Can You Get a Mortgage With a Default Registered This Year?
- 5 days ago
- 16 min read
Find out which date your lender actually counts, and why the measurement point decides whether a recent default blocks you.
Quick Answer
Often yes. A default registered this year does not mean a six year wait. Published criteria in the specialist tier accept defaults from as recent as three to six months old, and the deciding factor is usually which date the lender counts and at what point in the transaction it measures it.
Your credit file carries a default date, which is a field the lender reports, and that date is frequently months earlier than the day the entry appeared on your report. The six year clock and every lender recency window run from the earlier one. Most published advice gets this backwards, and the mistake costs borrowers months.
The measuring point varies too. One lender tests at application, another at the point of mortgage offer, another applies its criteria on completion. With a marker this fresh, a case that fails today can pass at offer with nothing about the file having changed except the calendar.
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 buyers who found a default on their report this year, borrowers whose payment arrangement recently broke down, and anyone declined once on recency who assumes the answer is no everywhere, who need to know which date is being counted.
Key Points
Six years runs from the default date, not registration
One lender measures at application, another at offer
Default notices give 14 days, not seven
Table of Contents
A Default Registered This Year Is Not an Automatic Six Year Wait
The Default Date and the Registration Date Are Two Different Things
Registered, Recorded or Older Than: The Words Criteria Use Are Not Interchangeable
Application, Offer or Completion: Three Points Where the Clock Gets Read
A £180 Mobile Bill and a £1,800 Credit Card Read Differently
When the Arrangement Broke: Why a Marker Dated This Year Can Trace Back Years
Case Study: Eight Months On From a Store Card Default, Fifteen Percent Deposit
Fees, Rate Premium and Re-Offer Costs of Applying With a Nine Month Old Default
A Default Registered This Year Is Not an Automatic Six Year Wait
Something landed on your credit file this year, and the number you have fixed on is six. That is how long the entry stays visible, not how long you have to wait before anyone lends. Those two periods are nowhere near each other.
Published lending criteria are far more granular than that. Across four sets of criteria read for this article, the recency bars sit at three months before application on one lower tier, six months at the point of mortgage offer on another, and none in the last six or twelve months on tiered ranges elsewhere. Not one of them is a six year bar.
What decides a case at this range is rarely the amount. It is the date, and more precisely which date, read at which moment. Get those two things straight and a file that reads as hopeless in July can read as placeable in October.
If you are still working out whether any lender can look at you, our overview of mortgages with bad credit is the wider view. This piece is narrower: the first twelve months, when the dates do all the work.
The Default Date and the Registration Date Are Two Different Things
The date printed against a default is a data field your lender reports, not the day the entry appeared on your file. Industry reporting principles hosted by the Credit Information Governance Body (2026) define it as the date on which a decision to file a default becomes effective.
That effective date cannot arrive quickly. The lender has to notify you of an intention to file at least 28 days beforehand, and no default is recorded at all if you make satisfactory payment inside those 28 days, per CIGB (2026). The default date therefore already sits roughly a month behind the decision to act.
Then comes the supply cycle. Credit reference data is not live: it arrives in monthly batches, and CIGB (2026) requires information to be supplied at the next available monthly update. checkmyfile (2026) puts the practical lag at up to two months.
Add lender discretion on top. The reporting principles set the three to six months in arrears window as a general guide rather than a hard rule, and expressly allow later filing on products such as mortgages and current accounts.
The result is two dates often months apart. No published statistic exists for the typical gap, and anyone quoting you a figure is guessing, but the mechanism above explains a report showing a default dated in February that you first saw in May.
One consequence cuts in your favour, and a great deal of published advice has it backwards. The six years runs from the default date, not from the day the entry appeared. Where the two differ, you are further through the clock than you think.
The default notice and the notice of intention to file are not the same letter
Half the internet still prints that a default notice gives you seven days. It does not. Section 88 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 as enacted said not less than seven days; the Consumer Credit Act 2006 raised it, and 14 days is the figure in the current text.
The two notices also do different jobs. A section 87 default notice concerns enforcement rights: terminating the agreement, demanding early payment, enforcing security. The separate 28 day notification of intention to file concerns credit reporting, and it governs whether an entry appears at all.
So a default notice on its own does not mean you have a default. Meet its terms in time and nothing is filed, which makes it the last point at which the outcome is still avoidable. The reverse also holds: the Information Commissioner's Office states there is no data protection obligation to issue a default notice before marking an account as in default.
