Wigan Council has welcomed the introduction of the regulation of Enforcement Agents from 6 April 2014. Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 and the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 provide a very clear and easy to apply structure to enforcement action and a statutory fee structure.
Wigan Council currently uses the services of three firms of Enforcement Agents for the recovery of Council Tax and Business Rates debts. The new regulations mean that all Enforcement Agencies must comply with the regulations as a minimum standard and local authorities and the Enforcement Agency must not seek to circumvent the regulations in any way. However, local authorities can require the Enforcement Agencies they use to provide an additional level of service that aims to provide debtors with additional time or opportunities to engage with the Enforcement Agent at the compliance stage in order to allow them the opportunity to avoid their debt progressing to the Enforcement Stage where additional fees are incurred.
Wigan Council maintains Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) with each of the three Enforcement Agencies. These agreements contain a compliance strategy which stipulate the enhanced level of engagement the council expects the Enforcement Agency to undertake at the compliance stage for Council Tax debts. For Business Rates the council expects the Enforcement Agencies to implement action set down by the regulations for the compliance stage.
The inclusion of the compliance strategy in the SLA’s ensures that debtors are given additional opportunities to settle the debt and the compliance fees at the compliance stage. This in turn helps to safeguard the maximisation of the collection of the debt and the income to the council at that stage and before additional fees are incurred at the enforcement stage.
The regulations themselves also aim to address the issue of the council potentially not benefiting from payments made against a debt where the debtor only pays an amount to the Enforcement Agent that is equal to or less than the fees. Once a debt progresses to the Enforcement Stage, the enforcement agent is entitled to recover the compliance stage fees first. But any subsequent payments over and above the £75 compliance fee are distributed to the council and the Enforcement Agent on a pro rata basis.