A police officer’s guide to UK Bailiffs operations

Immediate reference points

Authority depends on the job being carried out

Not every UK Bailiffs attendance uses a warrant, and not every attendance is carried out under Schedule 12. The officer should identify the instruction and the authority applicable to that specific job.

Who may be attending

Bailiff, enforcement-agent and property roles

“Bailiff” is commonly used as a general term. The legal authority depends on the instruction, not simply the job title printed on an identity card.

Certification is relevant where the law requires a certificated enforcement agent. Possession of a certificate does not itself authorise every form of property or possession work.

Taking control of goods

Schedule 12 entry, controlled goods and obstruction

Entry without a warrant

Paragraph 14 of Schedule 12 permits an enforcement agent to enter relevant premises to search for and take control of goods. For CRAR, the relevant premises under paragraph 14 are the demised premises. Regulation 20 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 restricts ordinary entry under paragraphs 14, 15 and 16 to a door or another usual means of entry.

Schedule 12 does not create a general power to force entry in every case. Reasonable force is available only in the limited situations identified by paragraphs 17 to 19A or where a court warrant specifically authorises it.

Taking control and removing goods

Where the enforcement power is exercisable and entry is lawful, Schedule 12 permits an enforcement agent to take control of eligible debtor goods using a statutory method, including securing goods on the premises, entering a controlled-goods agreement, immobilising goods or removing them for storage or sale.

Paragraph 68 offences

Paragraph 68 creates two offences:

• intentionally obstructing a person who is lawfully acting as an enforcement agent; and
• intentionally interfering, without lawful excuse, with controlled goods.

The words “lawfully acting”, “intentionally” and “without lawful excuse” are elements of the relevant offence. They should be assessed from the authority and evidence available at the scene.

A heated objection, refusal to make a voluntary payment or unresolved ownership dispute is not automatically a paragraph 68 offence. Equally, describing an incident as “civil” does not prevent a criminal offence from arising where its elements are present.

When an incident is reported

When police attend a UK Bailiffs operation

Police attend independently and make their own assessment. Our officer should cooperate, identify themselves, state the instruction and explain the authority relied upon.

• We do not ask police to collect a debt, decide a civil dispute or create authority for our action.
• We may request assistance where there is violence, a threat to safety, criminal damage or suspected obstruction of a lawfully acting enforcement agent.
• Our control team can confirm the officer’s identity, client, instruction and available documents.
• Where facts are disputed, our officer should preserve notices, body-worn video, photographs and contemporaneous notes.

Police attendance neither adds to nor removes UK Bailiffs’ civil or enforcement authority. Our personnel have no special immunity from the ordinary law, and the police retain their own independent duties and powers.

Debt-enforcement safeguards

Children, vulnerable people and entry safeguards

Three different layers should not be confused: the statutory restriction on taking control of goods, the Ministry of Justice National Standards, and UK Bailiffs’ own operating safeguards.

Statutory restriction — Regulation 10

Regulation 10 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 prevents an enforcement agent from taking control of the debtor’s goods where the debtor is a child, or where a child or vulnerable person is the only person present in the relevant premises in which the goods are located. Regulation 10 also prevents control of an item in use where doing so would be likely to result in a breach of the peace.

Ministry of Justice National Standards

• Paragraph 72 says enforcement agents must withdraw from domestic premises if the only person present is, or appears to be, under 16 or is deemed vulnerable; they may ask when the debtor will be home if appropriate.
• Paragraph 73 says enforcement agents must withdraw without making enquiries where the only persons present appear to be under 12.

UK Bailiffs’ operational safeguard

• Appears under 12: withdraw without further enquiries.
• Appears under 16 and alone: withdraw; where appropriate, ask when a parent, guardian or the person sought will be available.
• Immediate welfare concern: withdraw to a safe position and use the appropriate safeguarding or emergency route.

The National Standards guide professional conduct but expressly do not replace legislation, codes of practice or local agreements.

Land and unauthorised encampments

Private-land recovery and police powers are separate

A landowner’s civil recovery of private land does not depend on police choosing to exercise a discretionary statutory power. Conversely, an instruction from a landowner does not transfer CJPOA police powers to UK Bailiffs or another private agent.

Under section 61, the current Home Office guidance describes the principal conditions as two or more trespassers with the purpose of residing, reasonable steps by or for the occupier to ask them to leave, and either relevant damage, disruption or distress or six or more vehicles. Exercise of the power remains a police decision.

Current law from 2026: the prohibited return period under the relevant unauthorised-encampment provisions is three months. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 reduced it from 12 months.

Any private vehicle recovery or towing must have its own lawful basis. Police seizure powers under the CJPOA are not conferred on UK Bailiffs merely because we have been instructed to recover private land.

Possession without overstatement

Excluded occupiers and commercial forfeiture

Excluded tenancies and licences

Section 3A of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 defines excluded tenancies and licences. Whether an arrangement falls within an excluded category depends on the actual facts and agreement, not merely the description used by the landlord, licensor or housing provider.

Where an agreement is genuinely excluded and the right to occupy has ended following the notice required by law or contract, a possession order may not be required. That does not authorise violence, criminal damage or conduct outside the person entitled to possession’s lawful rights.

Commercial lease forfeiture

A commercial landlord may, where the right has arisen and remains exercisable, forfeit a lease by peaceable re-entry without first obtaining a possession order. The position depends on the lease, breach, any notice required under section 146 of the Law of Property Act 1925, waiver and the circumstances at the premises.

Section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 restricts the use or threat of violence to secure entry where a person on the premises is opposed to entry, subject to the precise statutory terms. UK Bailiffs plans forfeiture attendance for a time when the commercial premises are expected to be unoccupied.

UK Bailiffs can confirm the attending officer, client, premises, instruction and asserted authority. A contested question about the ultimate validity of forfeiture may require determination by a court.

Identity and case confirmation

How UK Bailiffs can verify an attendance

Depending on the job and what is held, UK Bailiffs may be able to provide or confirm:

• photographic identification and the officer’s employer details;
• the creditor, landlord, landowner, housing provider or instructing solicitor;
• the writ, warrant, order, enforcement-power details, lease provision or written instruction relied upon;
• relevant notices, inventories, controlled-goods agreements, authority forms or possession documents;
• the enforcement-agent certificate where certification is relevant; and
• body-worn video, vehicle video, photographs, CCTV and contemporaneous attendance records where available.

Where certification is relevant, the agent can also be checked on the Ministry of Justice Certificated Enforcement Agent Register.

Live UK Bailiffs verification: call 0330 133 1818 and provide the officer’s name, vehicle registration or case reference where available.

Operational questions

Police and bailiff powers: frequently asked questions