CDER Group: what a letter means and what to do

If the letter is a notice of enforcement, the clock is already running: an agent can visit once the notice period ends, and a visit adds at least £247 to what you owe. You still have time to check the debt, contact the council or other creditor, offer a payment you can afford and get free advice. This guide covers England and Wales.

Who are CDER Group?

CDER is registered at Companies House as CDER GROUP LIMITED, company number 04118149. It is an active private limited company, incorporated on 1 December 2000, with its registered office in London. It was called J.B.W. Enforcement Limited until 2008 and J.B.W. Group Limited from 2008 until 16 September 2020, so older letters and websites may call it JBW. CDER’s website gives the same company number.

Which firms are in the CDER group?

CDER Group Limited is owned (75% or more) by CDER Group UK Limited. CDER’s website names three partner companies in the group, and Companies House shows CDER Group UK Limited owns each of them:

• Court Enforcement Services (CES): High Court enforcement, owned since September 2018.
• Rundle & Co: another enforcement firm, owned since May 2019.
• Advantis Credit: a debt collection company, owned since January 2020. See our guide to Advantis Credit if your letter is from Advantis.

Is CDER regulated?

CDER Group has been accredited by the Enforcement Conduct Board (ECB) since October 2023. CDER Group Limited is a member of CIVEA, the Civil Enforcement Association. The ECB is independent but voluntary and industry-funded, and CIVEA is a trade association: there is no statutory regulator for bailiffs yet. Bailiff work is not regulated by the FCA, and we found no FCA register entry for CDER Group.

Why are CDER contacting you?

CDER’s website lists council tax, business rates, parking and road traffic penalties, road user charges, commercial rent arrears and HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) fines. It says its clients include more than 200 local authorities, Transport for London, Highways England and HMCTS. Each type of debt has its own legal route:

• Council tax and business rates: the council gets a liability order from the magistrates’ court, and can then instruct enforcement agents. See council tax bailiffs.
• Parking and traffic penalties, including those for Transport for London and, CDER says, Dart Charge customers: for a penalty charge notice, after an order for recovery you have 21 days to pay or challenge it. If you do neither, bailiffs can be sent under a warrant of control.
• Magistrates’ court fines: when HMCTS announced its enforcement contracts, it named CDER Group as the main provider in London, the Midlands and the South East from 1 September 2020, and a secondary provider in the North East, North West, South West and Wales. CDER also lists arrest warrant work among its services.
• High Court writs: these go through CDER’s sister company Court Enforcement Services, not CDER itself. Our guide to High Court enforcement officers explains writs and their higher fees.

Is the debt yours, and is it right?

Check the name, address, creditor, reference number and amount. CDER’s FAQs say it does not hold the penalty notice or warrant evidence itself, so for a penalty you need to ask the council or other authority that issued it. If you think the debt is not yours, for example because you sold the car or moved out before the bill, CDER asks for evidence. Only the creditor can cancel the enforcement.

• For council tax, the council can tell you which years and amounts the liability order covers.
• For a penalty, you can only challenge the order for recovery on limited grounds, such as never receiving the penalty notice.
• For a court fine, contact the magistrates’ court that imposed it.

What can CDER do, and what can they not do?

CDER’s agents follow the same law as every bailiff in England and Wales. The main rules are below; our guide to what bailiffs can and cannot do has more detail.

Notice

You must get a notice of enforcement at least 14 clear days before an agent can take control of your goods. If a debt adviser asks on your behalf before those days run out, this extends to at least 28 clear days. For cases that started before 1 May 2026, the old 7-day notice period still applies.

Fees

The fees are set by law, not by CDER, and are added to what you owe. CDER’s FAQs show the current figures.

The old scale applies to cases started before 1 May 2026, because the 2026 regulations do not affect enforcement action taken before that date. On small debts the fees can quickly outgrow the debt. For example, on an unpaid parking penalty of £400 in a new case, the compliance fee takes the total to £479, and a visit adds £247, making £726.

When you pay a firm, apart from any auctioneer’s costs, the compliance fee is taken first, and the rest is shared proportionately between the debt and the remaining fees. Ask CDER for a statement showing how your payments were split.

Visits and entry

CDER’s FAQs say its agents can visit between 6am and 9pm, carry their court certificate and CDER identification, and record their visits on body-worn cameras. You usually do not have to let a bailiff in. They cannot come in by pushing past you, when only children under 16 or vulnerable people are present, or through anything except a door. They can only force entry to a home to collect criminal fines, Income Tax or Stamp Duty, and only as a last resort. Council tax, business rates and penalty charges are not on that list, but magistrates’ court fines are.

