How to Get a CCJ Removed: Cancellation, Set Aside, and the One-Month Rule

This guide explains the routes for removing a County Court Judgment from the public register in England and Wales. It is not legal advice. Scotland and Northern Ireland operate separate systems.

A County Court Judgment is recorded on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, a public register maintained by Registry Trust Limited under the Courts Act 2003 and the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005. Credit reference agencies take the entry from that register, which is why a CCJ reaches a credit file without any lender reporting it.

Removing it is not a matter of asking nicely, and it is not something a credit repair firm can do on your behalf that you cannot do yourself. There are exactly three mechanisms, each with a different trigger, a different form, and a different outcome.

Paying the judgment is not one of them. Payment after the first month changes the entry's status, not its existence.

Three routes, and nothing else:

1. Pay in full within one calendar month of the judgment date, then apply for a certificate of cancellation on form N443 (fee £19). The entry is removed from the register entirely.
2. Apply to the court to set the judgment aside on form N244 (fee £313). If granted, the judgment ceases to exist and the register entry goes with it.
3. Wait six years. Regulation 26 of the 2005 Regulations requires the Registrar to remove the entry six years from the judgment date, paid or not, automatically.

If you pay after the first month, you can apply on the same form N443 for a certificate of satisfaction. The entry then shows as "satisfied" but stays visible for the rest of the six years. That is a materially better position with lenders than an unpaid judgment, but it is not removal.

The rule is one calendar month from the date of the judgment, not 28 days. A judgment dated 3 March gives you until 3 April, which is 31 days; a judgment dated 3 February gives you until 3 March, which in most years is 28.

The "28 days" figure circulates because it is a safe approximation and because 28 days is the deadline for other court steps. Treating it as the deadline costs you nothing. Treating it as generous — assuming you have 28 days when the judgment was dated 1 March and you actually have until 1 April — is the error that matters, because the cancellation route closes the moment the calendar month expires and cannot be reopened.

If the money is available, pay inside the month and apply for cancellation. It is the only route that removes a valid judgment quickly and cheaply.

This applies where the full judgment debt, including any costs and interest ordered, was paid within one calendar month of the judgment date.

You apply to the court dealing with the claim using form N443, with a fee of £19 payable to HMCTS. The fee may be reduced or waived under the Help with Fees scheme for applicants on low incomes or certain benefits.

You must either provide evidence of payment in full or confirm the court already holds it. Where you have no proof, the court writes to the creditor to confirm payment; if the creditor does not reply within one month, the certificate is issued anyway. That fallback matters, because creditors who have been paid rarely have any incentive to answer post promptly.

Once the certificate is issued, Registry Trust removes the entry and notifies the credit reference agencies. Agencies then update on their own cycles, so the credit file does not clear on the same day.

Setting aside is a court decision that the judgment should not stand. It is the route where the judgment is wrong, not merely inconvenient — most often a default judgment entered because the claim form went to an old address and was never seen.

The application uses form N244, with a court fee of £313, again subject to Help with Fees. The fee is payable whether or not the application succeeds.

Two different tests apply, and knowing which one you are under changes everything:

• Mandatory set aside (CPR 13.2). The court must set the judgment aside if it was wrongly entered — for example where judgment was entered before the time for filing a defence had expired, or the whole claim had already been paid before judgment. This is a procedural error by the claimant or the court, not a discretionary favour.
• Discretionary set aside (CPR 13.3). The court may set the judgment aside if you have a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, or if there is some other good reason. Under CPR 13.3(2) the court must also consider whether you applied promptly once you found out about the judgment. Promptness is measured in days and weeks, not months, and delay sinks otherwise arguable applications.

Your application needs a witness statement setting out the grounds: how and when you learned of the judgment, why you did not respond to the claim, and what your defence to the underlying debt is. A statute-barred limitation defence, a disputed sum, or a debt you never owed are all substantive grounds — see our guides on debts you do not recognise and the six-year limitation rule.

If the application succeeds, the judgment is cancelled and the register entry removed. The debt is not written off. The claim returns to the stage before judgment, and the creditor may continue with it — this time with you defending.

Parking and traffic penalties are a different route

Judgments for unpaid road traffic penalties, congestion charges and similar debts are usually registered through the Traffic Enforcement Centre rather than an ordinary county court claim. These are challenged by filing a statutory declaration or witness statement on the TEC forms (the TE7 and TE9 family), not by an N244 set-aside application. Applying on the wrong form wastes both the fee and the promptness you need.

No application, no fee, no discretion. Regulation 26 requires removal six years from the date of the judgment — not from the date you found out, not from the date you started paying.

Our guide on what actually happens to a CCJ after six years covers this in full, including the point most people miss: the register entry disappears, but the judgment and the underlying debt survive it.

It does not clear the debt. Cancellation follows payment. Set aside returns the claim to square one. Six-year removal is administrative. None of the three extinguishes the money owed.

It does not instantly clean your credit file. The register is the source, and the agencies update from it on their own cycles. If a removed CCJ still shows weeks later, raise a dispute with each agency directly — our guide to reading your credit report explains where judgments sit on the file.

It does not undo the wider damage. Lenders that declined you while the CCJ was live do not revisit those decisions, and a judgment that has been satisfied or removed can still sit behind a mortgage decision for years.

No firm can remove a valid CCJ for a fee. Anyone offering to is either doing one of the three things above — all of which you can do yourself for £19, £313 or nothing — or doing nothing at all.

Looking for more on this topic? Browse all our debt guides.

This guide draws on the following legislation, court rules and official sources:

• Courts Act 2003
• Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005
• Civil Procedure Rules Part 13 — setting aside or varying default judgment
• GOV.UK — County court judgments for debt
• Registry Trust — the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines

Free, impartial money guidance is available from MoneyHelper, the government-backed service run by the Money and Pensions Service.

Related: Can a CCJ Disappear After 6 Years | How to Check If You Have a CCJ | All debt guides.