$500 idea · Pattern break · United Kingdom · Edition 002
Priced for 1% of High Court cases, the letter-only stage now settles 24%.
When the Ministry of Justice built the 2014 bailiff fee scale it assumed almost everyone would need a visit: its model put 1% of High Court cases settling at the compliance stage, the stage that is one posted letter. By 2022 the figure was 23.9%, and 34% outside the High Court. On 1 May 2026 that letter was repriced at £79 — and the same instrument doubled the notice period to 14 clear days, pushing still more cases into it.
The Taking Control of Goods (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026 were read, almost universally, as a debtor-protection measure. They are. Regulation 2 takes the minimum notice period from 7 clear days to 14, and to 28 where a debt advice provider asks for it; regulation 7 makes the notice tell the debtor that free advice exists. Sarah Sackman MP KC signed it on behalf of the Lord Chancellor and it came into force on 1 May 2026.
Regulation 3 of the same instrument is where the money is. The compliance stage — the fee earned on service of the Notice of Enforcement, before anyone travels anywhere — went from £75 to £79. The enforcement stage, which requires an agent, a vehicle and a visit, went from £235 to £247. MoJ’s own 2023 review says the scale was calibrated to “a level reasonably likely to achieve a pre-tax profit margin of 10% per case”, averaged across a mix of outcomes that has been drifting away from the visit for a decade. Between January and June 2025 the industry took in almost 3.7 million cases: 64% road traffic and parking, 23% council tax. Every one of them opens with a letter.
Now the part nobody put in a headline. Regulation 6(1B) says the 28-day extension does not apply where the debt is non-eligible business debt. Consumer enforcement can be slowed to four weeks by a phone call to a debt adviser. Commercial debt cannot be slowed at all. And under section 72 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, a commercial landlord recovering rent does not need a judgment, a court order or a hearing — only a certificated enforcement agent and a notice. The 2026 reform made the consumer book slower and left the commercial book running at full speed, on the same fee scale.
The evidence
10 findingsOne letter is now worth £79. One visit adds £247.
The Taking Control of Goods (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026 substitute the fee tables in the 2014 Fees Regulations. Non-High Court: compliance £79.00, enforcement £247.00, sale £116.00, with 7.5% on sums above £1,900 (was £1,500). High Court: compliance £79.00, first enforcement £200.00, second enforcement £520.00, sale £550.00, 7.5% above £1,200. Made by the Lord Chancellor, signed by Sarah Sackman MP KC, Minister of State. Regulation 3 · the instrument
“Does not apply where the debt is non-eligible business debt.”
Regulation 6(1) of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 moves from 7 clear days’ notice to 14. New paragraph (1A) requires a minimum of 28 clear days where a debt advice provider asks on the debtor’s behalf. New paragraph (1B) excludes non-eligible business debt from that extension, borrowing the definition from regulation 5(6)(d) of the Breathing Space Regulations 2020. Consumer debt can be stretched to four weeks; commercial debt cannot be stretched at all. Regulation 2
The model said 1%. The outturn was 23.9%.
“23.9% of cases settled in 2022 were resolved at the compliance stage, compared to 20% of settled cases in 2018” in the High Court, against an original prediction that “only 1%” would. Outside the High Court the figure is “almost 40%” of settled cases. The response records 30 consultation responses, and the decision to drop the proposed 28-day notice period in favour of 14 clear days with a 28-day extension on request. Consultation response
Fees set for a 10% pre-tax margin per case, on a mix that keeps moving.
The MoJ review of the 2014 Fees Regulations states the scale was built to reach “a pre-tax profit margin of 10% per case”. It also gives the volumes: 4.1 million non-High Court cases in 2022 (4.3m at the 2019 peak) and 119,000 High Court cases. Compliance-stage settlements rose from 28% to 34% of settled non-High Court cases between 2018 and 2022, while enforcement-stage settlements fell from 70% to 65%. Contact named on the review: Samantha Toyn, Enforcement Team. Fee review (PDF)
3.7 million cases in six months — 64% of them parking.
The memorandum records that between 1 January and 30 June 2025 the enforcement industry received “almost 3.7 million cases”, 64% road traffic and parking and 23% council tax arrears. It describes the package as a 5% uplift to fixed fees and a 24% uplift to the percentage-fee thresholds, announced on 9 June 2025, alongside the notice-period extension and a restriction on escalating to the second enforcement stage in High Court cases. Explanatory Memorandum (PDF)
“A landlord under a lease of commercial premises may use the procedure in Schedule 12.”
Section 72 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, verbatim. No judgment, no claim form, no hearing: a commercial landlord instructs a certificated enforcement agent directly, and section 77 requires only that the rent is due, certain, and above the minimum net unpaid amount when the notice is given. Section 78 leaves the tenant to apply to court if it wants the notice set aside — the burden runs the other way from every other enforcement route. Sections 72–79
The gate is a certificate, and the £10,000 is a bond, not cash.
The Certification of Enforcement Agents Regulations 2014: a judge must be satisfied the applicant is “a fit and proper person” with “sufficient knowledge of the law and procedure relating to powers of enforcement by taking control of goods and of commercial rent arrears recovery”; regulation 6 requires security “totalling £10,000” lodged by way of bond; regulation 4 publishes the application for objections for at least 30 days; regulation 7 makes the certificate run two years. There is no prescribed qualification and no annual levy. Regulations 3–7
Named, dated, and searchable by anyone.
