You can either appoint a solicitor to manage your claim, or you can use the Government's service Money Claim Online. Money Claim Online can be used for money claims up to £100,000. Please view the 'Obtain judgment' page for more information.

As long as your judgment is for £600 or above, you can transfer it to the High Court for enforcement by The Sheriffs Office. Please visit our 'Judgment enforcement' page for more information.

Simply visit the Government's Money Claim Online service to start your claim or instruct a solicitor. You can find details of solicitors local to you on the Law Society website.

Simply instruct us, pay the court fee and we will handle the rest.

The more information you can provide the better the chances of successful enforcement. If you can, provide details of the following:- what the debt relates to, any additional addresses, phone numbers, places of work, vehicle details, asset details and any other information that may assist enforcement.

We can enforce Judgments or Orders up to 6 years of age.

No, it remains a County Court Judgment and is only passed to the High Court for the purposes of enforcement. Any representations by either party would still be made to the issuing county court.

Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) charges £78.00 for a writ of possession or writ of control (known as a writ of fieri facias or fi fa prior to 6th April 2014)

This depends on the speediness of the issuing County Court. It is normally 5 to 28 days. You can speed up the process by personally attending the issuing Court and having part 2 of the Form N293A sealed. Once we have received the sealed Form N293A from the court we will arrange for the Writ to be sealed by the High Court (or district registry) within 24 hours.

We legally have to hold the funds for 14 days. Payment will be issued after this period.

No. Usually the attendance of an Enforcement Agent and the threat of removal will result in payment. Less than 1% of all cases end in removal.

Our Enforcement Agents would advise if there may be further assets. If there are, then they would return to remove these also. If not, we would request your further information on any further assets you may be aware of.

No. However, if they are part of the seizure and ownership has been claimed but not been proved then we would request that you either admit or deny the claim.

In the unlikely event that goods are removed they will be sold by public auction. This may be a physical auction or an online auction. Very occasionally we can sell goods by private treaty but would need the authority of either the Court or the defendant.

After payment of the judgment, interest, costs, fees and charges have been settled, any surplus would be repaid to the defendant.

You can instruct our tracing agents to arrange an in-depth trace on the defendant. Please contact our enforcement team using the contact details provided.

Yes, but we would usually request your permission first. If judgment is set aside, then enforcement action will cease.

You will be liable for our full fees should this be the case. We would ask that once the enforcement process has started you allow us to continue until such time as the debt is repaid in full.

We have offices in Swansea, Liverpool and Colwyn Bay. We provide a nationwide enforcement service, covering all of England and Wales.

Once the 7 clear days notice period has passed, we aim to have an enforcement agent in attendance as soon as possible.

CRAR - Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery - replaced the Common Law remedy of distress or distraint on 6th April 2014.

There will have to be a written lease in place to use CRAR. It must be possible to calculate the rent due with certainty and it must be for a minimum amount.

Unlike under distraint, only Certificated Enforcement Agents (previously known as certificated bailiffs) are permitted to take control of goods, not the landlord.

Yes, when you send the Letter Before Action, you are advising your debtor that your next step is to seek legal redress through the courts, without further notice, unless the matter is satisfactorily resolved within the next 14 days.

The court fees are set according to the value of the claim. You can check the current fee scales on Form EX50.

You will need to register on the Government Gateway, then you can start your claim. It is quite straightforward, but if you need further help, perhaps because your case is high value and/or complex, you might want to instruct a solicitor. You can find solicitors local to you on the Law Society website.

HMCTS stands for His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service. Payments for court fees are made to HMCTS.

If the claim is disputed, the case will be heard by a judge who will make a ruling on whether the claim is dismissed or judgment is awarded. If the defendant does not submit a defence at all, you will be awarded "judgment by default".

We are a private limited company. Our High Court Enforcement Officers are authorised by the Lord Chancellor.

Yes, we are members of the High Court Enforcement Officers Association (HCEOA). One of our authorised officers, David Asker, is a board director of the HCEOA.

No, we specialise in the enforcement of judgments for private individuals, businesses of all sizes, landlords, as well as solicitors acting on behalf of those clients.

However, our sister company, Excel Civil Enforcement, does specialise in this area, working with local authorities around the country.

Yes we do. Please contact us on 0333 001 5100 for further details.

No, Scotland has a different system. However, if the defendant is based in England or Wales, we can enforce a Scottish judgment.

If the defendant is based in England or Wales or has assets located here, then the overseas judgment can be enforced by us. You can read more here.

Please use our careers contact form.

Please contact Scaramanga Marketing by email or phone on 020 3371 3295.

Please note that Scaramanga Agency is only able to assist with media and marketing enquiries. If you wish to instruct The Sheriffs Office on an enforcement matter, please call 0333 001 5100.

Yes, where we consider there is a risk of there being a breach of the peace, we will ask for Police assistance. In the case of evictions and repossessions, these are normally planned with the Police and executed with their attendance.

Yes, we are set up to support organisations with large numbers of judgments. Please contact us on 0333 001 5100 to find out more.

Squatting in residential premises is now a criminal act. You should call the Police who will attend to arrest and remove them.

Yes, this enables us to plan the size of the team and Police support required, any specialists and equipment that may be needed, as well as identify potential risks so we can take preemptive action, for example to prevent access by squatters to the roof.

