Enforcement guidance - Enforcement cost recovery notices

The Council may serve a notice (an enforcement cost recovery notice) on a person on whom a compliance or stop notice has been served which requires that person to re-pay what it has cost the Cumberland Council to enforce the law before the notice is issued.

There is no limit on what types of costs apply but they will include:

• investigation costs
• administration costs
• costs of obtaining expert advice (including legal advice)

We can only recover costs that were necessary for us to enforce the law.

The enforcement cost recovery notice must tell a person:

• how payment may be made
• the amount required to be paid
• the period in which payment must be made
• why the notice has been issued
• how a person can appeal
• what the consequences of a failure to comply with the notice might be

The person can ask the council to provide a detailed breakdown of the amount.

Appeals against enforcement cost recovery notice

The person required to pay the costs may appeal against the Council’s decision to require them to pay costs or against their decision about the amount of those costs.

Anyone wishing to appeal a decision should do so in writing to The First Tier Tribunal General Regulatory Chamber.

How we enforce payments

Cumberland Council may choose to recover unpaid penalties as a civil debt (by registering a claim in court) or by applying to a court for an order so we can enforce the payment through a:

• warrant of control, allowing a county court bailiff to take control of goods or money to the value of the amount being recovered
• charging order, placing a charge on property so that the debt due is paid from the proceeds of sale before the debtor receives them
• third party debt order, requiring a third party to pay the outstanding debt directly to the creditor from the debtor‘s money. Court fees can also be recovered from the debtor