County Court Judgements
What is a County Court Judgment?
A County Court Judgment (CCJ) is a type of court order which might be registered against you if you fail to repay money you owe. This will order you to make specific repayments on your debt and can lead to bailiff action if you don’t.
A CCJ is sometimes referred to as a County Court Summons and in Scotland the process is called enforcing a debt by diligence.
What Does It Mean For You?
Before receiving a County Court claim, the creditor must send you a warning letter or default notice, informing you of what you owe and that without repayment, legal action will start.
The County Court letter should tell you how you can respond and what action might be taken if you don’t. It must also include a copy of the Financial Conduct Authority’s default information sheet.
You can -
- Agree that you owe money and provide proof of how much you can afford to repay per month. This is done by filling in the Income and Expenditure form detailing all your income and outgoings. This will show the court how much money you have to pay off the debt.
- Disagree with the debt owed and file a defence against the CCJ.
- Acknowledge the letter and explain that you will defend against the claim but need longer than the standard 14 days to prepare your defence.
If you ignore the letter or notice, the court will issue a judgment but they won’t be able to take your circumstances into account and so they may order you to pay more than you can afford.
Get independent financial advice and know your options in responding to a CCJ, including where to turn for help.
Receiving the judgment
The court can issue
- a judgment by instalments, where you pay the debt off over time at a rate they believe is fair, or
- a judgment forthwith, where the whole amount you owe is due immediately.
If you don’t respond to the claim letter, then the court can’t take your circumstances into account, and they’ll still enter a judgment against you – known as a judgment in default.
In both cases, you can ask the court to look again if the repayments are more than you can reasonably afford. This is called a redetermination.
If you don’t keep to the terms of a CCJ
If you receive a CCJ and don’t keep to the terms it sets out, the creditor can ask the court to enforce the debt.
There are several ways that they can do this:
- Bailiff action -
- A creditor can apply to the county court for a bailiff to collect the debt. If the court grants permission, it will issue a Warrant of Execution.
- This gives the bailiff the power to visit your home or business to collect the money you owe, or to seize goods that could be sold to repay the debt.
- You can ask the court to suspend the warrant and let you pay back the money at an affordable rate.
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Attachment of Earnings Order -
- An Attachment of Earnings Order asks for the money owed to be deducted by your employer from your wages. If this will cause you problems, get help from a debt adviser.
- Charging Order -
- If you have equity in a property, then the creditor can ask for a Charging Order to be secured against it. This makes it very important that you pay back your debt, otherwise it could mean you’ll lose the property the Charging Order is secured on, which could be your house.
Will My Debts Be Written Off?
Your debts will not be written off through a CCJ, however you might repay your debts in full during a CCJ.
Will a County Court Judgement Affect My Credit Score?
Unless you pay off a CCJ in full within 30 days of receiving the judgment, it will be put on your credit report and remain there for 6 years.
This will make it more expensive to borrow money and can negatively affect your ability to get a mortgage or qualify for a mobile phone contract.
How to avoid receiving a CCJ
If you find you’re struggling to make your repayments, speak to a free debt adviser.
They can help you make an offer to your creditors and come to an arrangement that allows you to go on making payments you can afford and avoid court action.