Can You Get a Mortgage With a CCJ Registered in the Last 12 Months?
- Jul 31
- 15 min read
Find out how lenders read a recently registered judgment, and which court deadline quietly decides whether the entry vanishes or merely softens.
Quick Answer
Yes, though rarely on the high street. A CCJ registered in the last twelve months typically rules out mainstream lenders, while near prime and specialist lenders often consider a case from around six months after registration, commonly to eighty five percent of the property value. The clock runs from the judgment date.
The date that matters is the one the court entered the judgment, not the date you settled it. Every published lender threshold we reviewed counts months since registration. Paying the judgment can widen your choices later, but it does not move the date the clock started from. That is the opposite of what most online guidance says.
There is one genuine exception, and it is narrow. If the debt is paid in full within one calendar month of the judgment date, the entry can be cancelled from the Register outright rather than marked satisfied. Miss that window and the entry stays visible for six years from the judgment date, whatever you pay and whenever you pay it.
Reviewed by Ben Stephenson, FCA authorised (FRN 496907) · 25+ years' experience · 4.9★ on Google. Updated: 31 July 2026.
Who Is This Guide For
Best for recently judged borrowers facing a first decline, self employed applicants with a disputed trade or supplier debt, and homeowners who found a judgment mid remortgage, who all need to know how a fresh registration date shapes their next twelve months.
Key Points
Lenders count months since registration, never since payment
Paid within one calendar month, the entry is cancelled entirely
Realistic deposit inside twelve months: 15 to 25 percent
Table of Contents
The Twelve Month Wall Starts on the Judgment Date, Not the Day You Paid
Paid Inside One Calendar Month, Cancelled: Paid on Day Forty, Only Satisfied
How Fast a New CCJ Reaches the Register, and What Actually Puts It There
What Each Lender Tier Does With a Judgment Registered Inside Twelve Months
Seven Months In and Disputing It: Why Set Aside Beats Settling Here
Applying Now on Specialist Terms Versus Waiting for the Registration Date to Age
The Twelve Month Wall Starts on the Judgment Date, Not the Day You Paid
If you have a county court judgment registered in the last twelve months and you have just been declined, you have hit a wall rather than a judgement about you. Inside that first year the mainstream market is broadly shut, and not for any reason connected to your income, your job or your deposit. It is shut because of a date.
That date is the day the court entered the judgment and the Registrar added it to the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines. It is not the day you found out, and it is not the day you paid.
We read the published criteria of mainstream, near prime, specialist and manually underwritten lenders in July 2026. Six expressed their CCJ rule in six different ways at six different thresholds. Every one counted months since the judgment was registered.
That cuts both ways. A borrower who has just cleared a three year old judgment has reset nothing. A borrower with an unpaid thirteen month old judgment may already sit inside several specialist criteria without knowing.
Say this plainly, because a great deal of broker copy says the opposite: the six year life of a CCJ runs from the date of the judgment, full stop. Regulation 26(a) of the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005 requires the Registrar to remove the entry six years from the judgment date. Registry Trust (2026), which keeps the Register, says the same: six years from judgment, never from payment.
So the question inside the first year is never how to make it disappear. It is which lenders measure from a date you have already passed, and whether anything removes the date itself. Exactly one route does.
Paid Inside One Calendar Month, Cancelled: Paid on Day Forty, Only Satisfied
This is the sharpest mechanic in the subject for anyone whose judgment is only weeks old, and it is almost universally garbled online.
Regulation 11(2) of the 2005 Regulations says that where the court officer learns the debt was satisfied one calendar month or less from the judgment date, that officer asks the Registrar to cancel the entry, and regulation 16(a) says the Registrar then cancels it. Cancelled means gone: not softened, not annotated, gone.
Regulation 11(3) governs everything after that. Satisfy the debt later and the entry is merely endorsed as satisfied, surviving on the Register and on your credit file for the full six years in a friendlier label.
For a judgment registered this year, that one month gate is the only lever that removes the marker rather than improving how it reads. Everything after it is presentation.
Four details decide whether people actually get the benefit.
It is one calendar month from the date of the judgment, not thirty days, and not a month from when you opened the envelope.
Satisfied means paid in full under regulation 3, so part payment achieves nothing, and costs and interest form part of the sum.
Cancellation is not automatic on payment. It happens once the position comes to the court officer's attention, which means you or the claimant evidencing it.
The formal route is a certificate of satisfaction or cancellation, priced at £19 by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (2026).
There is a backstop hardly anyone mentions. Under regulation 14, an endorsed entry can still be cancelled retrospectively if the court later concludes the debt was in fact satisfied within a month. That matters if you paid quickly and told nobody.
Registry Trust (2026) asks people to allow four to eight weeks for the court, the Register and the agencies to catch up. A cancelled entry that has not yet propagated still reads as adverse.
