How Do I Enforce A County Court Judgment? | Lean on Our Experience To Help You

We often hear from people who are disappointed that having entered a judgment against their debtor, there is no automatic payment of the judgment through the court system. You may be a Money Claim Online user (MCOL) or a person who went all the way to a hearing at your local county court. Whatever your backstory, you now have a piece of paper that says you have a CCJ against your opponent, but no sign of the money! So, read on as to how you can change that state of affairs and turn your judgment into cash!

The first thing we say is that the debtor – or judgment debtor as they are technically described at this stage of the claim process – has one month to pay the judgment BEFORE the judgment is registered against him, her, or it (being a business) for 6 years. This is important for creditors because they can use the one-month window to encourage their debtor to pay them. The upside for the debtor is avoiding a 6-year adverse entry on their credit report.

In fact, as soon as the court makes a CCJ against a person it is entered on the court’s record. So, the debtor really has a month to remove the CCJ or it will just stay there. More information on how to remove a CCJ can be found at (see https://www.gov.uk/county-court-judgments-ccj-for-debt).

There’s nothing to stop a creditor from communicating with a debtor (in whatever way you think best but please keep it private) to encourage them to pay immediately to avoid the 6-year registration (remember this can’t be removed once it passes the initial first month until the 6-year period has been completed). All that can be done after the month has passed is to show the CCJ is marked as “satisfied”. Any CCJ showing on a credit report can have implications for future credit such as store cards and mortgages which often people don’t realize until they want to buy property, or a new car.

So, we encourage creditors to use this one-month window for negotiation where possible, but if that doesn’t work come and join us in our world of enforcement!

Now you may have seen TV shows where High Court Enforcement Officers are instructed to collect outstanding CCJs. These shows are based around creditors like you, who needed to get back what they were owed from their debtor.

Thousands of CCJs are transferred to the High Court every year, and they compel debtors to pay either because they have goods which can be seized (taken into legal control), and if the debtor still refuses to pay the CCJ after they have been visited by High Court enforcement agents, then those goods can be sold to pay off the CCJ.

But not every debtor has goods, or if they have goods, they are protected in some way, being needed in-home or being the debtor’s “tools of trade”. These are technical points which we deal with every day as we visit people’s homes and businesses to encourage payment.

What we do here at Shergroup is help you find the right type of enforcement for the situation you find yourself in. It’s as easy as sending us a copy of your CCJ so we can start that process for you. It costs nothing for us to review your current predicament, and our Business Solutions team are open from 9 – 5.30 each day to talk to you about your options.

To start the process of finding out how to enforce your judgment just scan or click an image of your judgment and send it to us at [email protected]. One of our friendly team will call you to discuss what we can do for you. There is no obligation to take any further steps until you know your options.

If you fall into the category of having a judgment over 6 years old, still send a copy to us and we can see if we can come up with an enforcement strategy for you – which costs nothing to obtain our opinion. Fees and charges will likely be payable if you decide to follow our advice.

Ultimately a CCJ which is not enforced is worth nothing to you. We can help transform that piece of paper into cash using our experience and our knowledge of all the enforcement procedures. If for some reason it’s a “dead duck” we will tell you because we don’t want you to waste your time and energy on a CCJ that has no chance of being recovered.

The enforcement process is not always easy, so we try and make it as friendly and accessible as possible. Upload your CCJ and let’s have a look where you’re at!