So, for all you judgment creditors out there, you may be wondering how long it will take to do a CCJ transfer and enforce a County Court Judgment (CCJ) in the High Court. It’s an important question to ask because it can affect how quickly you can recover the debt owed to you.
The first step in the process is getting your CCJ transfer to the High Court. To do this, Shergroup has a complete process that enables you to submit a copy of your judgment to us online, and pay a ONE-TIME FEE for us to transfer your judgment to the High Court. Click on this link to take advantage of our CCJ Free Reviews and let’s see if High Court enforcement is the right course of action for you – see https://shergroup.com/ccj-free-review/
Assuming that we review your case and you tick the boxes to enforce your CCJ with our CCJ enforcement service, we will manage the entire process for you, including liaising with court staff and taking away the headache of completing the very important High Court Writ of Control. And we should say at this juncture – if the CCJ process is not the right course of action for you, we have plenty of alternative solutions to help you get your judgment paid.
Assuming CCJ transfer to the High Court is going to be the best way forward, then the transfer process is in two parts.
Firstly, we apply to the county court where you obtained your judgment, and we complete a form on N293A which is issued by the court. This confirms the amount of the judgment and the interest in the judgment. It is called the “Certificate of Judgment” and it is used by the High Court to verify there is a valid judgment in place.
We need this Certificate to be able to enforce your judgment and transfer times can vary from 3 days to several weeks. At the time of writing this blog (March 2023) transfer times in Croydon and Romford County Courts and be slow and take several days. But don’t worry the Shergroupies are on the case. We email and call the courts where certificates are lodged as part of our service so we get the Certificate back as quickly as we can. From time to time we even lodge complaints with the Court Staff about the time it is taking to get a Certificate issued. This is rare but we will do it if repeated attempts to get a Certificate back from a Court fall on deaf ears!
Secondly, once we have the Certificate of Judgment then we can issue the all-important Writ of Control. This document gives the High Court Enforcement Officer the power to enforce your judgment under Schedule 12 of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 and the Regulations that set out the steps for enforcement.
We will name our CEO, Mrs. Claire Sandbrook, as the High Court Enforcement Officer entrusted with the enforcement of your judgment. Claire and her team of High Court Enforcement Agents can be seen in action on our YOUTUBE channel in Channel 5’s, “Call the Bailiffs, Time to Pay Up”. You can find shows from Season 1 and Season 2 on this link
The Writ of Control is in our opinion the most cost-effective and streamlined method of enforcement – particularly when you don’t know too much about your debtor’s situation. Compared to applying for an Order to Obtain Information – a Writ of Control enables Claire’s agents to visit the home or business address of your Judgment Debtor. From this visit, we prepare a full report of what we see and who we speak to and we report back to you with our findings and our recommendation for the next steps.
We want the Judgment Debtor to pay you – and they will do this either voluntarily during the period of the Notice of Enforcement, or after we have visited under compulsion of the Writ of Control and the spectre of their goods being removed and sold at auction.
As you can see from the TV show footage, our enforcement agents do work with members of the public to encourage payment and to give them time to pay. One enforcement agent in Season 1 negotiates with a Judgment Debtor through a window – and says “We take cash, credit or goods … you decide how you want to pay”.
That said every Writ is different and we will help you understand the timeframe for enforcement. Sometimes it’s quick but sometimes it can drag on – particularly if the Judgment Debtor can only pay through a payment plan.
Whatever we find, and whatever your debtor’s situation, what we can say is that we do our best to get you a workable outcome. We will include you in the decision-making process on whether you are satisfied that an offer is acceptable. We will also balance up the real value of the goods at the debtor’s address with their forced auction sale value. This is the skill of High Court Enforcement professionals and we do it all day long.
In conclusion, the process of transferring and enforcing a CCJ in the High Court can take time, but there are several methods available to enforce it. As a judgment creditor, we know it’s essential for you to be part of the decision-making process and we include you in our decisions with our friendly team of Business Solution Advisors.
Summing Up
Overall, the length of time it takes to enforce a judgment in the High Court can vary widely. When you come to Shergroup you get both legal and enforcement advice and you are working with a team of professionals with over 100 years of operational experience in the High Court enforcement arena. For us it’s all about getting to the right outcome for you as the creditor, but which is also lawful and balanced as far as your debtor is concerned.
Ps In these days of parking fines and high utility bills, if you find yourself on the wrong end of a CCJ we partner with a company that provides a County Court Judgment removal service. As we like to say – “we’re not judgy about judgments”. So if you end up on this side of the conversation call us for help on how to remove a judgment from the court record.