How Can I Enforce My CCJ?

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You have an unpaid County Court Judgement against a debtor. You have been to the court and successfully obtained your County Court Judgement. But your debtor has ignored the court order and hasn’t paid your money. The court wants you to arrange for this to be enforced. What next?

Learn how to change that state of affairs and turn your judgment into cash!

What is a County Court Judgment (CCJ)?

A County Court Judgment (CCJ) is a type of court order in England, Wales that might be filed against you if you fail to return the money you owe. A CCJ is also known as a County Court Summons.

How do you enforce a County Court Judgement?

The first thing you should know is that your judgment debtor has one month to pay the money before the judgment is registered against him/ her, for 6 years. This is an opportunity for you to settle things with your debtor and encourage them to pay. The benefit to the debtor is that they will not have a negative entry on their credit report for the next six years.

A CCJ against a person is entered on the court’s record as soon as it is issued. So, the debtor has exactly one month to remove the CCJ or it will remain on the records.

Once the initial first month has passed nothing can be done to avoid the 6-year registration period. The CCJ will be marked as satisfied in the court and will have future credit implications that a debtor won’t realise unless they want to take a loan or buy a property. So, it’s great if the negotiations work between you and your debtor within this one month and if not then talk to Shergroup for enforcement.

However, if the payment is still not forthcoming, how do you enforce the Order?

1. Charging Order

A Charging Order is a means of securing the debt against property owned by either the individual or the company in debt to you. If your application is granted, the Courts will first of all issue Interim Charging Order, which is registered with the Land Registry. There will then be a hearing to decide if the order is justified and whether it will be made binding.

This itself may be enough to prompt the debtor to start paying. Otherwise, you have two choices.

You can choose to sit on the order and wait until the property is sold or mortgaged. When this happens, the money owed to you will be deducted from the property’s equity, assuming it is sufficient. It should be noted that if any other charges are older than yours, they will take precedence.

Another alternative is to force the issue by obtaining a Sale Order on the property. Again, the prospect of this can be a strong motivator for the debtor to begin discussing payment options.

2. Attachment of Earnings Order

You can apply to the courts for an Attachment of Earnings Order if you’re dealing with someone who is employed by a company. This means that their company will deduct a certain amount from their pay on a monthly or weekly basis until the debt is paid off.

A letter informing the debtor that this will be your next move is typically enough to convince them to cooperate. Not many people are pleased when their employers learn about their condition or when their income is essentially deducted in this way.

3. Winding Up Proceedings

In the instance of debts due by a limited company, you can file a Winding Up Petition with the courts to have the firm closed down. In the event of a solvent company, the board will want to avoid this at all costs, including the cost of ultimately paying off their debt to you.

4. Bankruptcy Petition

In the case of Judgement debts over £750 owed by individuals, there is another option. You can use insolvency proceedings against your debtor.

First, you serve them with a Statutory Demand. Essentially, this gives them 28 days to make payment of the full sum outstanding.

Should the money still not be forthcoming, the second stage is to issue a Bankruptcy Petition against the person. Again, the threat of this potential outcome is often enough to make things happen.

5. Warrant of Execution

The act of sending in the Bailiffs is without a doubt the most well-known technique of enforcing a Judgement. You can instruct the Bailiffs to secure goods to the value of the debt by obtaining a Warrant of Execution.

As you have possibly seen in our TV show Call The Bailiffs – Time To Pay Up, when the Bailiffs turn up on the door, many debtors suddenly become much more focused on paying. They have to pay the entire amount due, or else the Bailiffs will still be able to take goods to the value of the debt. These can be seized from the business premises, or in the case of individual debtors, from their place of residence. Once this happens it becomes even more expensive for the debtor, because they have to cover the cost of these actions, including the bills for storage and the costs associated with an auction of the seized goods.

6. Third-Party Debt Order

A Third-Party Debt Order is usually made to stop the defendant from taking money out of his or her bank or building a society account. The money you are owed is paid directly to you by the debtor’s Bank/Building Society from their account. A Third-Party Debt Order can also be made against anyone who owes the defendant money.

Although Bailiffs are not allowed to remove assets considered important to the debtor’s business, such as factory equipment or automobiles, or critical household belongings, they still have a wide remit. They will return if the goods they seize do not fetch enough money at auction to cover the amount owed to you.

Transfer Your CCJ to a High Court

Several CCJs are transferred to the High Court every day and they compel debtors to pay either because they have goods that can be seized, and if your debtor still does not pay then they have High Court enforcement agents visiting and taking control of the goods. The agents can sell the goods to recover the debt amount by selling the goods.

