New fees scale ‘could be abused by bailiff firms’

The new simplified fees scale for debt recovery could be open to abuse by unscrupulous bailiffs, according to Alan Wood, director of development at bailiff firm Whyte & Co.

The new fees, which come into effect on 6 April, will apply to all types of non-High Court debt while High Court debt will have its own set of fees. Under the changes there will be three enforcement stages for non-High Court debt: the ‘compliance’ stage fee will be £75; ‘enforcement’ stage fee £235; and ‘sale’ or ‘disposal’ stage £110.

Wood welcomed the new scale, which he believes is more transparent than the myriad fees that debtors used to face. But he warned there was ambiguity over when a bailiff firm would be able to apply the sale stage. “The new regulations are not without their flaws and, as always, the devil is in the detail, or should I say interpretation.”

He said that some firms may operate outside the “spirit” of the new regulations and apply the sale fee at the same time as the enforcement fee on every visit, rather than at the actual point of removal. “The legislation allows for the sale fee to be applied during the enforcement stage, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. Some firms may try to introduce the combining of the two stages as a matter of course.”

Wood urged councils to closely monitor how and when the fees are applied at each stage. “Local authorities should monitor what percentage of cases their bailiff partners are recovering at each stage. If one firm is showing a much higher percentage of cases at sales fee stage compared with other contractors this might suggest they are acting improperly.”