What sits on your file | What it actually marks |
The default date | The date the decision to file became effective, at least 28 days after the notice of intention (CIGB, 2026) |
The day the entry appeared | The next monthly supply cycle after that, so commonly weeks or months later |
The six year drop off | Counted from the default date, never from the day the entry appeared |
A lender's recency window | Counted from whichever date that lender reads, which its published criteria rarely define |
Registered, Recorded or Older Than: The Words Criteria Use Are Not Interchangeable
Read four sets of published criteria side by side and the verbs diverge. One says none registered in the last six months. Another says defaults recorded three months before application are not accepted.
A third drops the verb entirely for a pure age test: acceptable if older than 36 months, or 24, or none in 12. A fourth keys its tiers on whether the marker is satisfied or unsatisfied.
Here is the honest position. The words genuinely differ, no published criteria document found for this article defines its own term, and your credit file carries a single date field, the default date. There is no separate registration date the criteria could be reading.
The practical consequence is not that lenders secretly count different dates. It is that a borrower reading "registered in the last six months" cannot tell which date is meant, and the safe working assumption is the default date on the file. Where your two dates are materially apart, put that question to an underwriting team before submission rather than flip a coin after a decline.
Notice something else. The tiers that tolerate recent markers tend to carry a value cap: a maximum of £1,500 appears on the recency tolerant ranges of two lenders and nowhere on their cleaner tiers. Recency tolerance is bought with a size restriction.
The amount is not irrelevant, only secondary. Inside twelve months the size of a single default often does more work than the number of them.
Application, Offer or Completion: Three Points Where the Clock Gets Read
This is the part almost nothing online covers, and inside the first twelve months it is decisive. Lenders do not only differ on how old a marker has to be. They differ on the moment at which they measure it.
One published criteria document bars defaults recorded three months before application. Another accepts them once they have been registered for over six months at the point of mortgage offer. A third states plainly that its criteria are applied on completion. Similar window lengths in places, three entirely different measuring points.
A UK purchase commonly runs eight to sixteen weeks from application to completion. So one file, with a default four months old today, can already sit outside a three months at application bar, fail a six months at offer test today but clear it by the time an offer would be issued, and be measured against a completion date test by a third lender that gives it the most runway of all.
Turn that into the question you should be asking. Not "how old is my default?" but "how old is it at the moment this particular lender measures it?" Those two questions have different answers, and only one predicts the decision.
It also changes what waiting means. A borrower told no in week one may be inside criteria in week ten, at the same lender, with nothing changed but the calendar. Timing a submission so a marker crosses a threshold before the measuring point is ordinary placement work, and invisible from a comparison table.
The trade-off deserves naming rather than glossing. Reaching for the specialist lending tier typically costs more than the high street, in rate and usually in fees, and that cost is real money every month. What it buys at this range is a lender whose measuring point suits your dates.
Still Outstanding at Nine Months, or Satisfied Last Week
Paying a default does not remove it. The entry remains for six years from the default date whether or not the balance is cleared, and what changes is the status, from outstanding to satisfied. Experian (2026) puts it plainly: the six years runs regardless of whether you pay the debt off.
That is the cleanest correction here, because borrowers routinely import a rule from somewhere else. Pay a county court judgment in full within one calendar month and the register entry is cancelled, per GOV.UK (2026). No equivalent provision exists for defaults, and nothing you do inside the first twelve months makes the default date any earlier.
So why satisfy it? Because status still moves you between tiers. One lender's cleaner tier is expressed as one satisfied default in 36 months, while its cover sheet allows several unsatisfied ones on harsher terms. Satisfaction can buy a better tier, loan to value band and rate, which is different from making the marker younger.
Be careful how you satisfy it. Accept a discounted settlement and the record is closed and flagged partially settled rather than satisfied. The ICO explains what that signals to anyone searching your file: you are no longer being pursued, and the debt was not repaid in full.
Inside twelve months that distinction has teeth. A partial settlement flag can read worse to an underwriter than an outstanding balance you are demonstrably paying down. Establish what flag results before agreeing a reduced figure.
One further check applies if the debt has been sold on, which is common within a year of a default. Reporting guidance requires the default date and balance to stay consistent across a sale, and the seller's entry should be closed rather than left running. A reset date is a data accuracy breach and, in practical terms, months of lost recency.
A £180 Mobile Bill and a £1,800 Credit Card Read Differently
Communications and utility accounts sit inside the reporting regime. Internet, mobile and fixed line contracts, gas, electricity, water and oil are all listed in the reporting principles, with pay as you go products and prepaid meters generally excluded. They show as defaults.
