CCJ Check: The Free Way and the Paid Official Register

That fee is worth mentioning immediately, because a lot of pages promise a free official check and there is not one. What is free is your statutory credit report, which shows CCJs registered against you and is usually enough for most purposes.

The two ways to check, and which you want

Your credit report, free, and usually sufficient

CCJs appear on your credit file for six years. All three main agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, must provide a statutory report free of charge, and several services offer ongoing free access.

This is the right route if you are asking "do I have a CCJ?" about yourself. It shows the judgment, the amount, the date and whether it has been satisfied.

It has one limitation: it only shows judgments registered against the addresses linked to your credit file. A judgment obtained against an old address you never updated can sit outside it.

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The official register goes further. It records judgments against a name and address regardless of whether they reached your credit file, which is exactly the gap that catches people out after a house move.

Searches cost a few pounds each. For a business, or where a judgment is suspected but not showing on a credit report, this is the definitive check.

Judgments you never knew about

This is the most common reason people search, and it happens more often than it should.

A claim is issued to the address the creditor holds. If you have moved, or the address was never updated, the paperwork goes somewhere you will not see it. You do not respond, and judgment is entered in default, without any hearing, and without you ever knowing a claim existed.

The first sign is usually a credit application being refused, or an enforcement agent arriving about a debt you cannot place.

If that has happened, the important point is that a default judgment can be set aside. Where you did not receive the claim, the court has power to cancel the judgment and let the case start properly. Applications are expected promptly once you learn of it, so delay weakens the position, but it is a real remedy rather than a technicality.

What the register actually shows

Each entry gives the case number, the court, the date, the amount, and whether the judgment has been satisfied. It covers County Court judgments, High Court judgments, administration orders, and certain fines.

Two things it does not show: who the creditor was in a way that always makes sense to a layperson, and what the debt was originally for. Entries are frequently in the name of a debt purchaser rather than the company you dealt with, which is why people find a judgment and cannot identify it.

The case number is the thread to pull. With it, the issuing court can tell you who brought the claim.

Getting a CCJ removed or marked satisfied

Three distinct outcomes, often confused:

Paid within one month of judgment, the entry is removed from the register entirely, as though it had never been made. This is the only route to full removal by payment, and the month runs from the judgment date.

Paid after one month, the entry is marked *satisfied*. It stays visible for the full six years, but shows as settled, which lenders treat considerably more favourably than an outstanding judgment.

Set aside, the judgment is cancelled and the register entry removed. This requires a court application and grounds, most commonly that you never received the claim.

You will need to send Registry Trust proof of payment, or the court order, to have the register updated. It is not automatic, and it is a common reason a satisfied judgment continues to show as outstanding months later.

Where a CCJ leads if it is left

An unpaid judgment does not simply sit there. The creditor can apply for a warrant of control, which authorises enforcement agents to take control of goods, or transfer the judgment to the High Court for enforcement by a High Court Enforcement Officer where it is £600 or more.

Other routes include an attachment of earnings taken from your wages, a charging order securing the debt against your home, or a third party debt order against your bank account.

This is why checking matters. A judgment discovered early can often be dealt with by instalments agreed with the court; one discovered when an agent is at the door has already collected fees and narrowed the options.

If you have found one

• Get the case number and the issuing court, everything else follows from those two facts.

• If you never received the claim, look at setting the judgment aside before anything else.

• If it is right and recent, check whether you are inside the one-month window for full removal.

• If you cannot pay it in full, you can apply to the court to vary the payment terms to instalments you can manage.

• If an agent is already involved, the warrant can be suspended by application while an instalment order is considered.

Free advice on judgments and enforcement is available from Citizens Advice and National Debtline. If a judgment has turned into enforcement action and you are working out what to do first, we can go through it with you.

If you do have one

A judgment is the step that makes enforcement possible, not enforcement itself. Our guide to CCJs and bailiffs explains the four enforcement routes and how to stop a warrant, and warrant of control covers suspending one on form N245. If the judgment should never have been entered, see the letter before claim and responding to a court claim.