How do I get a CCJ marked as satisfied or cancelled?

The public record is the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, kept by Registry Trust. Regulation 11 of the 2005 Regulations draws the line that matters: where the debt is satisfied one month or less from the date of judgment, the entry must be cancelled — deleted, so a search shows nothing at all. Satisfied later, and the entry is merely endorsed as paid while remaining visible for six years from the judgment date.

Getting the payment right

The clock runs from the date of the judgment, not the date you found out about it. Treat the window as 30 days rather than a calendar month so there is nothing to argue about. Ask the claimant for a written settlement figure: the judgment sum usually includes the court fee and fixed costs, and judgments of £5,000 or more attract interest at 8% a year — though judgments on regulated consumer credit agreements are excluded, so most credit card and loan judgments carry none.

Pay the claimant, not the court, unless the judgment says otherwise. Part payment does not count, and neither does keeping up with an instalment order — the debt is not satisfied until the final instalment clears. Get written confirmation of settlement stating the payment date, and keep the bank record.

The application

Send form N443 to the county court that issued the judgment, with the claim number, the parties, the judgment date, the date the debt was paid, the evidence, and the fee — £19 on the current civil court fee list, with Help with Fees available on form EX160. If the claimant will not confirm payment, say so: the court can write to them and may issue the certificate anyway if they do not reply within about a month.

Once the court sends its request the Registrar updates the Register, and the credit reference agencies pick the change up on their next refresh, so allow a few weeks before checking your reports. An entry already endorsed "satisfied" can still be converted to a cancellation if you can show the debt was in fact paid inside the month.

The other route off the Register is setting the judgment aside on form N244, which costs £321 for an application on notice and needs a witness statement and a draft defence. It works where the claim was served at an address you had left, the debt was statute-barred or not yours, or the amount is demonstrably wrong. Being unable to pay is not a ground, and delay is fatal. Note that cancellation never touches the lender's separate default entry, which runs its own six years.