Your car and your belongings

If you let them in, they can take control of goods you own that are not protected. They cannot take clothes, beds and bedding, a cooker or fridge, a washing machine, basic heating and lighting, items needed to care for children, disabled or older people, pets, work tools and equipment together worth less than £1,350, or anything belonging to someone else. An agent who clamps a car must leave a written notice with the date and time, the reason, a reference and a 24-hour contact number. A vehicle displaying a valid Blue Badge and used to carry the badge holder is exempt.

Vulnerable people

CDER says it has a specially trained welfare team for people who are struggling. Tell CDER and the creditor about illness, disability, mental health problems, a recent bereavement or anything else that makes things harder, with evidence if you have it. Only the creditor can take the case back, so tell the council too.

What should you do at each stage?

When the notice of enforcement arrives

Note the date and work out when the notice period ends (Sundays, bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day do not count). Paying in full before a visit avoids the enforcement fee. If you cannot, offer an amount you can keep up, to CDER and to the creditor. A debt adviser can ask for the longer 28-day notice period while you work out a plan.

If an agent visits

Ask to see identification, and check whether the person is a certificated enforcement agent on the official register. You do not have to let them in for a council or penalty debt, but they could clamp or take a car you own from outside.

If you sign a controlled goods agreement

A controlled goods agreement lets you keep your goods while you pay, but you agree not to sell or get rid of them. CDER’s FAQs say missing an instalment breaks the arrangement and leads to further action. If you break it, the agent must give you at least 2 clear days of written notice before coming back to inspect or remove the goods. Contact CDER before you miss a payment.

Is this letter or visit really from CDER?

• CDER warns that scammers may phone, text, email or visit pretending to be from CDER. It says you should never use a number given by a caller or in a text or email.
• Use the contact details on your own paperwork, or on the creditor’s or CDER’s official website. This page deliberately does not list the firm’s contact details.
• Ask for identification at the door and check the certificated enforcement agent register.
• Be wary of pressure to pay at once into an account you do not recognise.

How do debt solutions affect CDER?

Council tax arrears and court fines are priority debts, so they usually need dealing with before debts such as credit cards.

• Breathing Space pauses enforcement action on included debts for up to 60 days. Council tax is only covered once arrears have built up, and court fines are not covered at all.
• A debt management plan is informal. Creditors can still take action even if you keep up the payments.
• An IVA is a legally binding agreement under the Insolvency Act 1986. Creditors bound by it cannot take further action to recover the debts included in it; secured debts, and debts that cannot be included, are outside it.
• During a debt relief order, a creditor owed a listed debt has no remedy for it without the court’s permission. Court fines cannot be included. DROs are free, for people with debts under £50,000, less than £75 a month spare, assets under £2,000 and a vehicle worth less than £4,000.
• After a bankruptcy order, creditors owed debts in the bankruptcy have no remedy against your property or you personally for those debts, but criminal fines are not released when the bankruptcy ends. Bankruptcy costs £680 to apply for.

Each has costs, conditions and long-term effects on your credit file. The debt solutions comparison sets them side by side.

How do you complain about CDER?

1. Complain to CDER first. It says it acknowledges complaints within 2 working days and tries to resolve them informally within 5 working days. If that does not work, the formal stage ends with a final written response within 20 working days.
2. For something that happened on or after 1 January 2025, you can then take it to the Enforcement Conduct Board. CDER says you have 3 months from when you could reasonably have known about the problem, or 1 month from its final response, whichever is longer.
3. Complain to the creditor as well. If you are unhappy with a council’s response, you can go to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, or in Wales the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.
4. For serious misconduct by a certificated enforcement agent, you can complain to the court on form EAC2. GOV.UK explains how to complain about a bailiff.

Our guide to dealing with debt collectors covers complaints about collection agencies, such as Advantis, which follow a different route.

What to do next

1. Do not ignore the letter. Work out when the notice period ends and act before then.
2. Contact CDER and the creditor, using official contact details, with an offer you can afford. Keep a note of every call and a copy of every letter.
3. Get free, impartial debt advice from MoneyHelper, StepChange, Citizens Advice or National Debtline. An adviser can ask for more time and look at all your debts together. See where to get free debt advice.