Go to ...
- Where do the goods have to be before they can be attached?
- What has to be in place before anything can be taken?
- What does a sheriff have to be satisfied of before an exceptional attachment order?
- Which of your belongings stay protected whatever happens?
- Can sheriff officers take your car?
- Do the English rules about controlled goods and clamping apply in Scotland?
- How do you keep it from reaching attachment at all?
- Related guides
- Frequently asked questions
For ordinary council tax arrears, sheriff officers cannot take anything from inside your home. Ordinary attachment reaches only goods outside a dwelling, and the one route indoors is an exceptional attachment order granted by a sheriff.
People picture a van outside and a stranger carrying the television down the path. That picture does not come from Scots diligence.
Part of your pay is protected by law
The deduction is set by statutory tables, not the creditor
An arrestment can be stopped or replaced
Worried about your belongings? Get free advice on what can and cannot be taken.
Free & confidential
No obligation
★★★★★Rated 5 stars on Google
No obligation
★★★★★Rated 5 stars on Google
This page is about the process rather than the list: which of the two attachment routes applies, what has to be in place first, and where the goods have to be sitting. If you want the statutory list itself, which belongings are protected from sheriff officers sets it out category by category.
Where do the goods have to be before they can be attached?
Outside your home. Ordinary attachment reaches goods in a garden, on a driveway or at business premises, and it cannot reach the contents of your kitchen or your living room.
The creditor instructs a sheriff officer firm, and the firms working for Scottish councils include Scott & Co, Stirling Park, Walker Love and Alex M Adamson.
The two attachment routes
Scots law splits attachment in two, and which route is in play decides what can be touched.
| The route | What it reaches | What has to be in place first | How it is used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ordinary attachment | Goods outside a dwelling, for example in a garden, on a driveway or at business premises | For an ordinary court debt, a decree with a charge for payment served and expired | No further court application is needed once the earlier steps are done |
| Exceptional attachment order | Non-essential goods inside a dwelling | A separate application to the sheriff, who has to be satisfied there are exceptional circumstances | Rare, and the only route to reaching goods inside a home |
The second route is the only one that reaches goods inside a dwelling, and only a sheriff can grant it. That is what makes your front door a legal boundary rather than a polite one.
Where an item was sitting is the real test
The first question is not what the item is or what it cost. It is where the item was when the officer found it, and only then whether it appears on the protected list.
| Where the item is | Which route can reach it | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Inside the house or flat | Only an exceptional attachment order | Nothing goes on an inventory from inside without a separate order from the sheriff |
| In the garden or on the driveway | Ordinary attachment | These are goods outside a dwelling, so no extra court application is needed |
| A vehicle parked outside | Ordinary attachment, subject to exemption | It may be exempt where it is reasonably required and of modest value |
| A garage, shed or outbuilding | Depends on whether the structure forms part of the dwelling | Not a line to guess at, so ask a money adviser or the officer to confirm which side yours falls |
| Business premises | Ordinary attachment | Stock and equipment there sit outside the dwelling protection entirely |
| Money anywhere in the home | Neither route | Money in the home cannot be attached at all, apart from antique or collector's coins |
Ask for a written inventory of anything attached and check the location recorded on it against your own account. Our guide to what powers sheriff officers have sets out the wider limits on what an officer may do at your door.
What has to be in place before anything can be taken?
For an ordinary court debt, a decree first and then a charge for payment served and expired. Goods inside a home need one further step whatever the debt, a separate application to the sheriff.
Nothing happens on a doorstep decision. For council tax the authority is a summary warrant, granted on the council’s paperwork alone under the power in the Local Government Finance Act 1992.
The sequence, stage by stage
Each stage is triggered by the one before rather than by a calendar. The right-hand column is where council tax differs from an ordinary court debt.
| Stage | What it is | Council tax under a summary warrant |
|---|---|---|
| The creditor gets its authority | A court decree after an action, or a summary warrant granted by the sheriff court on the council's application | A summary warrant, granted with no hearing and a 10% statutory surcharge added to the outstanding council tax |
| A charge for payment is served | A formal demand under s.90 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, giving 14 days to pay in the UK or 28 days if you are abroad or your whereabouts are unknown | The council can move to an earnings arrestment without serving one first |
| The charge expires | The creditor can then execute diligence, and the charge stays valid for diligence for 2 years from service | An exceptional attachment order still needs a charge served and expired |
| Diligence is executed | An earnings arrestment, a bank arrestment, or attachment of goods outside a dwelling | Wages are reached without a visit to your door |
| A separate application for goods indoors | An exceptional attachment order, granted only where the sheriff is satisfied there are exceptional circumstances | The same test applies, whoever the creditor is |
The charge for payment
A charge for payment is served under s.90 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 and gives you 14 days to pay if you are in the UK. That becomes 28 days if you are abroad or your whereabouts are unknown.
