CCJ Removal: How to Cancel or Set Aside a CCJ

A County Court Judgment (CCJ) stays on the public Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines for six years. There is no shortcut to erase a valid CCJ early, but you can have it cancelled, marked satisfied, or set aside depending on your situation.

How Long a CCJ Stays on the Register

A County Court Judgment (CCJ) is entered on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, held by Registry Trust on behalf of the courts, as soon as a court in England or Wales enters judgment against you for a debt. The entry normally stays on the register, and is visible to lenders and credit reference agencies, for 6 years from the date of the judgment. That is true whether you eventually pay the CCJ, it is marked satisfied, or it is never paid at all: only how the entry is described changes, not how long it appears. A CCJ can significantly affect your ability to get credit, a mortgage, or even some tenancies and jobs while it remains on the register, which is why removing or improving the entry, where that is genuinely possible, matters.

Routes to Remove or Improve a CCJ

There are only a small number of legitimate ways to change how a CCJ appears on the register, and no way at all to make a valid, correctly issued CCJ disappear early just because you would prefer it gone:

• Pay in full within 1 month of the judgment date: the court removes the entry from the register entirely (see below).
• Pay in full after 1 month: the CCJ cannot be removed, but it is marked satisfied and you can get a Certificate of Satisfaction.
• Apply to set the judgment aside (form N244): used where the judgment should never have been made, not simply because you have since decided to pay or dispute the amount.
• Wait for the 6-year period to end: every CCJ drops off the register automatically once 6 years have passed, whether or not it was ever paid.

Each route is explained in more detail below.

Pay Within One Month: The Judgment Is Cancelled

If you pay a CCJ in full within 1 calendar month of the date the judgment was made, the court cancels the entry and it is removed from the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines altogether, as though it had never been entered. Once it has been removed, you can ask the court for a Certificate of Cancellation as proof for a lender or anyone else who might otherwise see the original entry. Because timing is what triggers cancellation, not payment on its own, it is worth paying as quickly as possible after judgment if avoiding any mark at all matters to you, rather than waiting to see whether a dispute can be resolved first.

Pay After One Month: Marked "Satisfied"

Paying off a CCJ after the first month no longer removes it. Instead, once you have paid in full, the entry is updated to show as satisfied, and it remains on the register for the rest of the 6-year period, but as a paid debt rather than an outstanding one. Lenders and credit reference agencies generally view a satisfied CCJ more favourably than an unpaid one, even though it still appears on your record. You can apply to the court for a Certificate of Satisfaction, for a small fee, as evidence that the debt has been paid in full; this is useful to show a lender, landlord, or employer who runs a credit check and sees the original entry.

Setting Aside a CCJ (Form N244)

Setting aside is different from cancellation: it reopens the underlying case rather than simply removing a valid entry, and it only applies where the judgment should not have been made in the first place. Common grounds include never having received the claim form, having moved without the claimant knowing your current address, having already paid the debt before judgment was entered, or having a genuine defence to the claim that you were not able to put before the court. You apply using form N244, and the court charges a fee (currently £321, though reductions such as "with claimant consent" can apply, and court fees are updated periodically, so check the current gov.uk fee page before applying). If the court agrees to set the judgment aside, the case is reopened, and it is then withdrawn, settled, or decided by a judge on its merits; the original CCJ entry is removed once the judgment itself is set aside. Acting promptly matters: the longer you wait after learning about a CCJ, the harder it typically becomes to persuade a court that setting it aside is justified.

After Six Years: Automatic Removal

If a CCJ is never paid, never set aside, and never cancelled, it still comes off the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines automatically once 6 years have passed from the date of judgment. This happens without anyone applying for it. It is worth being clear about what this does and does not mean: the entry disappearing from the register is not the same as the debt disappearing. Whether the underlying debt can still be chased depends on separate rules, including whether it has become statute-barred under the Limitation Act 1980, which is a different 6-year clock running from when you last paid or acknowledged the debt, not from the date of the judgment.

Be Wary of "Guaranteed CCJ Removal" Companies

Some companies advertise that they can get a CCJ "removed" from your record for an upfront fee, regardless of your circumstances. There is no lawful way to remove a valid, correctly issued CCJ before the 6-year period is up simply because you want it gone or because you have paid a third party to ask on your behalf. Every genuine route to changing a CCJ entry, paying within a month, getting it marked satisfied, or successfully applying to set it aside, is available directly through the court and the free debt advice sector, without paying a specialist "removal" firm. If a company implies it can bypass these rules or guarantees an outcome no court can guarantee, treat that as a red flag.

Free Help With a Set-Aside Application

If you think a CCJ was wrongly entered against you, for example you never received the claim form or the debt was already paid, Citizens Advice and National Debtline can help you work out whether you have grounds to apply to set it aside and how to complete form N244, free of charge. You do not need to pay a company for this help. If the court fee itself is a concern, ask the court about fee remission (help with fees) rather than turning to a paid intermediary.

Related Guides

For what a CCJ is and how it is entered in the first place, see What Is a CCJ? and County Court Judgment: Effect on Your Credit. If the underlying debt is old, see Statute-Barred Debt. For the full England and Wales debt and money-claims picture, see the UK Debt and Money hub and the United Kingdom country hub.

This article is general information about removing or improving a County Court Judgment (CCJ) in England and Wales, not legal advice. Court fees, forms, and set-aside criteria change and are decided case by case; check the current gov.uk guidance and court fee pages, and contact Citizens Advice, National Debtline, or a solicitor about your specific situation.