County court judgments
What happens if you're a council homeowner (or leaseholder) and you have received a county court judgment.
If a county court judgment has been registered against you
If a county court judgement (CCJ) is made against you, this means that the court has issued a formal decision that you must pay the amount claimed by the council.
The court will enter your name on the register of judgments. Unless you pay the full amount of the judgement within one month, your name will stay on the register for six years.
This can make it difficult for you to get credit. Organisations like banks look at the register when they decide whether to give you credit like a loan or overdraft.
If you pay the full amount of judgment after the first month, you can ask the court to mark the register ‘satisfied’ to show anyone searching the register that you have paid the debt.
How to pay your arrears
See the service charges page for details on how you can pay your charges.
If you don't pay the judgment
If you are a leaseholder and you have a mortgage, we will write to your mortgage lender to tell them about the situation. This is because they have a financial interest in the property. The lender may pay the arrears on your behalf and add the debt to your mortgage. They may also charge you a fee for this and they might take legal action against you. If the judgment is not paid by you or your lender, we will ask the court to enforce it. 'Enforcing' judgment means that we will ask the courts to force you to pay the arrears. You will have to pay out legal costs if we enforce the CCJ against you.
How the court can force you to pay
Charging Order and Order for Sale
We can ask the court to make a charging order against your property for the amount of the judgment. If the court agrees, the charging order will be secured against your property (like a mortgage or secured loan) and you won’t be able to sell your property without paying back the money you owe. You will have to pay our legal costs for getting a charging order. Once we have a charging order we can ask the court to force you to sell your property so that we can get back the money you owe us. If the court agrees, your property will be sold at auction and you will have to move out. You will have to pay our solicitors’ costs for the order for sale. All charges against the property will be paid out of the proceeds of the sale and any money left over will be refunded to you.
Attachment of Earnings
An Attachment of Earnings order by court will force you to make regular deductions from your earnings and pay them towards the outstanding debt via the court. You will also have to pay our legal costs.
Forfeiture
We can ask the court to order that your lease is terminated (forfeited). If the court agrees and your lease is forfeited, you lose your rights of ownership. This means that you can be evicted and your property returned to the Council. You will still have to pay the judgment debt and your mortgage, if you have one. You will also have to pay our legal costs.
Help and advice
Please contact Home Ownership if you would like to discuss your arrears. You’ll find the name and telephone number of the officer who is dealing with your account on your CCJ letter.
If you are finding it difficult to pay, we can discuss your options and ways we can help you. You can also find useful money advice on our website.
You may also wish to seek independent legal advice from a solicitor or an advice agency.