How Fast a New CCJ Reaches the Register, and What Actually Puts It There
The Register is no lagging indicator, which surprises people who assume they have breathing space. Regulation 5(a) requires the court officer to send the return of a judgment to the Registrar within one working day, and Registry Trust (2026) processes over 130,000 court records a month.
A judgment entered on Monday is with the Registrar by Tuesday and flowing to the credit reference agencies soon after. There is no quiet window in which to sort it out first.
Here is the correction that matters most, and almost no consumer page carries it. Turning up at court, defending the claim and losing does not automatically produce a registered CCJ. Under regulation 9(c) a judgment given after a contested hearing is not registered unless one of five things follows: the creditor applies for an instalment order, you apply to pay by instalments, the creditor takes an enforcement step, the creditor applies for an order to obtain information, or the creditor applies for a certificate of judgment.
What reliably creates a registered CCJ is not losing. It is not responding. The Ministry of Justice (2026) reports that 94 percent of county court judgments in the first quarter of 2026 were default judgments entered with no defence filed, up from 91 percent three years earlier.
Two related carve outs occasionally solve someone's problem outright. A money order from an action for the recovery of land is not registered until the creditor enforces, and an order recovering a statutory parking penalty from an adjudicator's decision is never registered at all.
Be careful with the second. It covers council penalty charges enforced through the Traffic Enforcement Centre. A private parking company issuing an ordinary money claim gets an ordinary, fully registrable CCJ, so establish which yours was.
Time from the judgment date | What changes at that point |
Within one working day | The court sends the judgment to the Registrar for entry on the Register |
One calendar month | Paid in full by here, the entry can be cancelled outright rather than endorsed |
Month two onwards | Paying in full gets the entry endorsed as satisfied; it stays visible |
Around six months | Several near prime and specialist lenders begin to consider the case |
Twelve months | A wider specialist range opens; mainstream lenders typically stay closed |
Six years from judgment | The Registrar removes the entry from the Register entirely |
What Each Lender Tier Does With a Judgment Registered Inside Twelve Months
Lenders are not one market with one attitude. They sit in tiers, and they disagree about a recent registration date more sharply than about almost anything else.
Mainstream lenders are, for practical purposes, closed. Criteria we read in July 2026 included one requiring zero CCJs registered in the last six years, and others declining any unsatisfied CCJ of any value inside six years. If yours is unpaid and registered this year, stop spending applications there.
The block is not quite absolute. At least three mainstream lenders publish a small money threshold, in the £200 to £500 region, beneath which a satisfied judgment is not an automatic decline. That is a crack rather than a door, and judgment size is a separate question our guide to bad credit mortgage routes takes on properly.
Near prime lenders are where the twelve month line does its work. One product tier requires zero CCJs registered in the last twelve months, while the same lender's sibling tier requires zero in the last six. Another sets none registered in the last six months, then adds a phrase worth memorising: registered for over six months at the point of mortgage offer.
That is a planning tool: a judgment four months old today can sit inside criteria by the time an application reaches offer.
The specialist tier is where a judgment inside twelve months genuinely gets placed. Published criteria there include lenders accepting unsatisfied judgments, lenders applying no credit scoring at all, and one route described as considering a judgment less than six months old. Which door is open to your file is what the specialist side of the market exists for.
Two counter intuitive points fall out. Satisfaction is compulsory at the mainstream and manually underwritten tiers, yet several near prime and specialist lenders state a CCJ need not be satisfied. Paying widens high street options later without unlocking the specialist market now, a trade off our page on unsatisfied CCJs and mortgages works through.
Second, kill the deposit myth. You do not need forty percent, and generally not twenty five. Maximum loan to values on the tiers that tolerate a judgment inside twelve months commonly reach eighty five percent, so the realistic range is a fifteen to twenty five percent deposit.
Say the cost part out loud. Specialist pricing sits meaningfully above mainstream, fees are often larger, and you may carry that premium for years. Criteria change constantly, so treat this as mid 2026's shape, not a fixed map.
Seven Months In and Disputing It: Why Set Aside Beats Settling Here
A judgment you dispute is a different animal from one you accept, and inside twelve months the difference is enormous. Settling at month seven buys an endorsement. Getting it set aside removes the entry.
Setting aside runs under Part 13 of the Civil Procedure Rules. Rule 13.2 obliges the court to set aside where judgment was wrongly entered, or where the claim was already satisfied beforehand. Rule 13.3 is discretionary: a real prospect of defending, or another good reason.
Rule 13.3(2) is the trap. The court must have regard to whether you applied promptly, and promptness is assessed rigorously. Finding a judgment during a mortgage application and sitting on it for three months is itself a reason to lose.
