High Court Enforcement in Canterbury
Collecting a County Court Judgment
I have an unpaid County Court Judgment against a debtor
You have been to court and successfully obtained a County Court Judgment.
The debtor in Canterbury has ignored the court order and has not paid. The court have told me I need to arrange for this to be enforced.
How common are unpaid County Court Judgments?
Every year there are around 1,300,000 County Court judgments in England and Wales.
Judgments were going up prior to the pandemic, but in 2020 there was a reduction of almost 50%. In the October to December 2020 quarter there were 214,000 Judgments which was a 32% decrease on Judgments in the same quarter in 2019. This was probably due to the pandemic and this will very likely increase as the pandemic ends.
Around 50% of these judgments go unpaid and require enforcement.
What are the best methods of enforcement?
There are various methods of enforcement including attachment of earnings, and charging orders to mention two.
The most popular and usually the cheapest and most effective option is enforcement by bailiff via a High Court Enforcement Officer (HCEO).
If your judgment is below £600 you will need to use the County Courts own Bailiffs, but if the judgment is over £600 then you have a choice to use either the county court bailiff or a private bailiff via a High Court Enforcement Officer (HCEO). If your judgment is over £5,000 then you have no choice you must use a High Court Enforcement Officer (HCEO).
The High Court Enforcement Officer employs or contracts a bailiff to take control of the goods belonging to the defendant at the address you direct them to go to on the writ of control.
How do I get my money?
Transfer the CCJ to the High Court for collection.
High Court Enforcement is an effective option for collecting the money you are owed.
High Court Enforcement Officers have greater powers than County Court Bailiffs to collect the monies owed by the debtor.
Three Service Levels
We offer 3 service levels: Please note we cannot guarantee success on any case. We have to enforce the writs within the rules and regulations we work under.
- Bronze Service. The standard service. For customers only requiring basic email support during the transfer up and enforcement process, Updates are provided when things happen, such as agent visits.
- Silver Service. The supported service. For customers wanting telephone support and assistance during the transfer up and enforcement process. Silver service also offers additional benefits.
- Gold Service. The supported priority service. All the benefits of the silver service along with visits to the address on the writ being prioritised.
Bronze Service
Our standard service is suitable for:
- Individuals and businesses conducting their own litigation and legal matters and requiring not requiring support (requesting updates, asking questions). Updates are sent by email only if a significant event occurs.
- Individuals and businesses with experience dealing with debt recovery.
- Legal professionals.
Fee to instruct = £241.75
This is the administration fee of £108 (£90+vat), and the court transfer and execution fee £133.75. On successful collection the court transfer and execution fee is recovered from the debtor and returned to you.
The service
The Bronze service provides:
- Help with the transfer up of the CCJ to the High Court by helping to complete the forms and posting the paperwork to the court.
- Up to 3 free visits to one address to contact the debtor to collect payment or take control of goods.
- We aim to have the first visit completed within 40 days of the notice of enforcement expiring. If we are unable to collect after three visits any further visits are chargeable and are not recoverable from the defendants.
- Communication by email only of all significant actions.
Significant actions: These are the times you will receive an update.
- On receipt of instruction and payment we email confirmation of receipt and your case reference number. We aim to respond within 2 hours on an office business day.
- The case is passed to a qualified enforcement professional who will thoroughly check the case file to check for any obvious errors that may prevent or impede enforcement activities. We will run an insolvency check, complete a check of our database for prior writs we hold and check over your judgment for obvious issues. We aim to complete this procedure within 3 working days of your instruction being loaded. If we find any major issues we will contact you giving you the opportunity to ask us not to request the writ and therefore save yourself the £133.75 court transfer and execution fee. If you decide to cancel only the court transfer and execution fee can be refunded as the administration fee of £108 will still have been incurred as this is due upon instruction.
- We will have the N293A and other paperwork completed.
- For individual clients we will insert an electronic signature to complete and email the form to you to check and return. Or we will where possible get a third party solicitor to complete, sign and post this to the court.
- For limited company clients we will email the form to you to check, sign and return, or we will where possible get a third party solicitor to complete, sign and post this to the court.
- The signed N293A is sent to the court.
- When returned we will issue a Notice of Enforcement which gives the debtor approximately 14 days to pay (including postage time). We email confirmation of this.
- If the debt is not paid the Writ of Control is passed to one of our local Certificated Enforcement Agents.
- The Certificated Enforcement Agent is part of an experienced national team able to enforce by taking control of the goods of the debtor.
- The team will aim to recover your debt, interest on the debt, and all court costs and the statutory enforcement fees which are added to the debt when enforcement is successful. The admin fee and the Silver and Gold service fee is not recoverable from the debtor.
- You will be kept informed by our system as actions are taken.
- The first visit to the debtor will be within 40 days of this expiring.
- After each visit we email a basic report giving the outcome of the visit and what the next process is.
- After any communication from the court or important developments with the case we email an update.
Refunds: Please note the administration fee is none refundable once you instruct us in any circumstances as it pays for the admin of the case including the case upload, opening a ledger to receive and pay out money and issuing the Notice of enforcement to the debtor.
The court transfer and execution fee is only refundable if we have not passed this to the court as we simply pay this on your behalf.
Please note if we are unable to successfully recover your debt then an abortive fee is due to us by law of £94.80 (£79 plus vat).
