Rundle & Co: what a letter means and what to do

If you have a notice of enforcement from Rundles, a council has passed a debt to the firm and the fees have started. You still have time before an agent visits to check the debt, contact the council, offer a payment you can afford and get free advice. A visit adds at least £247 to what you owe, so acting now matters. This guide covers England and Wales.

Who are Rundle & Co?

Rundle & Co is registered at Companies House as RUNDLE & CO. LIMITED, company number 03231767. It is an active private limited company, incorporated on 31 July 1996, with its registered office in London. It trades as Rundles and says the business was founded in 1992.

Is Rundles part of CDER Group?

Yes. Since 1 May 2019, Rundle & Co has been owned (75% or more of the shares and votes) by CDER Group UK Limited. Before that, from 6 April 2016 to 30 April 2019, its registered owner was Traditional Group Limited.

CDER Group UK Limited also owns CDER Group Limited, the enforcement firm formerly called JBW, as well as Court Enforcement Services and Advantis Credit. CDER’s website names Rundles as one of its partner companies. Rundles still writes to people under its own name, so a Rundles letter is not the same as a letter from CDER. If yours is from CDER, see our guide to CDER Group.

Is Rundles regulated?

Rundle & Co Limited has been accredited by the Enforcement Conduct Board (ECB) since October 2023. It is a corporate 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 Rundle & Co. We also found no Rundles officers in the High Court Enforcement Officers Association directory: within the CDER group, High Court writs go to Court Enforcement Services.

Why are Rundles contacting you?

A council, or occasionally another creditor, has passed a debt to Rundles for enforcement. Rundles says it works for more than 90 English local authorities and lists council tax, business rates, road traffic penalties, commercial rent arrears, business improvement district (BID) levy, housing benefit overpayments, former tenant rent arrears and sundry council debts. It also says it enforces warrants of arrest for more than 25 councils.

Each type of debt has its own route to a bailiff:

• Council tax, business rates and BID levy: the council gets a liability order from the magistrates’ court, and can then instruct enforcement agents without going back to court. Our guide to council tax bailiffs explains this stage in detail.
• Parking and traffic penalties: 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. Rundles says it handles road traffic enforcement for more than 60 councils.
• Commercial rent arrears: a landlord can use commercial rent arrears recovery (CRAR) to take control of a business tenant’s goods without a court order. It only applies to commercial premises, never to a home.
• Other council debts, such as former tenant arrears or a housing benefit overpayment: if there is no liability order, court judgment or warrant behind the letter, Rundles is collecting on the council’s behalf and has no power to take your goods.

Is the debt yours, and is it right?

Check the name, address, council, reference number and amount. Rundles’ FAQs say that if the letter is for someone with no connection to you, you should contact the firm so it can stop action at your address, and it may ask for proof that you live there.

If you think the debt itself is wrong, contact the council using the details on its official website, and tell Rundles in writing that you dispute it. Only the creditor can cancel the enforcement or confirm what the order covers.

• For council tax, the council can tell you which years and amounts the liability order covers. See council tax arrears for how the debt builds up.
• For a parking penalty, you can only challenge the order for recovery on limited grounds, such as never receiving the penalty notice.

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

Rundles’ 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. Older guidance, including some firms’ own FAQs, may still mention 7 days.

Fees

The fees are set by law, not by Rundles, and are added to what you owe. Rundles’ FAQs set out both scales below, depending on when it received your case.

The old scale applies to cases started before 1 May 2026, because the 2026 regulations do not affect enforcement action taken before that date. For example, on council tax arrears of £1,000 in a new case, the compliance fee takes the total to £1,079. If you agree a plan before a visit, that is the total. If an agent visits, another £247 is added, making £1,326.

When you pay, 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. If goods are removed, storage, locksmith and auction costs can also be added.

Entry

You usually do not have to open the door or let a bailiff in. They cannot come in by pushing past you, when only children under 16 or vulnerable people are present, between 9pm and 6am, 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 parking penalties are not on that list.

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. They could clamp or take a car you own from the road outside, unless it displays a valid Blue Badge and is used to carry the badge holder. 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.

Vulnerable people

Rundles says vulnerable customers are given a Welfare Manager, and that it may ask for evidence such as a letter from your GP or hospital, a fit note, a letter from a support worker, or proof of benefits. Tell Rundles and the council about illness, disability, mental health problems, a recent bereavement or anything else that makes things harder. Only the council can take the case back, so tell it directly 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 Rundles and to the council. Rundles’ FAQs say that if you keep to an arrangement made at this stage, no visits will be made and no further fees added. 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 before you do anything else. Rundles says its agents carry their court certificate and, for council tax and business rates, an authority to act from the council. You can check whether someone is a certificated enforcement agent on the official register.

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. Only agree to payments you can keep up. 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. If you cannot make a payment, contact Rundles before you miss it.

If you want the council to take the debt back

You can ask the council to recall the case from Rundles, for example if you are vulnerable or can show you are now paying regularly. The council does not have to agree. Our guide to council tax bailiffs explains how to ask.

Is this letter or visit really from Rundles?

• Use the contact details on your own paperwork, or on the council’s or Rundles’ official website. This page deliberately does not list the firm’s contact details.
• Check with the council that it has passed your account to Rundles.
• Do not rely on a number from a search result, or one given in an unexpected text, email or call.
• Ask for identification at the door, and be wary of pressure to pay at once into an account you do not recognise.

How do debt solutions affect Rundles?

Council tax arrears are a priority debt, because the consequences of not paying are serious, 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.
• 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. 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. Bankruptcy costs £680 to apply for.

None of these covers council tax for the current year, which you must keep paying. 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 Rundles?

1. Complain to Rundles first, with any evidence. It says it acknowledges written complaints within 2 working days and aims to respond to informal complaints within 5 working days of acknowledging them. If you are not satisfied, ask within 10 working days for it to be escalated; the formal review is completed within 10 working days of acknowledgement.
2. The Enforcement Conduct Board: for events after 1 January 2025, you can take the complaint to the ECB once Rundles’ process has ended, because Rundles is accredited. Complain within 3 months of becoming aware of the problem, or within 1 month of the firm’s final response.
3. The council: complain to the council as well, because Rundles acts on its behalf. If you are unhappy with its final response, you can go to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
4. The court: 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, 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 Rundles and the council, 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.