Do bailiffs work on Sundays?

The Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 set the permitted hours for enforcement visits as 6am to 9pm. No regulation excludes Sundays from that window, so an agent can attend on a Sunday just as on any other day of the week.

Sundays and the notice period

Although agents can visit on Sundays, Sundays play a different role when counting the notice period. Before a first visit the enforcement firm must send a Notice of Enforcement and allow a minimum number of clear days. Sundays, bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day are all excluded from that count. Saturdays are included.

In practice, excluding Sundays from the count extends the calendar time a person has before an agent can attend. The Notice of Enforcement date checker does the count automatically and shows the earliest date a visit can lawfully take place.

Permitted hours for a visit

6am to 9pmAny day of the week, including Sundays

Minimum notice before a first visit

14 clear daysSundays, bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day are not counted

Extended notice (requested by a debt adviser)

28 clear daysMust be requested before the first 14 days run out

How Sundays affect the earliest visit date

Because Sundays are excluded from the clear-days count, any Sunday that falls within the notice period is skipped over and the count continues on Monday. Saturdays, by contrast, are counted. If any of the 14 counted days fall on a bank holiday, Good Friday or Christmas Day, those days are also skipped. The day after the 14th counted day is the earliest an agent can attend — and that day can itself be a Sunday, since visits are permitted every day.

What the fee position is, regardless of the day

The day of the week does not affect the fees. With a car or without one, for most debts £79 is added when the notice is sent and £247 on the first visit. On the standard scale the fixed fees are £79 at the notice, £326 once an agent has visited and £442 if goods are removed for sale, before any percentage fee on a larger debt.

A closed door does not stop the costs. For most debts the £247 enforcement stage fee is added from the first visit whether or not anyone answers, and a vehicle outside can still be clamped. Full detail on how fees build up is on the bailiff fees page.

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What agents can do on a Sunday visit

The rules on what agents may and may not do are the same on a Sunday as on any other day. They can enter peacefully through an unlocked door or if someone lets them in, clamp or remove a vehicle on a drive or a public road, list goods and offer a controlled goods agreement, and add the statutory fees. They cannot force entry to a home on a first visit for most debts, and cannot attend outside the 6am to 9pm window. The full rules are at what bailiffs can and cannot do.

Goods are taken away in a small share of cases: 2,624 of almost 3.7 million in January to June 2025, most often a clamped vehicle. What happens far more often, with a car or without one, is cost. Of the cases that ended in payment in that period, 64% were paid at the enforcement stage or later, after an agent’s first visit had added the larger fee. The average fee collected on a case paid in full was £201, on the lower fees then in force.

Court fines: a different rule applies

For magistrates’ court fines, the agents collecting them have powers that differ from standard enforcement. Those differences are covered on the magistrates’ court fine bailiffs page. The permitted hours and the exclusion of Sundays from the notice count apply in the same way.

If a Sunday visit happens outside permitted hours

A visit before 6am or after 9pm on any day, including a Sunday, falls outside the permitted hours set by the regulations. A complaint can be made to the enforcement firm and, if the firm’s response is unsatisfactory, to the Enforcement Conduct Board. The process for doing so is described on the how to complain about a bailiff page.