They will need to be removed under a writ of possession.

You can either use Common Law to remove them or obtain a writ of possession against "persons unknown". Government advice to local authorities is that they should take court action. Read more.

Yes we can. Depending on what type of site it is, we will either evict from land under Common Law or a High Court writ of possession. Evictions from commercial premises must be conducted under a writ of possession.

Our sister company, the National Eviction Team, specialises in protester evictions, particularly from national infrastructure sites.

No, all employment tribunal awards and ACAS settlements can be enforced by The Sheriffs Office regardless of their value.

There are currently no fees charged by the Employment Tribunal to make a claim. If you choose to use a High Court Enforcement Officer (HCEO) to enforce it, there is a court fee for the writ. There is no compliance fee payable for the enforcement of employment tribunal awards.

Some claimants may be eligible for reduced fees if they meet the income criteria, which will be based on a combination of income and capital savings.

Please visit the GOV.UK website for more details.

There is a court fee, payable to HMCTS. If enforcement is successful, this is recovered from the defendant, along with the original award, interest and enforcement costs.

If enforcement is not successful, there is normally nothing further to pay. Note: this only applies to the enforcement of employment tribunal awards and ACAS settlements. There is a compliance fee for all other types of judgment enforcement.

You can instruct us online to enforce either employment tribunal awards or ACAS settlements.

You can find out more about enforcing your employment tribunal award or ACAS settlement by The Sheriffs Office in our employment tribunal award page.

You will need to obtain a County Court Judgment against them, which can then be enforced by The Sheriffs Office.

You will need to obtain a County Court Judgment for the arrears, which The Sheriffs Office can then enforce if payment is not made.

If the tenant is no longer occupying the premises, you will need to obtain a County Court Judgment for the arrears and instruct The Sheriffs Office to enforce it if payment is not made. They will be able to take control of assets belonging to the defendant at their new premises. You will need a CCJ for both commercial and residential tenants who have left the premises.

You will need to apply for an order for possession in the County Court local to the property. When you apply for the order, you can ask for permission to have it enforced by High Court Enforcement Officers under Section 42 of the County Courts Act 1984.

You can either remove them under a writ of possession or under Common Law forfeiture of lease.

Forfeiture of lease is a Common Law remedy available to commercial landlords when the rent is overdue by a specified period, normally 21 days.

You can forfeit the lease simply by entering the property and changing the locks. Normally the landlord would instruct a certificated bailiff to do this on his behalf.

The term Certificated Bailiff has been replaced with Certificated Enforcement Agent. This is a person who has been assessed by a judge to evaluate his ability to act as an enforcement agent. The certificate is valid for two years and is awarded to individuals.

So while The Sheriffs Office as an organisation is not certificated, our enforcement agents are Certificated Enforcement Agents, so you can instruct us to act under Common Law on your behalf.

Yes you can if you are a residential landlord. If you are going via the Court (residential landlords must obtain a court order) to obtain an order for possession and a County Court Judgment for the arrears, you can apply for a combined writ of possession and control to instruct The Sheriffs Office to execute both at the same time.

If you are a commercial landlord, CRAR and forfeiture cannot be conducted simultaneously and will need to cover different rent periods. CRAR cannot be undertaken if the lease has been terminated.

Our policy is to ensure that the operations of the business do not have any negative impact upon vulnerable consumers, whose ability or circumstances require us to take extra precautions in the way that we sell and provide our services in order to ensure that they are not disadvantaged in any way. Please read our full policy on vulnerable debtors.

There is an industry regulated (High Court Enforcement Officers Association) compliance fee, which is triggered by each Notice of Enforcement that is sent.

The Notice of Enforcement forms part of the compliance stage of enforcement (the first stage). The notice of enforcement is served on the debtor giving them 7 clear days to pay the debt in full. If they do not, enforcement is moved to enforcement stage 1.

On 6th April 2014 the abortive fee was replaced by the Compliance fee. It is a charge payable by the judgment creditor where enforcement is unsuccessful. It is triggered by serving the Notice of Enforcement. Read more about the enforcement fees.

The writ lasts for 12 months from the date of the Notice of Enforcement is served. If a payment arrangement is entered into by the debtor and then they break It, the writ will be valid for a further 12 months from that point. It can be renewed if required.

Our fees are incurred as the enforcement progresses through the various stages of enforcement. When part payment is recovered, the amount is shared between The Sheriffs Office and the judgment creditor. Please see our terms and conditions for details on how this is undertaken.

Yes, the vehicle will be immobilised to secure it and the enforcement agent will serve a notice of immobilisation. If after two hours, the debtor has not paid either in full or entered into a payment arrangement, then the enforcement agent may remove the vehicle for sale.

Once goods have been removed for sale, the judgment debtor will be given seven clear days' notice of sale.

If you instruct us to enforce under a County Court Judgment, we can enforce at the debtor's place of business. If they have more than one location, we will serve notice of enforcement at the appropriate premises.

Under CRAR we may only take control of goods on the demised premises.

You can use CRAR - Commercial Rent Arrears recovery. You do not require a court judgment but you may only recover rent. The enforcement must be conducted by a certificated enforcement agent, for example The Sheriffs Office.

Or you can obtain a County Court Judgment and we can enforce it. The advantage is that the judgment can include other outstanding charges as well as rent.