If it succeeds the effect is clean. Regulation 11(2)(b) feeds into regulation 16(a) and the Registrar cancels the entry: not marked set aside, removed. Experian (2026) lists a set aside judgment as a ground for deletion from the file.
Costs are knowable, and most figures online are stale. HM Courts and Tribunals Service (2026) prices an application on notice at £321 from 13 July 2026, and one by consent or without notice at £126, plus any legal costs. Figures of £255, £275 or £313 are out of date.
The under used route is consent. If the claimant agrees, a draft consent order goes in with the application, a hearing is often unnecessary, and you pay the lower fee. A creditor already paid in full often has no reason to resist.
Two caveats. Setting aside removes the judgment, not the debt, so the claim can be re litigated unless your defence wins on merit. No published statistic exists for how long one takes, so plan for weeks to months.
An illustrative composite case
A self employed carpenter in the South West came to us with a judgment registered seven months earlier for £2,340, from a supplier invoice he disputed over materials he says never arrived. He was buying at £310,000 with a £46,500 deposit, fifteen percent, giving a £263,500 loan at eighty five percent loan to value against net profits averaging £48,000.
Two mainstream applications had already been declined on the registration date alone. A specialist lender considered the case on a near prime tier without requiring the judgment to be satisfied, assessing affordability at a stress rate several percentage points above the pay rate on the fixed period, which is the test that sized his borrowing. This is an illustrative composite, not a real client, and not a prediction of any lender's decision.
When the Judgment Went to an Address You Left Two Years Ago
This is the most common version of the story we hear, and the one most often mishandled. You apply for a mortgage, the search returns a judgment you have never seen, registered against a flat you left in 2024.
The mechanism is not sinister. Registry Trust (2026) records the entry at the address the claimant supplied at the time of the hearing, and it never changes unless the court tells the Registrar it was wrong. Set that alongside a 94 percent default rate and you have the picture.
Registry Trust told Parliament in February 2025 that a significant number of CCJs are issued against defendants at old or incorrect addresses, leaving them unaware of a claim. That is their wording, and worth respecting: no official statistic exists here, so anyone quoting a percentage has invented it.
Now the second big correction. It is widely repeated that if you never received the claim form the court has to set the judgment aside. That is wrong. Civil Procedure Rule 6.9 permits service at your usual or last known residence, so service can be good even where you never saw the papers.
You then have to get home under the discretionary limb, with promptness weighing against you the longer you leave it.
The practical sequence is tight. Search the Register through the official service against the old address, not your current one, because it searches on name plus the address at registration. It leaves no credit footprint, and Registry Trust (2026) publishes fees from £6 to £10.
Then get the claimant's name, which today means telephoning the issuing court with the case number, because your credit report does not carry it. That changes from 20 October 2026 under the 2026 amendment regulations, but it is not retrospective, so existing judgments never gain one.
For context: the Ministry of Justice consulted on default judgments entered without the defendant's knowledge in 2017 and 2018, and that page still shows no published outcome. If your entry is wrong rather than merely unknown, our note on common credit report errors covers the dispute route.
A CCJ Registered While You Already Hold a Mortgage
Existing homeowners often assume a fresh judgment is somebody else's problem until they try to move or remortgage. Three different exposures are worth separating.
Your current mortgage is generally safe. A judgment from an unrelated debt does not breach your mortgage terms, and your lender is not routinely monitoring the Register. Keep paying on time and the contract carries on.
The exposure sits at the next decision point. A product transfer is usually the softest landing, because many lenders run one without a fresh full credit assessment, though that is not universal. A remortgage to a new lender is a full application, and the twelve month registration clock applies exactly as on a purchase.
Further advances are tighter still, being underwritten to the lender's current criteria. A judgment registered three months ago can turn a straightforward capital raise into a specialist case, or into a wait.
There is a timing decision here a purchaser never faces. If your fixed rate ends in fourteen months and the judgment is two months old, the registration date may have aged past several thresholds by the time you act. If it ends in three months, a product transfer now and a remortgage later is often calmer.
One thing to avoid: letting the judgment sit alongside anything worse. A recent CCJ plus live arrears on the mortgage itself is a materially harder case, because lenders read the worst status on your credit file as the ceiling on what they can offer. Protecting the payment record is the highest value move in these twelve months.
Applying Now on Specialist Terms Versus Waiting for the Registration Date to Age
This is the actual decision in front of you. It is a comparison between a known cost today and an unknown market later.
Applying now, on the tiers that accept a judgment inside twelve months, means you buy or remortgage on your own timetable and start the clock towards a remortgage once the registration date has aged. The cost is real: pricing above mainstream, often a larger fee, and a deposit of fifteen to twenty five percent rather than the ten percent you may have planned around.
Waiting means the registration date does the work at no cost. Around six months, several near prime and specialist doors open. At twelve months the specialist range widens, at three years some mainstream lenders can look at a small satisfied judgment, and at six years the entry leaves the Register.
