If you have a CCJ against your name, the results could be serious if you don’t take action quickly. You can be prevented from getting credit; it can even prevent you from getting a job.
You can get the CCJ removed – or you can stop it being registered at all.
If you pay your CCJ within a month, as long as the court knows that, the CCJ will be removed from your credit record. It’s as though it never existed.
It’s important to understand, though, that the person you’re paying has to let the court know you’ve paid. The court won’t know otherwise, and the CCJ will stay on the Public Register of Judgements for 6 years Make sure, when you pay, that you get them to confirm that they’ve let the court have this important information.
We would advise that you also do it yourself as well, send proof of payment along with a cheque or postal order for £15.00 payable to HMCTS (Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunal Service) and ask for a Certificate of Cancellation.
If you’ve let more than a month go by before you pay it, the CCJ isn’t removed from your credit record or the Public Register of Judgements. It is now merely marked as “Satisfied” – which means paid. However this will have little effect on your Credit Score.
The CCJ is removed from your credit record automatically after 6 years from the date of the judgment and you don’t have to do a thing other than wait for it to happen. The creditor can’t enforce it after this point, even if you don’t pay.
If you’re well into the 6-year period, this could be a possible option for you. But if it’s only just been recorded, you would have to wait for the full 6-year period with a poor credit rating, and all the negative impact that has on your life. Can you afford to take that chance?
In addition to this with some claimants and debts, they will apply to the court to issue a High Court Writ of Control. Have you seen the programme on TV “Can’t Pay we’ll take it away” well these are the type of High Court Enforcement officers that will visit your home or business. If this has happened you must take advice straight away as each time the High Court Enforcement Officers attend, they will add £500 to your debt.
The court can set aside a judgment if it is a “default judgment” – meaning, it is one made by the court when the defendant doesn’t acknowledge the claim or defend themselves in any way. So, if you were at the hearing when the judgment was given, or if you admitted to owing the money, for example, this does not count as a default judgment.
If you can show you have a good case and can defend the claim successfully, or if you can give a good reason why you should be allowed to defend it now, the judgment can be set aside. An example of this might be if the claim form was sent to the wrong address so you had no knowledge of it and therefore couldn’t pay it off within the permitted period of time.
The court is also at liberty to set aside a judgment if you didn’t attend the hearing – but there has to be reasonable grounds for your non-attendance. This could be that you were away from your home or business for a long period of time. It could be that you were in hospital unwell or working away.
If the judgment is set aside, the CCJ is removed from the Public Register of Judgements immediately. It will be as though it had never existed.
The most important thing is to do something about it as soon as you realise that a CCJ has been made against you. One of the key things a court takes into account is how promptly you have acted. To have the best chance of having a judgment set aside, you need to act quickly – don’t bury your head in the sand and hope your judgment will go away: it won’t! and you may end up with a High Court Enforcement Officer at your door with a High Court Writ of Control.
Call our friendly team today on 0345 548 2000 to discuss your case or fill out the form and one of our Senior Advisors will call you.
0345 548 2000Removemyccj.com is a trading style of Lender & Court Ltd