Paying Off a CCJ: the One-Month Rule

The public record of judgments is the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, kept by Registry Trust for the Ministry of Justice under the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005.

Regulation 11 draws the line that matters. Where it comes to the attention of the court officer that "the debt to which the entry relates has been satisfied one month or less from the date of the judgment", that officer must ask the Registrar to cancel the entry. Where the debt is satisfied more than one month from the date of judgment, the officer asks instead for the entry to be endorsed as satisfied. Regulation 16 obliges the Registrar to act on whichever request arrives.

Three points about the timing are easy to get wrong:

• The clock runs from the date of the judgment — not the date it reached you or the date you found out.
• The period is one calendar month, not thirty days. Treat it as 30 days anyway: that is what most guidance and our own CCJ satisfaction window calculator work to, and it leaves no argument about whether you were in time.
• It is satisfaction that must happen inside the month, not the paperwork. Regulation 14 lets an entry already endorsed as satisfied be cancelled once the officer accepts the debt was in fact paid within the month.

Regulation 11 also requires cancellation where the judgment "has been set aside or reversed" — a second, entirely different route off the Register, covered below.

The words look similar; the practical difference is large.

Cancelled. The entry is deleted. A search of the Register — and of the credit file entries the three agencies build from it — shows nothing. A lender cannot see that a judgment was ever entered.

Satisfied. The entry survives with a note attached: anyone searching sees a County Court Judgment against your name, its amount, the court, and the fact it has since been paid. Under regulation 26 the entry is removed six years from the date of judgment whether or not it was ever paid. Satisfying it improves how the entry reads; it does not shorten how long it is read for.

That is why the month is worth real effort. A satisfied judgment reads better than an unsatisfied one when a lender reviews a file by hand, but automated decision engines often screen on the presence of a judgment rather than its status. Raising the full amount inside the month buys a clean record rather than a tidy one.

"Satisfied" means the judgment debt is paid in full. Getting the figure wrong is the commonest way people lose the window.

Ask the claimant for a settlement figure in writing. The judgment sum is usually the debt plus the court fee plus fixed costs, and it may be accruing interest. Under the County Courts (Interest on Judgment Debts) Order 1991 a judgment for £5,000 or more carries interest from the date of judgment at the section 17 Judgments Act 1838 rate, currently 8% a year. That Order excludes judgments given in proceedings to recover money due under a Consumer Credit Act 1974 regulated agreement, and suspended possession orders — so most credit card, loan, and catalogue judgments carry no statutory interest.

Pay the claimant, not the court, unless the judgment says otherwise — courts do not collect ordinary judgment debts for creditors.

Part payment does not count, and neither does keeping up with an instalment order: the debt is not satisfied until the last instalment clears, long past the month.

Get proof. Ask for a letter confirming the debt is settled in full and stating the payment date, and keep the bank record — if the claimant is uncooperative, that cleared-payment record is what saves the application.

Regulation 17 lets a registered debtor apply for a certificate of satisfaction; the same route produces a certificate of cancellation where the debt was paid inside the month. The application must be in writing with the fee — in practice form N443, "Application for a certificate of satisfaction/cancellation", sent to the county court that issued the judgment.

Send with it:

1. The completed N443 — claim number, court, parties, date of judgment, and the date the debt was paid.
2. Evidence of payment: the claimant's written confirmation, supported by a bank statement.
3. The court fee. The GOV.UK civil court fee list (EX50), updated July 2026, gives £19 for an "application for a certificate of satisfaction or cancellation of a judgment debt". Fees are revised periodically, so check the current EX50 first; if you cannot afford it, apply for Help with Fees (EX160) at the same time.

If the claimant will not confirm payment, say so on the form: the court can write to them and, if they do not reply within about a month, may issue the certificate anyway. Once satisfied, the court sends its request to the Registrar, who cancels or endorses the entry; the credit reference agencies pick the change up on their next refresh from Registry Trust, so allow a few weeks. Check the entry afterwards at TrustOnline.

Most consumer CCJs are default judgments: entered without a hearing because nobody filed an acknowledgment of service or defence in time. If the judgment should never have been entered, setting it aside removes it from the Register under regulation 11(2)(b) — the same clean deletion as paying inside the month.

There are two routes. The court must set aside a default judgment wrongly entered — where the claim was already paid, or judgment was entered before the time for filing a defence expired. Otherwise it may set the judgment aside if you have a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, or there is some other good reason to let you defend.

Apply on form N244 (Application Notice) to the court that issued the judgment. On the July 2026 EX50 list an application on notice where no other fee is specified costs £321, again subject to Help with Fees. Send a witness statement and a draft defence — an application with no defence attached rarely succeeds, because the court is being asked whether that defence has a real prospect.

When is it realistic? Not being able to pay is not a ground. The applications that work usually involve a claim form served at an address you had already left; a statute-barred debt; a debt that was not yours or was already settled; or a demonstrably wrong amount. Those that fail are brought months later with no explanation — promptness is an express factor, and delay sinks otherwise arguable cases.

Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion take judgment data from the Register, so the two move together. A cancelled judgment vanishes from both; a satisfied one shows on both, marked satisfied, until six years from the date of judgment.

Satisfying a judgment does not restore your file: the underlying account is usually also recorded as defaulted by the lender, and that default runs its own six years from the default date. Even a cancelled judgment leaves that default in place — cancellation only ever touched the judgment entry.

Check all three credit reports about a month after the certificate is issued. If the Register has updated but a credit file has not, raise a dispute with the agency and send the certificate — see credit reference disputes. If a lender still reports the debt as outstanding, that is a separate complaint the Financial Ombudsman Service can consider once the lender's process is exhausted or eight weeks have passed.

A judgment is what makes enforcement possible. If it is not paid on its terms, the claimant can apply for any of the following, each a separate application with its own fee:

• A warrant of control — enforcement agents attend to take goods (EX50 fee £96 as at July 2026): see bailiff conduct and fees.
• An attachment of earnings order — deductions taken from your wages: see attachment of earnings orders.
• A charging order — the judgment is secured against your home, and can be followed by an order for sale: see charging orders on property.
• A third party debt order — money taken from your bank account, or from someone who owes you money.
• An order to obtain information — you are summoned to answer questions on oath about income and assets; failing to attend can be contempt.

Two things work in your favour. Article 4 of the 1991 Order provides that where a creditor takes enforcement proceedings in the county court the judgment debt ceases to carry interest thereafter. And you can apply on form N245, with a statement of income and outgoings, to vary the judgment to instalments you can afford — a realistic offer you keep to is worth far more than an unaffordable one you default on. If enforcement has begun, get free advice first: National Debtline, StepChange, and Citizens Advice all handle judgment debts at no cost.