Walker Love: what a letter means and what to do

A letter from Walker Love usually means a council or other creditor has passed your debt to a firm of sheriff officers. If the creditor already has a summary warrant or a court decree, Walker Love can move on to diligence (Scottish enforcement) without going back to court. You still have options, and the most important time to act 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 Walker Love?

Walker Love describes itself as a firm of messengers-at-arms and sheriff officers that also provides debt recovery, revenue collection, tracing and investigation services. It says it began trading as George Walker in Glasgow in 1946, that George Walker & Co merged with HM Love & Co to form Walker Love in 2006, and that it bought James Reid & Son in 2009. It calls itself the largest partnership of its kind in Scotland wholly owned and controlled by sheriff officers.

Because Walker Love is a partnership rather than a company or LLP, it does not appear on the Companies House register: ordinary partnerships are not registered there. On the FCA register, the firm’s name is George Walker & Company, with Walker Love listed as a trading name.

The Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers (SMASO) lists Walker Love with six offices, in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Kirkcaldy and Paisley, and 27 officers, 14 of whom are also messengers-at-arms. Walker Love’s own site says it has 32 sheriff officers and messengers-at-arms and is commissioned to work in all six sheriffdoms in Scotland. Its principal office is in Glasgow.

Is W L Recoveries part of Walker Love?

A separate company, W L RECOVERIES LIMITED (company number SC084578), is active and registered at the same Glasgow address. It was called Walker Love Recoveries Limited from 2014 to 2019, and its listed activities include collection agencies. A letter from W L Recoveries is a debt collection letter, not a sheriff officer’s document.

Who regulates Walker Love?

Sheriff officers are officers of court, employed by private firms. Each is commissioned by a sheriff principal, the Court of Session regulates them, and all must belong to 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 Walker Love.

Walker Love’s website carries an announcement that it had received full FCA authorisation for debt recovery. The FCA register now shows George Walker & Company (firm reference number 716293) as no longer authorised since 20 March 2026, and W L Recoveries Ltd (firm reference number 741988) as no longer an appointed representative. FCA authorisation is needed to collect regulated consumer credit debts. It is not needed for a sheriff officer’s court work.

Why are Walker Love contacting you?

Walker Love says it collects council tax, non-domestic rates, housing arrears, parking penalties and other sundry debts for Scottish councils, and that it works with 12 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities. It also says it works for central government bodies, including HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions, on money owed and benefit overpayments. Its other clients include social and private landlords (rent arrears and housing benefit overpayments), gas and electricity suppliers, financial services firms and solicitors.

Your letter will usually be one of these:

• A council tax reminder or summary warrant notice. Walker Love lists “pre-warrant collections” among its council services. Once a council gets a summary warrant, a 10% surcharge is added to the arrears and you lose the right to pay the council by instalments. No court hearing is needed. See council tax arrears for how the council side works.
• 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 debt collection letter for a business, before any court action. At this stage nobody can arrest your wages or take goods.
• Court papers. Sheriff officers serve summonses and simple procedure claim forms. Walker Love’s guidance says not to ignore the date on them: you can pay, ask for time to pay, or dispute the claim. If you do nothing, the court will usually grant decree against you.

Is the debt yours, and is it right?

Check the name, address, creditor, reference number and amount. For council tax, ask the council which years and amounts the summary warrant covers, and whether any council tax reduction has been applied. If a debt is for a credit card or loan and no court has dealt with it yet, you can ask the creditor for a copy of the credit agreement under section 77 (loans) or 78 (credit cards and other running accounts) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which applies across the UK. The fee is £1. Our guide on how to ask a creditor to prove a debt explains how.

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 Walker Love do, and what can they not do?

Scotland has no bailiffs, no notice of enforcement and no Taking Control of Goods fee scale. Walker Love’s guidance describes the usual order: a charge for payment giving you 14 days, then an earnings, bank or other arrestment, with attachment, exceptional attachment and inhibition also available.

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). It does not mean you are bankrupt. Walker Love lists fast-track bankruptcy services among its council services, so treat an unpaid charge seriously.

Earnings arrestment

An earnings arrestment tells your employer to take money from your wages every payday until the debt is paid or you leave the job. It is Scotland’s equivalent of an attachment of earnings order. The amount comes from statutory tables, not your budget. For monthly pay from 6 April 2025:

For example, if your net pay is £1,800 a month, the deduction would be £112.50 plus 20% of £300, which is £172.50 a month. Your employer can also take £1 each time towards its costs.

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 to have arrested funds released.

Attachment, inhibition and entry

Sheriff officers can attach 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. Attachment cannot happen on a Sunday or local public holiday, or before 8am or after 8pm, without the sheriff’s permission. Goods inside your home can only be attached under an exceptional attachment order granted by the sheriff.

Inhibition can be used on a decree. It stops you selling or borrowing against property you own until the debt is dealt with.

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 model, applies to work done from 25 September 2026. Walker Love’s customer charter says it can charge diligence expenses lawfully due if you do not keep to, or refuse, an instalment arrangement. Ask for a breakdown of any fees.

What should you do at each stage?

When you get a letter or summary warrant notice

Contact Walker Love or the creditor straight away, using the details on your letter. Walker Love’s customer charter says staff will help you complete its financial questionnaire, and its website lets you submit a financial statement online. Offer what you can realistically keep up, backed by a budget, and get the arrangement confirmed in writing.

When you get a charge for payment

Act within the 14 days. You can pay, agree an arrangement, or ask the sheriff court for a time to pay order for most debts under £25,000. HMRC and other tax 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 Walker Love?

• 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 Walker Love.
• Do not rely on a 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.
• Walker Love says it no longer has payment counters, and handles payments and enquiries through its website.
• Court documents in Scotland are served by an officer of court, or by post. Walker Love notes that process servers are not recognised for hand service in Scotland.
• Be wary of anyone pushing you to pay at once into an account you do not recognise.

How do debt solutions in Scotland affect Walker Love?

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. An earnings arrestment that started before the moratorium carries on.
• Debt Arrangement Scheme: a Debt Payment Programme repays debts in full over time. Once it is approved, creditors cannot use diligence for the debts in it, and existing arrestments are recalled. 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 Walker Love?

1. Complain to Walker Love. Its complaints procedure says that if a complaint is not resolved within 3 business days, you get a written acknowledgement within 5 business days, an update at 4 weeks if the investigation is long, and a final response within 8 weeks. You can then appeal to the firm’s Managing Partner.
2. Escalate conduct complaints. Walker Love names SMASO for complaints about a sheriff officer’s conduct. mygov.scot also says you can complain to the sheriff principal through your local sheriff court.
3. Complain to the creditor. For a council, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman is the final stage for complaints about public services in Scotland.
4. Consumer credit debts. Walker Love’s complaints page names the Credit Services Association, a trade body for debt collectors. For a complaint about the collection of a consumer credit debt while the firm was FCA authorised, the FCA register says you may be able to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

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 collection letter, a summary warrant notice, a charge for payment or an arrestment. Note the dates.
2. Contact Walker Love 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.
4. If another Scottish firm is involved, see our guides to Stirling Park and Scott & Co.