County Court Judgments (CCJs) explained

A County Court Judgment is simply a court order that one party owes another a specific sum of money. It is not a punishment, not a criminal record, and not in itself a means of enforcement — it is the judicial finding that a debt is due, on which subsequent enforcement methods can be based.

On the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines maintained by Registry Trust Ltd under section 98 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. Free to search at trustonline.org.uk for £6 per name.

Six years from the date of judgment, unless paid in full within 30 days (then removed) or set aside (then removed if within one calendar month, otherwise marked as set aside).

All major credit reference agencies pull from the Registry. A CCJ typically reduces a credit score by 100–250 points. Lending applications during the six years are often declined or priced higher.

Most letting agents run a credit check. A CCJ — especially an unsatisfied one — leads to many private landlords refusing the application or requiring a guarantor.

County Court Judgments (CCJs) explained

What a CCJ actually is

The reason CCJs loom so large in everyday life is the credit-file consequence. Every CCJ entered in England and Wales is registered automatically with Registry Trust Ltd, the company that runs the statutory Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines under section 98 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. The major credit reference agencies — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion — pull from this register. So a single missed defence in a routine debt claim can cause a CCJ that knocks 200 points off the defendant's credit score and stays visible for six years.

Because most CCJs are entered by default — meaning the defendant did not respond within the 14-day acknowledgement period — they are often a surprise to the people they affect. The first the defendant knows about it is often when they apply for a mortgage, a phone contract, or a tenancy. By that point, the 30-day removal window may have closed.

The four things to know

The 30-day removal rule

If a defendant pays the judgment in full within one calendar month of it being entered, the entry on the Register of Judgments is removed entirely — not just marked satisfied. The CCJ effectively never happened from a credit-file perspective.

The mechanism is Form N443 (Certificate of Satisfaction). The defendant pays, asks the creditor to confirm payment, and either the creditor or the defendant files Form N443 at the court. The court then certifies the judgment as paid and notifies Registry Trust. If the certificate reaches Registry Trust within the calendar month, the entry is deleted. If it arrives a day later, the entry is marked "satisfied" but stays visible for the full six years.

For claimants, this 30-day rule is your best leverage. A defendant who has just received a default judgment and faces six years of credit damage will often pay immediately if you make clear that prompt payment will erase the record entirely.

Six years after the date of judgment, the entry falls off the Registry Trust register and disappears from credit files. From that point, the CCJ no longer affects the defendant's ability to borrow. The underlying judgment debt may still technically exist but section 24(1) of the Limitation Act 1980 bars further enforcement actions without the court's permission, which is rarely granted.

In practice, most CCJs are either satisfied within 30 days, satisfied later in the six years and marked accordingly, or quietly time out. The proportion that result in actual enforcement is small — around one in four. The threat of a CCJ does most of the work.

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