The case for waiting is strongest where you are close to a threshold and nothing external forces your hand. Two months of patience that moves you from month five to month seven can change which tier you qualify for.
The case for acting now is strongest where waiting carries its own price. Rent above the equivalent mortgage payment, a purchase that collapses if you delay, a fixed rate expiring onto a reversion rate: each can cost more than the specialist premium.
The honest middle position is that most people should do both. Take the specialist route if timing demands it, but plan the exit from day one, keep every other account clean, and diarise the month your registration date crosses the thresholds that matter. A recently registered judgment is a temporary category, and treating it as a permanent identity is the expensive mistake.
FAQs
Does paying my CCJ shorten the six years or restart the clock?
Neither. The entry is removed six years from the date of the judgment under regulation 26(a) of the 2005 Regulations, whatever you pay and whenever you pay it. The only exception is payment in full within one calendar month of the judgment date, which allows the entry to be cancelled rather than endorsed as satisfied.
How soon after a CCJ is registered can I realistically apply for a mortgage?
Criteria we reviewed in July 2026 suggest several near prime and specialist lenders start considering a case from around six months after registration, with a wider range at twelve months. One route we saw is described as considering a judgment less than six months old. Mainstream lenders typically stay closed for far longer, and criteria change frequently, so this needs checking case by case.
I paid within a month but the entry still shows as satisfied. Can that be fixed?
Possibly. Regulation 14 allows an entry that was merely endorsed to be cancelled if the court officer later concludes the debt was in fact satisfied within one month of the judgment date. You would need to evidence the payment date to the issuing court, and Registry Trust suggests allowing four to eight weeks for the Register and credit files to update.
Does applying to set aside a judgment hold up a mortgage application?
It can, because there is no published timescale for set aside applications and no outcome is certain. Applications by consent, where the claimant agrees and a draft consent order is filed, tend to move considerably faster and cost £126 rather than £321. Talk to a broker before choosing between waiting for a set aside and applying on specialist terms now.
How do I find out who my CCJ is from if I do not recognise it?
For any judgment registered before 20 October 2026 the Register does not hold the claimant's name, and neither does your credit report, so the only route is contacting the issuing court with the case number. From that date new entries start carrying the claimant name, though the change is not retrospective. Free help is available from National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 and StepChange on 0800 138 1111.
Summary
A judgment registered in the last year closes the mainstream market but not the whole market. Near prime and specialist lenders measure months since registration, often opening from around six months, commonly to eighty five percent of value. Settling in full within one calendar month can erase the entry; after that it can only be marked satisfied. Talk it through with a broker before you spend another application.
Updated: 31 July 2026
Written by Ben Stephenson, CeMAP-qualified Mortgage Broker.
Manor Mortgages Direct is FCA authorised, FRN 496907, has traded for 25 years, is highly positively reviewed, 4.9 rated on Google, and has helped thousands secure the right mortgage. Bristol-based mortgage brokers, assisting clients nationwide.
Sources
UK Government, legislation.gov.uk (2005) - The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005, SI 2005/3595 - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/3595/made - accessed 31 July 2026
UK Government, legislation.gov.uk (2026) - The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/697 - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/697/made - accessed 31 July 2026
Ministry of Justice (2026) - Civil Procedure Rules, Part 13 - https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part13 - accessed 31 July 2026
HM Courts and Tribunals Service (2026) - Civil court fees (EX50), updated 13 July 2026 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fees-in-the-civil-and-family-courts-main-fees-ex50/civil-court-fees-ex50 - accessed 31 July 2026
GOV.UK (2026) - County court judgments for debt - https://www.gov.uk/county-court-judgments-ccj-for-debt - accessed 31 July 2026
Ministry of Justice (2026) - Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026 - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/civil-justice-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2026/civil-justice-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2026 - accessed 31 July 2026
Ministry of Justice (2018) - Default county court judgments consultation - https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/default-county-court-judgments - accessed 31 July 2026
Registry Trust (2026) - The Ultimate Guide to County Court Judgments - https://www.registry-trust.org.uk/court-judgments/ccj-guide - accessed 31 July 2026
Registry Trust (2026) - Q2 2026 Summary - https://www.registry-trust.org.uk/court-judgment-statistics/q2-2026-summary - accessed 31 July 2026
Registry Trust Limited (2025) - Written evidence to a UK Parliament committee, WCC0097, February 2025 - https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/137274/default/ - accessed 31 July 2026
TrustOnline, Registry Trust (2026) - Our Fees Explained - https://www.trustonline.org.uk/help-topics/our-fees-explained/ - accessed 31 July 2026
Experian (2026) - County court judgments (CCJs) and your credit score - https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/guides/ccjs.html - accessed 31 July 2026
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