If you’ve just found out that you have a county court judgment or CCJ against your name, you may not yet understand that the consequences can be disastrous. You may know that you might have problems getting credit, for example, a mortgage or car finance. You may not yet know, however, that it can also impact your job prospects.
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 register. Make sure, when you pay, that you get them to confirm that they’ve let the court have this important information.
(You can do it yourself too – there’s a fee of £15 and you have to send proof of payment.)
If you’ve let more than a month go by before you pay it, the CCJ isn’t removed from your credit record. It is now marked as “satisfied” – so it’s a little easier for you to get credit. It stays on the register, but anyone doing a credit check will see you paid it, even outside the period of the month.
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?
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 couldn’t pay it off within the allowed month.
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.
If the judgment is set aside, the CCJ is removed from the register 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!
For best results, go direct to https://removemyccj.com/ where our friendly team of experts will set your life back on track for a fraction of the cost of a firm of solicitors.
0345 548 2000Removemyccj.com is a trading style of Lender & Court Ltd