County Court Judgements

A County Court Judgement, or CCJ, is a legal decision issued by a County Court to show that an individual has been taken to court to recover a monetary sum. If you have a CCJ this will show on your credit report, which is information held by Credit Reference Agencies, that determines your credit worthiness.

If a company, or individual, has not been able to successfully retrieve debt owed to them they can choose to take the matter to court. The County Court can then order that payment be made, usually in monthly instalments.

If a CCJ is registered against you this will be recorded on your credit report for six years from the date of issue. Your credit report affects your credit rating. Having CCJ's registered against you will decrease your credit rating, making it extremely difficult for you to obtain credit.

If the debt is repaid, although it will continue to show on your credit report, it will be updated as satisfied. However, if you are able to satisfy the CCJ within one month from of the date of issue, it can be completely removed from your credit report altogether.

Bear in mind however that it is your responsibility to ensure that the information on your credit report is correct. If you find that details regarding your CCJ are inaccurate you may need to contact the relevant County Court who can then rectify this. If you have repaid the CCJ and this does not show you will need to obtain a Certificate of Satisfaction from the court before a Credit Reference Agency can update their records.

If you have a CCJ, Default, Repossession Order or even Bankruptcy registered on your credit report, an option you may want to consider would be to apply for a Notice of Correction.

A Notice of Correction is a statement that you can have incorporated into your credit report to explain an entry on it. You should do this if you find there is information on your credit report that, although is factually correct, you believe gives a misleading impression of you.