What differs is the carve outs. One lender ignores up to two individual defaults of £200 or less each where they relate to utilities, communications or mail order. Another ignores telecoms and utility markers under £500 even inside its six month recency bar, the most generous formulation found.
A third disregards communications and insurance markers entirely and ignores utility defaults up to £250 combined. A fourth publishes no carve out at all.
The same £180 mobile default can be invisible at one lender and fatal at another, and the difference has nothing to do with you. It is a line in a criteria document.
There is a sting in the tail. One of those same criteria sets declines outright where a communications or utility default has caused unauthorised overdrafts or bounced direct debits on the current account. The knock on effect can matter more than the item itself.
Non credit accounts also reach default differently. They fall outside the Consumer Credit Act, so no statutory default notice applies: a final demand letter can do the job, provided it makes the intention to file clear and allows time to pay.
Credit accounts have their own quirks by product. Car finance sits in a category of its own for default purposes, and missed payments short of default are a separate question again, covered in our piece on late payments and mortgages. That is as far as creditor type goes here: recency is the axis that decides a marker this fresh.
When the Arrangement Broke: Why a Marker Dated This Year Can Trace Back Years
Here is the second thing people get wrong about a fresh default, and it explains why so many readers say "but that was ages ago". A default dated this year does not mean your trouble started this year.
While a payment arrangement is running and being maintained, a default should not be recorded. Arrears may accrue, and an arrangement flag sits on the file indicating financial difficulty, but the reporting principles are clear that the default itself waits.
When the arrangement breaks, that changes at once. Miss a payment against the revised terms and a default may be filed immediately, provided you were already at least three months in arrears on the original agreement. The three to six month window does not restart, and a single missed payment under the arrangement can be enough.
The date used is the crux. Reporting guidance states that the date of the default reflects the date the arrangement with the lender broke down. So arrears from several years ago, held in an arrangement that ran and ran, can produce a default dated this year.
For a borrower that is disorientating and, handled properly, useful. Disorientating because the file presents as a fresh failure. Useful because you can evidence a long stretch of maintained payments before the breakdown, corroborated by the arrangement flag itself. We cover that marker separately in our guide to arrangements to pay and mortgages.
Payment holidays split the same way. A holiday that forms part of the product carries no arrangement flag. One requested because of financial difficulty is treated as an arrangement and marked accordingly, and you are supposed to be told so at the time.
The pandemic era exception is widely over remembered. The no worsening status protection attached to payment deferrals under that specific FCA (2020) scheme, and support given afterwards was expected to be reported as arrears or arrangements in the usual way. Forbearance is not automatically invisible.
Case Study: Eight Months On From a Store Card Default, Fifteen Percent Deposit
This is an illustrative composite rather than a real client, and the figures are indicative only. A PAYE applicant in East Anglia on a basic salary of £54,000 with a bonus averaging £7,000, buying at £320,000 with a £48,000 deposit, so 15 percent down and a £272,000 loan at 85 percent loan to value. The adverse item was one store card default of £430, satisfied, with a default date eight months before application and a registration date four months after that.
The first approach was declined. That lender allowed no defaults inside twelve months and measured at application, so the file failed on age by four months regardless of amount or satisfaction status. The second lender read the marker as registered for over six months at the point of mortgage offer, which it comfortably was.
Affordability then turned on the bonus and the stress rate. Half the bonus was accepted as income, and the loan was assessed not at the pay rate on the product but at a stress rate several percentage points above it, which is why the sums come out tighter than a repayment calculator suggests. The case fitted at 85 percent with a product fee added to the loan.
The instructive part is that four month shortfall. Nothing about the file changed between the decline and the offer. Only the reading of the dates did.
Fees, Rate Premium and Re-Offer Costs of Applying With a Nine Month Old Default
Rate is the cost people budget for. At this range it is rarely the one that stings.
Product and arrangement fees on specialist ranges are commonly higher than high street equivalents, and are usually added to the loan rather than paid up front, so you pay interest on them for the whole term unless you clear them early.
Valuation fees on adverse products are frequently payable up front and are not always refundable if the case does not proceed. Apply at two lenders and you can pay twice.
The second application is the cost most people never see coming. A decision in principle that fails at full application on a date test leaves you re-submitting elsewhere, with a hard search footprint behind you as well.
