What is a County Court Judgement (CCJ)?
A County Court Judgement or “CCJ” is an official document issued by a County Court which states how much money is owed by an individual, to whom and over what time period it should be paid. Some CCJs are issued after a final court hearing between the parties (please see this Help Centre article for more info), others such as Default Judgments are issued simply because the Defendant (person being sued) has not responded within a certain timeframe (see below)
What is a Default Judgement?
A claim for money owed can be started by sending a claim form to the County Court or through Money Claims Online which will send the claim form automatically. The Claim form sets out the basis of the claim.
The defendant (the person the claim is brought against) is then given 14 days in which to respond by filing a Defence. A further to 14 days to respond will be allowed if the defendant returns a form known as an “acknowledgement of service”.
If the defendant does not file a defence within 14 days (or 28 days if an acknowledgement of service was sent) , then the Claimant can request that the Court enter a “Default Judgement”. The Default Judgement will be for the amount claimed and will be enforceable by the Claimant.
A common reason for Default Judgements being entered is that the Claim form was sent to an incorrect address or simply that the Defendant did not pick up the Claim Form in their post. For Landlords it is important to realise that these Judgements may be entered without the tenant's knowledge. The claims may have arisen from a variety of sources including private parking fines or rogue claimants with little evidence to substantiate the claim. If a CCJ shows up on a reference it is important to give the prospective tenant the opportunity to explain it.
A Default Judgement will be identifiable as the Judgement will state on it that it is a Default Judgement or that no defence was filed. Prospective tenants can search the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines (described below) to check whether they have any unknown CCJs against them.
What is the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines?
Most County Court judgements (CCJs) for the payment of money are contained in the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines (Register) The Register is public and searchable. You can search it here https://www.trustonline.org.uk/. There is a fee of £8 for the basic search. You will need to search against a particular address.
Judgements remain on the Register for six years from the date of judgement, unless the judgement is set aside (see details of how to do this below) , or paid in full within one calendar month.
Default Judgements are registered immediately, with the relevant information being transmitted to the Registry Trust electronically. If a tenant wishes to check whether a Judgement has been registered they can check the Register at any time.
Where a case was contested, i.e. the Defendant put in a defence, the Judgement will usually only be registered once the judgement creditor takes further action to enforce the CCJ. There are a number of different ways of enforcing a CCJ which all involve further applications to the court
How can a tenant deal with a Default Judgement?
Pay the Judgement
If you pay the Judgement within one month of it being entered then it can be removed from the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines. As a tenant this is the easiest way to deal with a CCJ. If the Judgement is not paid within one month then it will remain on the Register but will be marked as "judgement satisfied". If you feel that the details on the Register are not accurate then you can submit an "amendment notice" to Registry Trust.
Set Aside
A defendant has the right to apply to have the Judgement “set aside”. If successful the Judgement will be removed and the proceedings will be taken back to the stage in which the defendant must file a defence and will continue from this stage . An application for set aside can be made in the following circumstances:-
- The defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim; or
- It appears to the court that there is some other good reason why:
- the judgement should be set aside or varied; or
- the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim.
The defendant will have to act quickly. The Judge will consider whether the defendant acted promptly i.e. made the application for set aside soon after finding out about the Judgement.
Information on this site is by way of general guidance only and may not apply in your particular circumstances. You should not act or refrain from acting upon information on this site without seeking independent legal advice.