What is an enquiry agent, what do solicitors use one for, and is it the same as a private investigator?

What an enquiry agent does

The name describes the job. A law firm or a creditor has a question it cannot answer from its desk, and the enquiry agent goes and finds out. The core of the work is long established:

• Tracing. Finding the current address of a defendant, debtor, witness, beneficiary or former tenant.
• Process serving. Delivering court documents to the right person and providing evidence that it was done.
• Statements. Visiting a witness, taking down what they say and getting it signed.
• Pre-litigation reports. Reporting on whether the person a client intends to sue can be found and appears able to pay, before money is spent on a claim.
• Attendance. Visiting an address to confirm who lives or trades there, and in some cases surveillance.

Some agents do all of it. Many specialise in one or two parts and pass the rest on.

Enquiry agent, tracing agent, process server, private investigator: are they the same trade?

Largely, yes. They are overlapping names for one trade, and the same person may use all four depending on who is asking.

"Enquiry agent" is the term law firms still use among themselves. "Private investigator" is what the public searches for. "Tracing agent" and "process server" name the two tasks instructed most often. What matters is not the title but which task you need done. Our comparison of tracing agents, private investigators and people-search sites goes further, and what is a tracing agent? covers the narrower job.

Is an enquiry agent licensed or regulated?

There is no licence in the UK for enquiry agents, tracing agents, process servers or private investigators. Provision to license private investigation has been on the statute book since 2001 and has never been brought into force, so anyone may use any of the titles.

What does apply is the general law. An agent who traces people or gathers information about them is processing personal data, so UK data protection law applies: registration with the Information Commissioner's Office, a lawful basis recorded for each instruction, and proper care of what is collected. Obtaining personal data from an organisation by deception is a criminal offence, and harassment law applies to an agent as it does to anyone else. The checks worth making are practical ones:

• Is the agent on the Information Commissioner's register?
• Do they ask why you need the work done, and record the answer?
• Is there a named person or a company you can look up and hold to account?
• Will they refuse an instruction that has no lawful purpose?

How to choose a tracing agent has the full checklist.

What solicitors use enquiry agents for

Litigation, debt recovery, property, probate and family departments all use them, usually for the same handful of reasons.

• Before a claim. Confirming where the proposed defendant lives now, because serving at an address the client had reason to think was out of date puts any judgment at risk. See serving documents when the address is unknown.
• Service. Personal service where the rules or the court require it, and evidence of service afterwards.
• Enforcement. Finding a judgment debtor who has moved since the judgment. See tracing for enforcement.
• Probate. Locating a beneficiary or next of kin so an estate can be distributed. See tracing for probate.
• Evidence. Finding a witness and taking a statement.

In most of these the first thing the file needs is a current address, and often it is the only thing.

What an enquiry agent costs and how it is charged

There is no standard tariff. Work that involves travel and time, such as serving documents, taking a statement or attending an address, is usually charged as a fixed fee for a set number of attempts, or by the hour with mileage and expenses on top. Reports and background enquiries are normally quoted case by case. Tracing is the part most often sold at a fixed price, and firms have routinely paid £150 to £350 and more for a trace through traditional agents, in many cases whether or not the person was found.

Three questions keep the bill predictable. Is the fee fixed or hourly? What is charged if the enquiry fails? What will you receive at the end: a dated written report, or a line in an email? What a tracing agent costs in the UK sets out the market in more detail.

When the address is all you need

A large share of enquiry agent instructions come down to one question: where does this person live now? That does not need an hourly rate or a visit. Trace Bureau is run by a private investigator and does that one task at a fixed price: more than 150 sources, registers and records, cross-referenced and checked by a person. You receive a dated PDF report with the person's current registered UK address and a confidence rating of Confirmed, Probable or Possible.

Standard is £100 within 3 to 5 working days, Express £150 within 48 hours and Priority £195 within 24 hours. Firms that instruct regularly pay £85 per trace on a firm account. There is nothing to pay when you instruct. Your card is only held, and it is charged only when a result verified by a private investigator is delivered rated Confirmed or Probable. A Possible result is offered at half price and you choose whether to take it. Not found, no fee. Coverage is the UK only, and if the evidence points abroad you are told and not charged. The page for solicitors explains how firms instruct.

When you need the wider enquiry

An address does not serve the papers, take the statement or tell you what someone owns. If the job is personal service, a witness to interview, a visit to an address, surveillance or a picture of someone's assets, you need an enquiry agent or investigator who does that work, and you should expect it to be priced by time. Our sister service, Investigation Bureau, handles surveillance, process serving, asset tracing and wider enquiries. Trace Bureau only finds addresses.

The two fit together. Get the address first, at a fixed price, then spend on service or enquiries at a door you know is the right one.

When to instruct a professional trace

Instruct a trace when you have a lawful reason to know where someone is now, such as money owed, legal proceedings and service, probate, a former tenancy or a commercial dispute, and you have the person's full legal name plus a date of birth or a previous address. Personal reasons are refused, except consent-based reconnection, where a message is passed on and the person decides. Instruct a trace online in about five minutes. Nothing is charged unless the person is found.