Then there is the re-offer problem specific to this window. Mortgage offers carry expiry dates, and where a purchase drags, a lapsed offer can mean a fresh application, valuation fee and underwriting, at a point when your marker has aged into different criteria anyway.
Broker fees on adverse placement are usually higher than on a straightforward case, because the work is genuinely different. Ask what the fee is at the outset and what triggers it.
The rate premium itself is worth converting into pounds rather than percentages. A specialist product against a high street one, on a loan of the size in the case study above, can be a meaningful monthly difference, and the term you fix for decides how long you carry it.
That last point is the one to plan around. Fix for five years while your default ages out at year six and you may face an early repayment charge to escape, or a year longer on the higher payment. Match the fixed term to the date the marker stops binding, not to the headline rate.
FAQs
Does a default drop off six years after it was registered?
No, and this is the single most repeated error on the subject. It drops off six years from the default date, which is the date the lender reported as the point its decision to file became effective. Where that date is months earlier than the day the entry appeared on your report, you are months further through the six years than you think.
Can I get a mortgage six months after a default?
Sometimes, depending on the lender and on where in the transaction it measures. Published criteria read for this article include a tier accepting defaults registered for over six months at the point of mortgage offer, and others that bar anything inside six or twelve months. Expect the size of the default to matter as well, because recency tolerant tiers often carry a value cap.
Does paying off a recent default remove it from my credit file?
No. Paying changes the status from outstanding to satisfied and leaves the entry in place for six years from the default date. People often confuse this with the county court judgment rule, where paying in full within one calendar month cancels the register entry. There is no equivalent for defaults.
Does a default notice mean I already have a default on my file?
Not on its own. A default notice under the Consumer Credit Act concerns enforcement rights and gives at least 14 days, not the seven that many pages still print. A separate notification of intention to file, requiring at least 28 days, is what governs the credit file, and meeting its terms in time means nothing is recorded.
Can a lender register a default without sending me a default notice?
In most cases yes, according to the Information Commissioner's Office, which states there is no data protection obligation to issue a default notice before marking an account as in default. Accounts outside the Consumer Credit Act, such as utilities and telecoms, may be preceded only by a final demand letter. That is one reason these markers so often surprise people.
Why is my default dated this year when the debt is much older?
Most likely because a payment arrangement broke down. Reporting guidance says the default date reflects the date the arrangement with the lender broke down, and a default can be filed as soon as one payment is missed under the revised terms if you were already three months in arrears on the original agreement. Arrears from years ago can therefore produce a default dated this year.
How much deposit do I need with a default registered this year?
Published criteria vary and no single figure applies across the market, but expect the loan to value to be more restricted the more recent the marker is. Satisfying the default, keeping the amount modest and having a documented cause tend to move you into a better tier, which usually means a better loan to value band and rate. A larger deposit is often the fastest lever you control.
Summary
A default from this year is not a six year shutout. Your file carries a default date and a separate appearance date, often months apart, and both the six year clock and lender recency windows run from the earlier one. Lenders also differ on whether they test at application, at offer or on completion, so timing the submission can change the answer. Worth talking through your actual dates before you apply again.
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
Credit Information Governance Body (2026) - https://www.cigb.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Principles-for-the-Reporting-of-Arrears-Arrangements-and-Defaults-at-Credit-Reference-Agencies-v2a.pdf - accessed 31 July 2026
Credit Information Governance Body (2026) - https://www.cigb.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Data-Quality-Reference-Guide-v3-May-2026.pdf - accessed 31 July 2026
Information Commissioner's Office (2026) - https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/credit/ - accessed 31 July 2026
Financial Conduct Authority (2020) - https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/finalised-guidance/mortgages-and-coronavirus-updated-guidance-firms - accessed 31 July 2026
Financial Conduct Authority (2026) - https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC/7/3.html - accessed 31 July 2026
legislation.gov.uk (1974) - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/87 - accessed 31 July 2026
legislation.gov.uk (1974) - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/88 - accessed 31 July 2026
legislation.gov.uk (1974) - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/88/enacted - accessed 31 July 2026
GOV.UK (2026) - https://www.gov.uk/county-court-judgments-ccj-for-debt - accessed 31 July 2026
Experian (2026) - https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/guides/defaults.html - accessed 31 July 2026
checkmyfile (2026) - https://www.checkmyfile.com/help-centre/help/how-often-does-information-update-on-my-credit-report - accessed 31 July 2026
Debt Camel (2026) - https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-default-date/ - accessed 31 July 2026
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