CCJs explained for company directors

A County Court Judgment (CCJ) is a formal court order that says a company owes a debt to a named party. It is registered on a public register (the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines), and it stays on the company’s credit file for six years. CCJs are not common, but when they do appear they are consequential — most lenders treat an unsatisfied CCJ as a significant negative signal. This article explains the lifecycle.

What triggers a CCJ

The path to a CCJ usually starts with an invoice or debt that hasn’t been paid:

1. The creditor sends one or more reminders / demand letters.
2. If unpaid, the creditor’s solicitor sends a “Letter Before Action” formally warning of the intention to issue court proceedings.
3. If still unpaid, the creditor files a claim with the County Court Money Claims Centre (online, for amounts up to £100,000).
4. The company receives the claim form. The company has 14 days to respond — admit, dispute, or request more time.
5. If the company doesn’t respond, the court enters a default judgment. That is the CCJ.
6. If the company responds, the case proceeds — possibly to mediation, possibly to a court hearing, possibly to a judgment one way or the other.

The single most important point: do not ignore a claim form. The 14-day response window matters. Most CCJs are default judgments where the company simply didn’t respond — and most of those are losable on the merits if the company had responded.

What a CCJ actually means

The CCJ is a court-ordered confirmation that the debt is owed. The creditor can now use enforcement tools — instructing High Court Enforcement Officers, getting a charging order against company assets, sometimes applying to wind the company up. The debt itself is the same debt; the CCJ adds the enforceability.

On the credit file, an unsatisfied CCJ is a significant negative signal. A satisfied CCJ (where the debt has been paid in full and the court has issued a Certificate of Satisfaction) is much less so — it’s still visible but it’s marked as resolved.

How to satisfy a CCJ

1. Pay the full amount stated on the judgment (debt + court fees + any interest awarded) to the creditor.
2. Get a confirmation of payment from the creditor.
3. Apply to the court that issued the CCJ for a Certificate of Satisfaction (form N443; fee around £15 if applied for within one month of payment, free if paid within one month of the judgment).
4. Send the Certificate to each CRA holding the CCJ on the company’s file. They update their records on receipt.

How to get a CCJ set aside

If the CCJ was entered in default because you didn’t respond, you can apply to set it aside. The standard grounds: you have a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, AND you have a good reason for not responding. Application is via form N244 and a £255 court fee. Standard outcome is the judgment is set aside and the case is reopened on the merits.

If the CCJ was entered after a hearing and you lost on the merits, set-aside is much harder — you’d be looking at an appeal, which is a different process and one that needs proper legal advice.

How CCJs affect borrowing

An unsatisfied CCJ is a hard exclusion criterion at most fintech lenders, including Credicorp. A satisfied CCJ is a softer signal — most lenders will accept the application but the affordability assessment gets more conservative. The age of the CCJ matters too — a 5-year-old satisfied CCJ has much less weight than a 5-month-old unsatisfied one.

If your company has a CCJ and you’re considering finance, the honest sequence is: address the CCJ first (pay + satisfy if you can, or set aside if you have grounds), then apply for finance. Applying with an active unsatisfied CCJ is almost certain to result in a decline and a recorded credit search that itself looks bad on the file.

For more on how we look at credit data when deciding an application, see affordability over algorithms. For the CCJ register itself, the official public service is at trustonline.org.uk.