A charge remains valid for diligence for 2 years from service, so an expired charge does not put the creditor back to the start. Our guide to what happens after the 14 days expire covers what the creditor can do with it.
For council tax under a summary warrant, the council can move to an earnings arrestment without first serving a charge. A charge is required for ordinary court decrees.
Why wages and bank accounts come first
An earnings arrestment needs no visit to your home at all. On monthly net pay of £1,800.00 the deduction is £172.50, on the tables in force since 6 April 2025 under the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024.
Our wage arrestment calculator works out your own figure, and which creditors can apply for a wage arrestment explains why a council gets there quickly.
Get free, confidential help before enforcement reaches your belongings
What does a sheriff have to be satisfied of before an exceptional attachment order?
That there are exceptional circumstances. The conditions are demanding, and they are as much about the creditor’s conduct and the realistic auction value of your non-essential goods as about you.
The conditions the sheriff weighs
An exceptional attachment order is an application the sheriff can refuse, not a form the creditor fills in.
- A charge for payment has been served and has expired.
- Less intrusive diligence has been tried, or would not recover enough.
- The creditor has made reasonable attempts to negotiate.
- Non-essential goods stand a realistic prospect of raising enough at auction to be worthwhile.
The sheriff also considers whether you have sought money advice and whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme application is under way. Advice is relevant to the decision itself, not only to your budget.
Who is at home when officers call
Entry cannot be attempted where only children under 16, or a person unable to understand the proceedings, are present. That limit applies even where an order has been granted.
An order does not suspend the protected list either, so household essentials stay out of reach. Our guide to whether sheriff officers can force entry covers what an officer may and may not do at the door.
Which of your belongings stay protected whatever happens?
The everyday contents of a household are protected by statute, and nothing on that list can be attached even where an exceptional attachment order has been granted.
The short version of the protected list
In outline the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 protects clothing, beds and bedding, household linen, food, medical aids, a fridge, heating and lighting appliances, and furniture reasonably required for storage, seating and dining.
It also protects cleaning and laundry equipment, curtains and floor coverings, articles for a child’s upbringing, education or health, work or study tools and books up to a total value of £1,000, and household computers and telecoms equipment.
Each category carries its own wording and, in one case, a value cap. Which belongings are protected from sheriff officers sets out the full list with the limits, which is the page to use if you are checking a particular item.
Money kept in the house
Money in the home cannot be attached at all. The single exception is narrow, covering antique or collector’s coins rather than the cash in a jar on the shelf.
A bank account is a different question, because a bank arrestment reaches funds the bank holds rather than goods in your house.
Goods that are not yours
Where an item belongs to a partner or a flatmate, or is owned jointly with someone who does not owe the debt, raise ownership in writing with the officer’s firm and the creditor. Keep any receipt or agreement showing who paid for it.
Goods bought on hire purchase raise the same question while the agreement is still running. Ask a money adviser to help you put the position in writing early.
Can sheriff officers take your car?
A vehicle parked outside sits outside the dwelling, so ordinary attachment can in principle reach it. It may be exempt where it is reasonably required and of modest value.
What the exemption asks
The exemption asks two things: whether the vehicle is reasonably required, and whether it is of modest value. A high value car used for leisure sits very differently from a ten year old hatchback used for shift work.
Do not rely on a money figure from an English page, because that threshold is not the Scottish test. A money adviser or the officer’s inventory can confirm the position, and can sheriff officers take your car in Scotland goes through it.
What to put in writing
- Why the vehicle is needed, for example work, caring duties, a disability or rural transport.
- Roughly what the vehicle is worth, with evidence if you have it.
- Whether it is on hire purchase or belongs to somebody else.
- Your offer of payment, so the letter is not only a refusal.
Send it to the creditor as well as the sheriff officer firm, and keep a copy. For council tax the council makes the decisions, not the firm.
Do the English rules about controlled goods and clamping apply in Scotland?
No. There is no such thing as a controlled goods agreement in Scotland, and sheriff officers do not clamp vehicles.
