the council should then consider your complaint.

Then, if you are unhappy with the final outcome, or the council is taking too long to look into the matter – we think 12 weeks is reasonable – you can complain to us.

Usually, you should complain to us within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem. If you leave it any later, we may not be able to help. 

For more information on how to complain, please read our step by step process.

If you consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?

We consider each complaint on its merits. We consider if the bailiffs did something wrong (this is the council’s responsibility because the bailiffs act on the council’s behalf); and whether the council did something wrong in the way it used the bailiffs. We then consider if this caused you problems. Some  issues we could look at are whether:

  • there has been an unreasonable delay in taking action
  • the bailiffs have followed the proper procedure
  • the bailiff has used ‘threatening behaviour’ – although we will need to take account of the fact that the arrival of anyone to take your goods can be seen as threatening (no matter how polite they may be)
  • the bailiffs properly responded to a potentially vulnerable person
  • the bailiff has charged the correct costs and fees.

What happens if the Ombudsman finds that the council was at fault?

It depends on what went wrong and how that affected you. We aim to put you back in the position you have been had the fault not happened.

  • Where we find fault with a council’s actions, we often ask them to make a meaningful apology. We may also ask the council to pay you a financial remedy for the problems caused to you and for the time, trouble or expense you have been put to in making your complaint.
  • Where we find fault with the council’s procedures we will often recommend the council introduces changes so the same problem will not happen again.

Examples of some complaints we have considered

Mr X received four parking tickets, which he did not pay. The council later obtained a warrant to recover the debts, which it passed to a bailiff. The bailiff visited Mr X’s parents’ house, where he lived at the time. This was the ‘enforcement’ stage of the debt recovery, for which the bailiff charged £235. The bailiff refused to show Mr X’s parents the warrant showing their authority to act despite legislation stating they must do so on request. Mr X’s parents paid the debt plus the enforcement charge.
We found the bailiff was at fault for failing to show Mr X’s parents the warrant when requested. We decided this meant the bailiff had not properly carried out the enforcement stage of the debt recovery and therefore recommended the council should refund the £235 and apologise.

Miss J complained about the way the council pursued her for unpaid council tax amounting to around £2,500. Miss J accrued the council tax debt between 2008 and 2009. She then moved out of the Council’s area and its attempts to recover the debt in 2009 failed. In April 2022, the Council instructed bailiffs who wrote to Miss J warning that if she did not pay the debt, they would visit to seize her belongings. The bailiffs explained this would add an enforcement fee to her debt.
Miss J did not pay the debt, so the bailiffs visited her home. They left when she explained she disputed the debt and the Council put a temporary hold on enforcement while Miss J complained to us.
Miss J told us she accepted she owed the debt but was unhappy the council had decided to recover it after 13 years. We found the Council was entitled to pursue the debt from 2008-2009. We found the bailiffs acted without fault in the actions they took to recover the debt. We did not uphold Miss J’s complaint.

Other sources of information

There is a ‘trade’ body for private bailiff firms – the Civil Enforcement Association. It has a code of conduct a list of members on its website at www.civea.co.uk.

You can also obtain free advice from Citizens Advice - you can find the nearest branch by using its website at  www.citizensadvice.org.uk

The National Debtline services include a helpline that provides free, confidential and independent advice on your rights and how to deal with debt problems, including information about bailiffs and council tax collection. You can contact the National Debtline free on: 0808 808 4000, Monday - Friday 9am - 8pm and Saturday 9.30am - 1pm, and obtain further information from its website www.nationaldebtline.org

Call the Housing Ombudsman Service on 0300 111 3000 or see their website at www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk

Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please phone 0300 061 0614.

We provide a free, independent and impartial service. We consider complaints about the administrative actions of councils and some other authorities. We cannot question what a council has done simply because someone does not agree with it. If we find something has gone wrong, such as poor service, service failure, delay or bad advice and that a person has suffered as a result we aim to get it put right by recommending a suitable remedy.

April 2023

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