- A CCJ is a court order to repay a debt. It stays on your credit file for six years.
- Paid in full within one month of the judgment, it can be removed from the register altogether.
- Lenders look at how many CCJs, how large, how recent, and whether they’re satisfied (paid).
- Paying an old CCJ and getting a certificate of satisfaction usually helps.
What is a CCJ?
If you owe money and a creditor takes you to court, the court can issue a county court judgment ordering you to pay. It’s recorded on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, and on your credit file, for six years from the date of the judgment. (Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems.)
Sometimes people only find out about a CCJ when they apply for credit, for example if court papers went to an old address. If that happened, it may be possible to apply to have the judgment set aside.
Satisfied or unsatisfied?
A CCJ is satisfied once you’ve paid it in full. You can ask the court for a certificate of satisfaction, and the register is updated to show it’s been paid. It still stays on your file for the six years, but lenders generally view a satisfied CCJ more kindly than an unsatisfied one.
If you pay in full within one month of the judgment, you can ask for it to be removed from the register completely.
What lenders look at
- How many: one CCJ is treated very differently from several.
- How much: a small judgment for a disputed bill is not the same as a large unpaid debt.
- How recent: the longer ago, the more lenders will consider it.
- Satisfied or not: many lenders want it paid; some can look past an unsatisfied one.
- Everything else: deposit size, other credit problems, and how you’ve managed since.