What happens if I don’t pay a CCJ?

What is a ccj?

County court judgements are judgements placed upon you by the court when a claimant brings a claim against you and you then fail to defend this claim or defend it but lose the case.

A county court judgement can ruin your credit report and history and will usually stay on your credit file for 6 years before it is wiped off.

When a ccj claim form comes through your letterbox you will usually have 14 days to respond to the ccj. This means that if you do not respond to the ccj within 14 days the judgement will be placed against you by default.

What happens if you don’t pay a ccj?

If you receive a ccj and then don’t pay it within 30 days then the judgement will be placed against your name and will be visible on your credit file for 6 years.

If you, however, pay the ccj within those 30 days then the ccj will be wiped from your credit file. If you pay the ccj after the 30 days then ccj will be marked as satisfied on your credit file.

If you don’t pay a ccj then the person or company who requested the ccj can ask the court to enforce the judgement against you. This means they can send bailiffs to your house to repossess your assets and sell them to reclaim the money you owe.

They can file an attachment of earnings to the court so the court can instruct your employer to pay your salary directly to the court. The court will then pay this to you.

If you don’t pay the ccj then the person or entity you owe could also ask the court to place a charging order on your property. A charging order is a charge placed on your property which could allow the charge holder to repossess the property. This could eventually result in a home repossession.

To find out if you have a CCJ against your name you should check your credit reports with all three credit bureaus in the UK.

If you need financial advice and you live in the UK then you could contact the Money Advice service over the phone or via chat for impartial advice.

You can also contact the debt charity “Step Change” if you are in debt and need help.