A sheriff officer holds a commission from a judge. The same statute that gives them their powers sets out how they can lose them.

This page covers what counts as misconduct, where a complaint goes, what happens to it and what a sheriff principal can actually order. What body regulates sheriff officers in Scotland covers the regulatory structure behind all of it.

Section 79(9) of the 1987 Act says misconduct includes conduct tending to bring the office of messenger-at-arms or sheriff officer into disrepute. It also includes failing to comply with a code of practice published under section 63A of the 2007 Act.

The disrepute limb is the wide one

Conduct tending to bring the office into disrepute is the first thing named in section 79(9), and it is broad by design. It reaches how an officer speaks and behaves as well as what they do.

So a claim to a power the officer does not have is a conduct point, and what powers sheriff officers have in Scotland sets out where the edges are.

Breaching the code of practice is misconduct in its own right

The professional association must prepare and publish a code of practice for officers of court, and cannot publish one without the Lord President’s prior approval. That duty is in section 63A of the 2007 Act, in force 1 April 2011.

Failing to comply with a code published under that section is misconduct under section 79(9) of the 1987 Act. The code is therefore not a voluntary standard.

Examples that belong in a conduct complaint

• Claiming a right to enter your home for ordinary council tax arrears, when nothing inside a dwellinghouse can be attached without an exceptional attachment order.
• Using English enforcement language such as bailiff or liability order in a way that misleads you about the law that applies to you.
• Threatening a consequence that does not exist, such as prison for unpaid council tax.
• Doing non-official work while stating or implying that court authority is being exercised, which rule 15 of the 1991 Rules prohibits.
• Leaving a court document loose or handing it openly to somebody else, where the sheriff court rules as amended in April 2011 require a sealed envelope marked as containing a court citation.

Things that are not conduct complaints

Whether the debt is yours, whether a discount was missed and whether your band is right are separate questions with their own routes. Liability and banding disputes now sit with the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, which took over on 1 April 2023.

Less than you have probably been told. The firm, the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers and the sheriff principal are usually presented as a ladder to be climbed in order, and only the third step has statutory teeth.

Step one is practice, not law

Nothing in the 1987 Act, the 2007 Act or the 1991 Rules requires a complaint to go to the officer’s firm first. It is a sensible opening step rather than a legal one, and the later steps do not depend on it.

It is still worth doing, because it creates a dated record. Our sheriff officer advice pages cover the firms that Scottish councils instruct.

Step two reaches step three by statute

Section 64 of the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007, in force 1 April 2011, requires the professional association to send the details of any complaint it receives to the Lord President and to the sheriff principal from whom the officer holds a commission.

That matters more than the ladder metaphor suggests. Complaining to the Society is not an alternative to complaining to the sheriff principal, because the Society has to pass it on.

Step three is where the powers are

A complaint alleging misconduct by a sheriff officer is made to the sheriff principal from whom that officer holds a commission, under section 79(1)(b)(ii) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987.

A complaint about a messenger-at-arms goes to the Court of Session instead, under section 79(1)(b)(i). The rest of the machinery is the same.

The three steps side by side

Section 79(1)(b) allows a complaint by any person. There is no requirement that you be the debtor, and no requirement that you be represented.

You do not have to be the debtor

Section 79(1)(b) speaks of a complaint by any other person. A family member, a neighbour who saw what happened, or a money adviser acting for you can complain on the same footing.

Other things can start an investigation without a complaint at all

Section 79(1) has several gateways besides a complaint. A sheriff can report an officer, and a judge of the Court of Session or a sheriff principal can act on their own concern.

The officer is given a chance to answer it. Under section 79(2) the sheriff principal, or a judge nominated by the Lord President, may appoint a solicitor to investigate unless the officer admits the misconduct in writing or gives a satisfactory explanation.

The officer answers first

Rule 20 of the Act of Sederunt (Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers Rules) 1991 requires the officer to be sent a copy of the complaint with a request to reply within 14 days. The reply admits the misconduct, denies it, or explains it.

An admission or a satisfactory explanation ends it there. Anything else can lead to a solicitor being appointed.

Suspension can come before any finding

Sections 80(3A) and 80(3B) of the 1987 Act allow an officer to be suspended once an investigation is begun or a charge is brought. No conviction and no finding of misconduct is needed first.

Then disciplinary proceedings, if it goes that far

Proceedings against a sheriff officer are before the sheriff principal, and against a messenger-at-arms before the Court of Session. Part IX of the 1991 Rules sets the procedure.

A great deal, up to removing them from office. Section 80(7) of the 1987 Act gives the sheriff principal the same range of orders the Court of Session has over a messenger-at-arms.

The orders available

The £2,500 maximum is the figure in section 80(5)(b) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, and no instrument changing it was found.

The repayment order is the one to know about

Where the misconduct consists of or includes charging excessive fees or outlays, the order can decern for repayment. That is a direct answer to a fee grievance, and what fees sheriff officers can charge you sets out the scale they work to.

A suspension follows the officer across Scotland

Section 81 requires an order to be intimated to every other sheriff principal from whom the officer holds a commission, and to the professional association. A sheriff principal receiving that intimation must make a corresponding order.

An officer suspended in one sheriffdom is therefore suspended everywhere. There is no moving to the next sheriffdom and carrying on.

And the appeal ends the matter

An appeal lies to the Inner House of the Court of Session under section 82, and the Inner House decision is final. Court information sits at the Scottish courts.

No statutory time limit for making a complaint was found in section 79 of the 1987 Act or in the complaints and investigation rules. The periods that do exist run against the officer and the proceedings, not against you.

The periods the rules do set

Those four come from the 1991 Rules as made. legislation.gov.uk holds no revised text of that instrument, so treat them as reliable but worth checking before you rely on one.

Complain early anyway

Memory of a doorstep conversation fades fast. A note written the same day carries weight that a reconstruction weeks later does not.

Facts, dates and documents. A complaint that reads like a timeline is much harder to dismiss than one that describes how the experience felt.

What to include

• Your name, address and any reference number on the paperwork.
• The date and time of every visit, call and letter, and who was present.
• The name of the officer if you have it, and what was said.
• Copies of everything you were given, including the envelope it came in.
• What you want to happen as a result.

Checkable standards are worth naming

A complaint lands better when it points at a standard rather than at a feeling. Time of day is one of them, because normal working hours are 9am to 5pm on a weekday and work outside them carries a surcharge on the fee rather than being ordinary practice.

From 25 September 2026 the fee note becomes another one. Article 12 of the Act of Sederunt (Fees of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers) 2026 requires a fee note to itemise what is being charged, and requires a second officer of court to review it.

That is a paraphrase rather than the instrument’s words. Read article 12 itself before quoting it back at an officer.

That gives a fee query a rule to point at for the first time. Our page on whether sheriff officer fees are added to your balance covers where those fees end up.

Send it in a way you can prove

Post it or email it, and keep the sent copy. Guidance on debt and diligence sits on mygov.scot.

It will not stop the diligence, and it will not decide whether you owe the money. A complaint is about the officer’s conduct and nothing else.

Enforcement carries on meanwhile

Nothing in the complaints machinery pauses an earnings arrestment or an attachment. If money is already coming off your wages, can a wage arrestment be stopped once it has started is the question to deal with in parallel.

The statutory routes that do stop a deduction are a Debt Arrangement Scheme programme, sequestration or a protected trust deed, and a Time to Pay Order where one is competent on your facts.

Where each grievance actually goes

Get the debt looked at as well as the conduct

Free advice deals with both halves at once. Our council tax debt advice page sets out how we help, and where to go for help to stop a wage arrestment lists the free services.