Sheriff officers are not bailiffs
Sheriff officers are officers of the court, appointed by and accountable to the sheriff. They are not bailiffs, and bailiffs and High Court Enforcement Officers operate in England and Wales under different law.
They are regulated under the Act of Sederunt (Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers Rules) 1991, and the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers maintains a code of practice. Complaints go to the firm first, then that body, then the sheriff principal.
Scottish diligence reaches wages, bank accounts and goods outside a dwelling instead. Our guide to what debts can lead to a wage arrestment shows how wide that route is compared with anything involving your furniture.
Fees, and what gets added to your account
Sheriff officer fees are set by an Act of Sederunt and added to what you owe, so the figure is not one the firm picks. Ask for a written breakdown of anything added to your balance.
Check every figure added to your balance against that breakdown. Guidance on debt and decrees in Scotland is a useful cross-check on anything you are told at the door.
Nobody goes to prison over this
Non-payment of council tax cannot lead to imprisonment in Scotland, and it is not a criminal offence. The committal power that exists in England and Wales does not apply in Scots law.
How do you keep it from reaching attachment at all?
Deal with the debt before goods come into it. A payment arrangement, a Time to Pay Order, the Debt Arrangement Scheme and a statutory moratorium each hold enforcement back in a different way.
Talk to the creditor or the council
For council tax the council owns the debt even once a firm is chasing it, and our council tax debt advice page covers what to ask a recovery team for.
Ask the council about a special payment arrangement covering the arrears, and get whatever is agreed confirmed in writing.
A Time to Pay Order
A Time to Pay Order is competent against a summary warrant, and where the sheriff grants one the sheriff must recall any existing earnings arrestment. For other diligence the sheriff only may recall.
The debt has to be £25,000 or less excluding interest. A Time to Pay Direction is a different route and is not available against summary warrant debt, because a direction responds to a court action.
It is not settled whether an earnings arrestment alone satisfies the conditions, so a money adviser or the sheriff clerk at your local sheriff court can confirm competency on your facts.
The Debt Arrangement Scheme and a moratorium
Once a Debt Payment Programme is approved, an existing earnings arrestment stops and creditors cannot start new diligence. It is run by the Accountant in Bankruptcy through the DAS Administrator, with interest, fees and charges frozen.
A statutory moratorium gives six months of protection and you get one per rolling 12 months. It stops service of a charge for payment, stops new diligence and stops creditor petitions for sequestration.
It does not stop a creditor obtaining a decree, and interest and charges keep accruing throughout.
Whether a creditor can carry on an earnings arrestment your employer is already operating is treated differently in the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s adviser guidance from the general statement of the rule. Ask a money adviser to confirm the position on your facts before relying on it.
A protected trust deed ends an arrestment on the date of protection rather than on signing. Our guide to how to stop a wage arrestment compares the routes side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Can sheriff officers take belongings from inside my house?
Not under an ordinary attachment, which reaches only goods outside a dwelling. Reaching goods inside your home needs an exceptional attachment order from the sheriff, and those are rare.
What goods can sheriff officers take in Scotland?
Goods outside a dwelling, such as items in a garden or on a driveway, and in some cases a vehicle. Household essentials are protected under the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002.
Can sheriff officers take cash from my house?
No. Money in the home cannot be attached at all, apart from a narrow exception for antique or collector’s coins.
Is there a controlled goods agreement in Scotland?
No. That is an English concept, and sheriff officers do not clamp vehicles either, so English guidance does not describe what happens here.
Can they take goods that belong to my partner or flatmate?
Ownership is the point to raise. Put it in writing to both the sheriff officer firm and the creditor, with any evidence of who owns the item.
Do sheriff officers need a charge for payment before attaching goods?
For an ordinary court debt a charge is served first, giving 14 days to pay in the UK or 28 days if you are abroad or your whereabouts are unknown. An exceptional attachment order needs one served and expired whatever the debt is.
Can officers come in if only my children are home?
No. Entry cannot be attempted where only children under 16, or a person unable to understand the proceedings, are present.
Will refusing to let them in make things worse?
There is no power to force entry for ordinary council tax arrears, so you can decline. What a refusal does not stop is enforcement against your wages or your bank account, because neither needs a visit.
Get free, confidential help with sheriff officers today
Free, confidential advice on where you stand and what can be stopped.
Written as general information about Scottish debt law rather than regulated financial or legal advice, and your own circumstances may change the answer. Free, impartial help is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland and National Debtline.