Setting Aside a CCJ: When Bailiffs Are Enforcing a Judgment You Missed

The application is made on form N244, and it does not stop enforcement on its own, so a stay usually has to be asked for at the same time.

This page explains when a court will set a default judgment aside, how the application works, and what it does and does not do to the enforcement already in motion. It is about judgments you want to challenge; if you accept the debt and simply cannot pay it at once, a set-aside is the wrong application, and the routes that fit are further down.

First, confirm what you are dealing with

Before applying, get the basics from the paperwork or the court: the claimant's name, the claim number, the court, the date of judgment and the amount. If the first you heard was an enforcement letter, check whether a CCJ exists on the public register, where records of judgments are kept for six years unless the full amount is paid within a month. Then phone the court named on the papers and ask for the date the claim form was issued, the address it was served at, and the date judgment was entered. Those three facts decide which of the routes below you are on.

If the debt was never yours at all, someone else's name, a stranger's liability at your address, start instead with bailiffs chasing a debt that isn't yours, because correcting the record may matter as much as any application.

When the court must set the judgment aside

Part 13 of the Civil Procedure Rules draws a line between judgments wrongly entered and judgments properly entered against someone who did not respond. Under rule 13.2, if a default judgment was wrongly entered, the court must set it aside. That covers cases where the conditions for entering default judgment were not met, for example judgment entered before your time for responding had expired, or after you had in fact filed an acknowledgment or defence, and cases where the whole of the claim was satisfied before judgment was entered, meaning the debt had already been paid.

If your case fits rule 13.2, the court has no discretion to refuse. It is still on you to apply and to prove the facts, so get the court file dates in writing and exhibit them.

When the court may set it aside

Most applications run under rule 13.3, where the court may set aside or vary a default judgment if:

• the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim; or
• there is some other good reason why the judgment should be set aside or the defendant allowed to defend.

A real prospect of defending means a genuine, arguable defence with some substance: the debt was not owed or not owed in that amount, the goods or services were never provided, the agreement was not yours, the claim was brought against the wrong person, or the sum claimed ignores payments made. It does not need to be a certain winner at this stage, but it must be more than a bare denial, and the court will expect to see it set out in your evidence, usually with a draft defence attached.

Here is the trap in the old-address case: not receiving the claim form is not, by itself, a defence. The service rules can be satisfied by post to a last known address, so a judgment can be regularly entered even though you never saw the claim. Never having had the chance to respond is a powerful part of "some other good reason", and judges recognise the unfairness, but the application lands far better when it also shows what your defence would actually be. Say both: I did not know, and had I known, this is what I would have said.

Promptness can decide the case

Rule 13.3 says in terms that the matters the court must have regard to include whether the application was made promptly. Courts take that seriously, and delay after discovering the judgment has sunk applications that were otherwise respectable. The clock that matters is not the age of the judgment, it is the time between you learning of it and you applying. A judgment from years ago can be set aside where you only just found out; a judgment discovered six months ago and sat on may not be, however good the defence.

So move quickly, and if some delay has already happened, explain it honestly in your evidence rather than hoping it goes unnoticed.

How the application works

The application goes to the court on form N244, the general application notice, supported by evidence: the rules require an application under rule 13.3 to be supported by evidence, in practice a witness statement telling the story, exhibiting the documents, and attaching your draft defence. GOV.UK's guidance on cancelling a judgment currently puts the court fee at £321, and the Help with Fees scheme can reduce or remove it depending on your benefits, income and savings.

Expect a hearing. GOV.UK describes it as a private hearing at which you explain your case, and warns that if you do not attend, the application will be rejected and the judgment amount stands. Take copies of everything you filed, and be ready to answer the two questions the judge cares about: why did this judgment get entered without you, and what is your defence worth.

Enforcement does not stop by itself

Filing a set-aside application does not automatically suspend the warrant or writ. Until a judge orders otherwise, the enforcement remains live, which is why a set-aside is so often paired with an application for a stay of execution under rule 83.7, made on the same N244, asking the court to hold enforcement until the set-aside is decided. The grounds, evidence and urgent options are covered in the stay of execution guide.

Whatever you file, tell the enforcement firm and the creditor in writing, attaching the sealed application, and ask them to hold action pending the hearing. Many will, because enforcing a judgment that is about to be set aside is wasted effort, but they are not required to until the court speaks.

What success and failure each look like

If the judgment is set aside, it is cancelled, and the enforcement power built on it goes with it, warrant included. The claim itself usually revives: you are back at the stage of responding, and this time you must actually file the defence you promised, because a second default is unlikely to attract sympathy. Ask the court for the sealed order, send a copy to the enforcement firm and the creditor, and check the judgment entry on the register afterwards.

If the application fails, the judgment stands, enforcement can resume, and you may be ordered to pay the other side's costs of the hearing. That cost risk is why an application with no real defence behind it can leave you worse off, and why honest advice on the merits first is worth it, from Citizens Advice, National Debtline, StepChange, or tell us what has happened; initial advice is free.

If you owe the money, use the right tool instead

A set-aside challenges whether the judgment should exist. If the debt is genuinely yours and the problem is affordability, the applications that fit are different: form N245 asks the county court to suspend a warrant of control and set instalments you can afford, and a variation can reset the payment terms of the judgment itself. Those routes, and what the court weighs when deciding them, are covered in the warrant of control guide. For a fine or traffic penalty registered without your knowledge, the parallel remedies are a statutory declaration or a TE9 witness statement rather than a set-aside.