Silver Service
Our Silver service is suitable for:
- Individuals and businesses that prefer telephone support with a named client liaison manager. If they are not available, they will aim to call back within 1 working day.
- Individuals and businesses that require telephone support and help during the transfer up and enforcement process.
- Individuals and businesses that have a difficult or complex case.
Fee to instruct = £439.75
This is the silver service fee of £198 (£165+vat), the administration fee of £108 (£90+vat), and the court transfer and execution fee £133.75. On successful collection the court transfer and execution fee is recovered from the debtor and returned to you.
The service
The Silver service includes all the benefits of bronze service and additional benefits:
- Updates by telephone with client liaison. (Set up so we can give you information over the telephone securely). If they are not available, they will aim to call back within 1 working day.
- A named client liaison manager.
- Up to 2 free traces.
- Up to 2 free DVLA checks.
- Up to 2 free HPI checks.
- Up to three visits across 2 different addresses.
- 20% discount on our fees for any court applications that you may want us to make (such as a break-in order, known as “A Warrant of Reasonable Force”), and additional traces.
Please note if we are unable to successfully recover your debt then an abortive fee is due to us by law of £94.80 (£79 plus vat).
Gold Service
Our Gold service is suitable for:
- Individuals and businesses that prefer telephone support with a named client liaison manager. If they are not available, they will aim to call back within 1 working day.
- Individuals and businesses that require telephone support and help during the transfer up and enforcement process.
- Individuals and businesses that have a difficult or complex case.
- Individuals and businesses that require their cases visited as soon as possible quicker than our standard times.
Fee to instruct = £739.75
This is the gold service fee of £498 (£415+vat), the administration fee of £108 (£90+vat), and court transfer and execution fee £133.75. On successful collection the court transfer and execution fee is recovered from the debtor and returned to you.
The service
The Gold service includes additional benefits:
- All the benefits of the extra support of the silver service.
- We aim to have the first visit to the address on the writ done within 7 working days where ever possible and legal to do so.
- We aim whenever possible to have the next two visits (where required) and legal to do so completed with 6 weeks of the first visit.
- The Gold service is not always available in all areas so please speak with one of the sales team to confirm that we can cover this service in the area the debtor is located.
Please note if we are unable to successfully recover your debt then an abortive fee is due to us by law of £94.80 (£79 plus vat).
Take the first step
Take the first step to recovering the money you are owed.
Contact our enforcement team for a free CCJ review.
| 0208 106 5397 |
| emailsales@frankgwhitworth.co.uk |
Outside business hours complete the form below and we will contact you the next business day.
Further information
To be able to transfer the County Court Judgment to the High Court the judgment value (including all costs) must be over £600.
HCEOs are able to enforce non-regulated debt judgments that are for over £600. HCEOs are not able to enforce debts that are regulated by the Consumer Credit Act.
FAQ on High Court Enforcement
It depends upon the type of property in Canterbury, the circumstances of the case, and if we have a separate court order allowing this.
If it is a Canterbury Commercial Property a bailiff can use force to enter commercial premises when authorised by the HCEO subject to certain conditions and usually an indemnity by the claimant.
If it is a Canterbury Residential Property a bailiff cannot normally use force to gain entry to a residential or mixed-use property other than in the following circumstance - they have previously gained entry peaceably and have a valid Controlled Goods Agreement in place.
The HCEO is able to apply to the court for a Warrant of Reasonable Force and if granted they can then use force. This can be used if the debtor refuses to cooperate and has goods in the property worth taking into control to satisfy the debt.
We offer up to 3 initial visits to make contact at one address free of charge when you pay the (£75 plus vat - £90 compliance fee) also known as the abortive fee. This fee is for the setting up of the file, the statutory checks, opening a ledger and issuing a notice of enforcement.
If you want us to visit any other addresses, provided they are not third-party addresses, we can. This will however cost a further £90 per address including vat. If you want further visits after the initial three then there is a cost but we can keep going back.
Apart from the costs we charge you up front we do not normally ask you to pay our enforcement fees.
Our bailiffs do charge you the scale of fees as set out by the Taking Control of Fees Regulations 2014. But these are recoverable from the defendant and charged on top of the debt and costs directly to the defendant.
The writ is live for a year. The Writ instructs the particular bailiff our HCEO appoints, to attend the address on the writ and take control of a debtor’s goods or collect full payment of the debt, costs, and fees.
We try and get this first stage done in as little as 40 days from receiving the writ.
It may not always be possible to remove the goods or collect a full payment, for instance:
- The bailiff could not access the goods because the debtor was not in, or was refused entry.
- The debtor had no goods or did not have sufficient goods.
If the bailiff could not access the goods because the debtor was not in and they did not subsequently contact the bailiff, then the bailiff will revisit 2 more times free of charge to attempt to catch someone in.
If they still cannot access the goods, the file will be returned for the HCEO or their senior team to review.
There are only around 50 High Court Enforcement Officers in the whole country.
Most enforcement companies share an officer with multiple companies. At Frank G Whitworth we are fortunate to have 2 Authorised High Court Enforcement Officers.
The High Court Enforcement Officers have access to our network of over 400 Bailiffs (Certificated Enforcement Agents) covering every postcode of England and Wales.
Frank G Whitworth has a long and prestigious History established in 1948 and has seen three generations of family within the business.
The Professionals