The Ministry of Justice publishes every certificated agent in England and Wales with the issuing court and expiry date. Charlie John Alfred Marchant, Dartford County Court, expires 08/06/2028 — a two-year certificate issued five weeks after the new fee scale took effect. Also on the register: Max Alan Carracher (Dartford, 10/11/2027), Daniel John Stewart (Southampton Combined Court Centre, 01/03/2028), Adam New Weavers (Oxford Combined Court, 20/04/2028), Theo Paul Andrew Pascoe (Manchester City Magistrates’ Court, 09/09/2027). The register
The one compulsory purchase just got cheaper: £20.00.
Form EAC1 requires a criminal record certificate “not more than one month old”, a certified copy of a search of the Register of Judgments, Orders, Fines and Tribunal decisions, two references, two photographs, and certified copies of nine prescribed enforcement forms. As of yesterday the basic DBS check costs £20.00, down from £21.50; the fee is given legal effect by a statutory instrument laid on 9 September 2026. DBS fee change · Form EAC1 (PDF)
Sixteen instructions a month is $5,000.
Rate: Wise mid-market, 6 October 2026. $500 ÷ 1.3250 = £377.36; $5,000 ÷ 1.3250 = £3,773.58 per month, or £45,282.96 a year. At the 2022 settlement mix the average settled case pays (0.34 × £79) + (0.65 × £326) + (0.01 × £442) = £26.86 + £211.90 + £4.42 = £243.18. £45,282.96 ÷ £243.18 = 186.2 instructions a year, 15.5 a month. On compliance fees alone: £45,282.96 ÷ £79 = 573.2 notices a year, 48 a month. Diagram: income per 1,000 settled cases = 1,000 × [£327.74 − £247s] under the new fees and 1,000 × [£311.65 − £235s] under the old, so at s = 0.01 it is £325,270 and £309,300, and at s = 0.34 it is £243,760 and £231,750 — an uplift of £12,010 against a mix loss of £81,510, or 14.7%.
The ladder
From $500 to $5,000 a month · £378 → £3,781$500 at 1.3250 is £377.36. The basic DBS certificate fell to £20.00 yesterday and must be less than a month old when the application is heard. Everything else on Form EAC1 — references, photographs, a Register of Judgments search, certified copies of the nine prescribed forms — is administration, not capital. The form leaves the court fee blank for HMCTS to fill in.
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Spend £20.00 of £377.36 on the only compulsory purchase.
$500 at 1.3250 is £377.36. The basic DBS certificate fell to £20.00 yesterday and must be less than a month old when the application is heard. Everything else on Form EAC1 — references, photographs, a Register of Judgments search, certified copies of the nine prescribed forms — is administration, not capital. The form leaves the court fee blank for HMCTS to fill in.
£377.36 − £20.00 = £357.36 still in hand -
Treat the £10,000 as a premium, not a balance.
Regulation 6 of SI 2014/421 requires security “totalling £10,000” lodged by way of bond. A bond is underwritten, not deposited — which is why the register fills with individuals rather than institutions. The certificate then runs two years under regulation 7, with a 30-day public objection window under regulation 4 and no prescribed qualification anywhere in the instrument.
£10,000 security ≠ £10,000 capital -
Point the certificate at commercial rent, not consumer debt.
Section 72 TCEA 2007 lets a commercial landlord use Schedule 12 directly. No judgment, no court order, no hearing. Regulation 6(1B) of the 2013 Regulations then excludes non-eligible business debt from the 28-day extension that consumer debt can now claim. The slowest route on the statute book and the fastest one are priced identically.
no court order · no 28-day extension -
Price the letter, not the van.
The compliance fee is earned on service of the Notice of Enforcement. Its marginal cost is postage. The enforcement fee is 3.1 times larger but consumes an agent-day, a vehicle and the risk of an empty doorstep — which is why the share of cases settling before anyone travels has climbed every year since 2014 and the MoJ’s own model missed it by a factor of 24.
£247 ÷ £79 = 3.1× the fee, ∞× the cost -
Take the percentage above £1,900, not below it.
Regulation 3 moved the threshold from £1,500 to £1,900 outside the High Court and £1,000 to £1,200 inside it. Below the threshold the fee is flat, so a £1,500 commercial rent arrear and a £300 one pay the same £79 on the notice. Above it, 7.5% compounds on a book of quarterly rent demands in a way it never does on parking.
7.5% × (arrear − £1,900) on top of £326 -
Sixteen instructions a month clears $5,000.
At the 2022 settlement mix — 34% on the letter, 65% on the visit, 1% at sale — the average settled case pays £243.18. £45,282.96 a year is 186 instructions, 15.5 a month. If the book runs letter-heavy, as commercial rent books do, it takes 48 notices a month on the £79 alone. One certificate, two years, no annual levy.
186 × £243.18 = £45,282.96/yr = £3,773.58/mo
Sources
12 primary documents- The Taking Control of Goods (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026, reg. 3 — fee tables — in force 1 May 2026
- SI 2026/366, reg. 2 — notice periods and the non-eligible business debt exclusion — in force 1 May 2026
- SI 2026/366 — the instrument as made — signed by Sarah Sackman MP KC, Minister of State
- Explanatory Memorandum to SI 2026/366 (PDF) — 3.7m cases Jan–Jun 2025
- Taking control of goods regulations: consultation response, Ministry of Justice — 9 June 2025
- Review of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 (PDF), Ministry of Justice — July 2023
- Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, ss. 72–79 — Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery
- The Certification of Enforcement Agents Regulations 2014, regs. 3–7
- Form EAC1 — Application for Certificate to act as an enforcement agent (PDF), HMCTS
- Certificated Enforcement Agent (Bailiff) Register, Ministry of Justice
- DBS reduces fees for checks and Update Service from 5 October 2026, GOV.UK — 5 October 2026
- GBP/USD mid-market rate, Wise — 1 GBP = 1.3250 USD, 6 October 2026