But not every debtor has goods, and if they do, they are protected in some way, either because they are needed at home or because they are the debtor’s “tools of the trade.” These are technical issues that we encounter on a daily basis when we visit people’s homes and businesses to encourage payment.

If you have an unpaid County Court Judgement or order above £600 which is less than 6 years old and you would like to recover the money owed quickly then Shergroup can help you. Our CCJ transfer and Enforcement of court order service will help you recover your money including the court fee and the interest.

What Do We Do?

We position ourselves as the UK hub for judgments
The client uploads their judgment information to us through this section of the website
We review the judgment information and confirm the solution

What Are the Solutions?

Solution 1 | A County Court Judgment Over £600 And Which is Not Regulated Under the Consumer Credit Act

We can transfer the judgment to a High Court enforcement agent
We take care of the paperwork
For NEW customers we ask for an online transfer through our website and an upfront fee of £156 to cover the cost of the transfer
For existing customers – please check in for credit terms

Our service includes:

Preparing the paperwork through Shergroup Legal for the judgment to be transferred to the High Court
Calculating any additional interest due on the judgment
Liaising with the court
Attending the High Court in London to issue the Writ of Control
Sending to a local enforcement agent
Managing this process through to the best possible outcome
If successful – the debtor pays all the fees, and the client gets back a court fee of £66 plus interest
If unsuccessful – the client gets a report and recommendation on what can or cannot be done next to enforce the judgment
If partially successful – and an offer is made we will liaise with the client to explain that offer, check the client is comfortable with it and eventually return the £66 plus interest to the client

Solution 2 | A County Court Judgment Under £600 And/Or Which Is Regulated Under the Consumer Credit Act

We can transfer the judgment to a Recovery Agent who will be recognized by the FCA
Please fill in the same form taking information from the county court judgment form
For NEW customers we ask for an online transfer through our website and an upfront fee of £125 plus £25 VAT to cover the cost of processing, managing, and attending the address
For existing customers – please check in for credit terms

Our service includes:

Preparing the paperwork through Shergroup Enforcement
Sending to a local enforcement agent in England, Wales, Scotland
If the judgment is outside of these areas please check-in as it will be treated as a FOREIGN JUDGMENT
Managing this process through to the best possible outcome
If successful – the debtor pays the judgment
If unsuccessful – the client gets a report and recommendation on what can or cannot be done next to enforce the judgment
If partially successful – and an offer is made we will liaise with the client to explain that offer, check the client is comfortable with it

SOLUTION 3 | HIGH COURT JUDGMENTS

Applies to heavyweight litigation where court proceedings were issued in the High Court, or Supreme Court, Administrative Courts
As the judgment is already a High Court judgment there is no need to transfer to the High Court
Instead, we need the original sealed Order so we can issue a Writ of Control straight away
We take care of the paperwork for this process
For NEW customers we ask for an online transfer through our website and an upfront fee of £156 to cover the cost of the transfer
For existing customers – please check-in for credit terms

Our service includes |

Preparing the paperwork through Shergroup Legal for the High Court Writ of Control to be issued in the High Court
Calculating any additional interest due on the judgment
Attending the High Court in London to issue the Writ of Control
Sending to a local enforcement agent
Managing this process through to the best possible outcome
If successful – the debtor pays all the fees, and the client gets back a court fee of £66 plus interest
If unsuccessful – the client gets a report and recommendation on what can or cannot be done next to enforce the judgment
If partially successful – and an offer is made we will liaise with the client to explain that offer, check the client is comfortable with it and eventually return the £66 plus interest to the client

Summing-up

Shergroup stands tall as one of the top enforcement service and delivery companies in the UK. Our CEO Claire Sandbrook is a leading figure in the world of High Court enforcement services having trailblazed many of the initiatives you see today used by High Court enforcement agents.

Services such as transferring judgments, providing universal online coverage across all 105 postcodes in England and Wales, as well as working to clear standards in health and safety and insurance risks have all been developed through the Shergroup brand.

You’re at a clear advantage of working with an experienced enforcement agent team, and an internal fulfilment team with over 150 years of service to the High Court system of enforcement. By choosing Shergroup as your High Court Enforcement provider you will be accessing our experience, systems, and customer service which is designed to support you through the enforcement process.

If you need more details on how we can help you removal of CCJ or enforce your CCJ call our business solutions advisors today.