Understanding judgments & fines

CCJs and county courts

• CCJs: What are they?
• CCJs and credit: mortgages, loans and credit cards
• County court judgment records: How long CCJs stay on record
• Certificate of satisfaction - Satisfied vs unsatisfied CCJs
• Removing a CCJ
• Set aside a judgment
• Enforcing judgments
• Default judgments
• County courts: How they work
• County court judgment forms

Certficates of satisfaction

Lenders look at information from the CCJ register when deciding whether to offer credit or not. Getting a mortgage with a CCJ, for instance, can be difficult.

If the register shows you’ve got a CCJ and haven’t paid it off, it’s even more difficult to get credit.

Getting a certificate of satisfaction

If you pay a CCJ more than a month after the judgment date, it stays on the register for six years. There is no way to remove it.

If you’ve paid the CCJ in full, however, you can apply to have it shown as satisfied by proving it to the court and by getting a certificate of satisfaction.

This will show anyone searching the register that you have paid, and when you did so.

• Step by step Here’s what to do to get a judgment marked as satisfied. You will have to do this yourself if the person who got the CCJ against you didn’t tell the court when you paid.
• Search the register First, search the register to see what it shows about you. If the CCJ is shown as unsatisfied, but you’ve paid in full, you can apply to have this corrected.
• Contact the court Contact the court that last heard your case. You’ll need to fill out a form. You also need the claim number of the CCJ.
• Get confirmation You’ll need proof that you’ve paid in full (so get a receipt). If you can’t get this proof, the court will write to the person who won the CCJ.
• Pay the fee There is a fee of £15 – the court will give you more details of this.

The court will then write to you to confirm the CCJ is marked as satisfied. This only happens if you pay in full. Part repayment of CCJs is not recorded.

Other options

If there is a genuine problem with the CCJ, you may be able to apply for the judgment to be set aside. And if you paid a county court judgment in full within a month, it shouldn’t be on the register at all.