Stirling Park: what a letter means and what to do

A letter from Stirling Park usually means a council or other creditor already has a summary warrant or a court decree against you, so sheriff officers can move on to diligence (Scottish enforcement) without going back to court. You still have options, and the most important stage is the 14 days after a charge for payment. This page covers Scotland. For the general rules, see what sheriff officers can do in Scotland.

Who are Stirling Park?

Stirling Park is registered at Companies House as STIRLING PARK LLP, registration number SO300097. It is an active limited liability partnership, registered in Scotland on 10 May 2002, with its registered office in Kilmarnock. Its website gives the same name and number, and says its team includes 33 sheriff officers and 22 messengers-at-arms.

Who owns Stirling Park?

Since 31 July 2023, ColX Limited has held 75% or more of the voting rights. Before that, Capita Holdings Limited and Debt Solutions (Holdings) Limited were each listed as having significant control. ColX Group says it was formed in 2024 through the merger of Stirling Park with three enforcement firms in England and Wales: Jacobs, Equita and Ross & Roberts. If you have a letter from Jacobs about a debt in England or Wales, see our guide to Jacobs Enforcement.

Who regulates sheriff officers?

Sheriff officers are officers of the court, employed by private firms. They are commissioned by a sheriff principal, regulated by the Court of Session, and must belong to the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers (SMASO), which has no disciplinary powers over them. The Enforcement Conduct Board and CIVEA, which cover bailiff firms in England and Wales, do not list Stirling Park, and we found no FCA register entry for it.

Why are Stirling Park contacting you?

Stirling Park describes three kinds of work: debt recovery for consumer and commercial clients, including letters before action; tracing; and citation and diligence as sheriff officers. Your letter will usually be one of these:

• A summary warrant notice: most often for council tax. A summary warrant is granted without a court hearing, and adds a 10% surcharge to the arrears. Once it is granted, you lose the right to pay the council by instalments. Business rates and water charges can also be collected this way.
• A charge for payment: a formal demand served by a sheriff officer after a summary warrant or decree. It gives you 14 days to pay if you are in the UK.
• A letter before action: Stirling Park’s debt recovery work for a creditor who has not yet been to court. At this stage it has no power to arrest wages or take goods.
• Court papers: sheriff officers serve documents such as simple procedure claim forms and summonses. If you receive one, respond by the date on it and get advice quickly.

Is the debt yours, and is it right?

Check the name, address, creditor, reference number and amount. Stirling Park says that if you do not think you owe the debt, you should contact it with evidence and it will investigate. For council tax, the council can tell you which years and amounts the summary warrant covers. Stirling Park says that where two people are named on a summary warrant, each is liable for the full amount.

Most debts in Scotland are extinguished after 5 years without a relevant claim or acknowledgement, but a court decree lasts 20 years. A money adviser can tell you whether an old debt is still owed.

What can Stirling Park do, and what can they not do?

Scotland has no bailiffs, no notice of enforcement and no Taking Control of Goods fee scale. Sheriff officers use diligence instead, and each step has its own rules. The main ones are below, and the sheriff officers guide linked above explains them in full.

After the charge for payment

The charge stays in force for 2 years. If the 14 days pass without payment, you become “apparently insolvent” in law, which a creditor owed £5,000 or more can rely on to apply to make you bankrupt (sequestration). This is what Stirling Park’s FAQs mean when they say a charge “renders you insolvent”. It does not mean you are bankrupt.

Earnings arrestment

An earnings arrestment tells your employer to deduct money from your wages each payday. Stirling Park says the deductions follow the statutory tables in the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 and that it cannot change them. Nothing is taken from pay below the lowest band in those tables. It is Scotland’s equivalent of an attachment of earnings order.

Bank arrestment

A bank arrestment freezes money in your account above a protected amount. The first £1,000 is protected, and the frozen money is released to the creditor 14 weeks after the arrestment is served unless something stops it. You can apply to the sheriff for arrested funds to be released. Stirling Park says that on council tax and business rates cases a charge for payment will have been served first.

Attachment of goods and entry

Sheriff officers can attach certain items kept outside your home, such as a car, but a vehicle you reasonably need worth up to £1,000 and tools of your trade up to £1,000 are protected. Goods inside your home can only be attached under an exceptional attachment order granted by the sheriff.

Fees

Sheriff officers’ fees are set by the Court of Session in an Act of Sederunt, not by the firm, and are added to what you owe. A new fees Act of Sederunt, with a unit-based charging model, applies to work done from 25 September 2026. Ask Stirling Park for a breakdown of any fees added to your account.

What should you do at each stage?

When you get a summary warrant notice or letter before action

Contact Stirling Park or the creditor straight away. If you cannot pay in full, Stirling Park says it will look at whether a payment arrangement is possible. It does not offer payment holidays, and says missed or reduced payments made without agreement risk further legal action. Offer what you can realistically keep up, backed by a budget.

When you get a charge for payment

Act within the 14 days. You can pay, agree an arrangement, or, once a charge has been served, ask the sheriff court for a time to pay order for most debts under £25,000. HMRC debts are among those excluded. If granted, it stops further diligence while you keep to it.

If your wages or bank account have been arrested

Get money advice the same day if you can. A bank arrestment runs to its 14-week release date whether or not you act, and an adviser can tell you whether an application to the sheriff is worth making.

Is this letter really from Stirling Park?

• Use the contact details on your own paperwork, or on the council’s or creditor’s official website. The council can confirm whether it has passed your account to Stirling Park.
• Do not rely on a phone number from a search result, or one given in an unexpected text, email or call. This page deliberately does not list the firm’s contact details.
• A genuine charge for payment is served by a sheriff officer with a witness, either in person or through your letterbox.
• Be wary of anyone pushing you to pay at once into an account you do not recognise.

How do debt solutions in Scotland affect Stirling Park?

Scotland has its own debt solutions. IVAs, debt relief orders and Breathing Space are not available: see can you get an IVA if you live in Scotland?.

• Moratorium on diligence: a money adviser can apply for 6 months of protection from creditor enforcement, usable once every 12 months.
• Debt Arrangement Scheme: a Debt Payment Programme repays debts in full over time, and once it is approved creditors cannot use diligence for the debts in it. Setting one up through a DAS-approved adviser is free.
• Protected Trust Deed: a trust deed usually lasts 48 months, needs debts of at least £5,000, and deals with the debts included once it is protected.
• Bankruptcy: sequestration costs £150 to apply for (some people pay nothing), and the Minimal Asset Process has no fee for people with low income and assets.

Each has costs, conditions and long-term effects on your credit file. Debt solutions in Scotland compares them.

How do you complain about Stirling Park?

1. Complain to Stirling Park first. It says complaints are acknowledged within 2 days and a full response is issued within 10 working days, and that the response is shared with its client.
2. If you are still unhappy, Stirling Park names the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers as the next step. mygov.scot also says you can complain to the sheriff principal through your local sheriff court.
3. Complain to the council or creditor that instructed the firm. For a council, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman is the final stage for complaints about public services in Scotland.

Our guide to dealing with debt collectors covers your rights when a firm is only collecting a debt.

What to do next

1. Work out what stage you are at: a letter before action, a summary warrant notice, a charge for payment or an arrestment. Note the dates.
2. Contact Stirling Park or the creditor, using official contact details, with an offer you can afford. Keep copies of everything.
3. Get free money advice. MoneyHelper, StepChange, Citizens Advice Scotland and National Debtline all help people in Scotland, and an adviser can apply for a moratorium. See where to get free debt advice.