The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines is the official public record of unpaid civil debts in England and Wales, maintained since 1985 by Registry Trust on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.1Registry Trust. About Registry Trust If a court enters a County Court Judgment (CCJ), High Court judgment, tribunal award, or administration order against you, it goes on this register, where lenders, landlords, and anyone else willing to pay a small fee can find it. Entries stay for six years, paid or not, and during that time they can block mortgages, push up borrowing costs, and make renting harder.
What the Register Records
Each entry is built to identify the debtor and the debt precisely: full name and last known address of the person or business, the court that issued the judgment, the case number, the total owed (including any interest and court costs), and the exact date the judgment was entered. That level of detail is what stops mix-ups between people with similar names at nearby addresses.
The register isn’t limited to CCJs. High Court judgments, tribunal awards involving monetary payments, and administration orders all appear.2Legislation.gov.uk. The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005 Scottish decrees from sheriff courts are recorded and follow the same six-year retention period.3Registry Trust. Scottish Decrees Help and Guidance Registry Trust also maintains equivalent registers for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Jersey by agreement with the authorities in each jurisdiction.1Registry Trust. About Registry Trust
Entries only ever come from the courts. Registry Trust receives electronic transmissions directly from the court system and does not accept requests from debtors or creditors to add, change, or remove records outside the formal court process. Every line on the register traces back to an actual court order.
How an Entry Gets There
A CCJ is the most common route onto the register. It begins when a creditor files a claim form (Form N1) with the court. The form arrives by post, setting out how much the creditor says you owe and why. From the date it’s served, you have 14 days to respond.
What you do in that window decides what happens next. You can admit the debt and offer a payment plan, dispute the claim, or acknowledge service to buy more time to prepare a defence. Ignore the form and the court enters a default judgment for the full amount, typically payable immediately as a lump sum. Most unexpected CCJs come from exactly that: a claim form that was missed, binned, or sent to an old address, and a judgment entered without a hearing.
If you admit the debt and propose instalments, the creditor either accepts your offer or the court sets payments based on the financial information you provided. Either way, the CCJ is recorded on the register once it’s entered.
How Long an Entry Stays
Six years from the date of judgment. That applies whether you’ve paid the debt or not. After six years, the entry is automatically removed from the register and from credit reference agency files, even if the full amount was never repaid.
Credit reference agencies pull from the register, which is why these entries show up on your credit file. An unsatisfied CCJ, meaning one you haven’t paid, is the most damaging flag because it signals an outstanding court-ordered debt to anyone checking. A satisfied CCJ, meaning one you’ve paid after the first month, still shows for the rest of the six years but carries less weight because it shows you eventually settled.
There is one way to wipe the slate entirely, and it only works inside a narrow window.
Paying Off a Judgment: Cancellation and Satisfaction
How the register treats your entry turns on a single deadline: one calendar month from the date of judgment.
Paying Within One Calendar Month
Pay the full amount inside that month and you can apply to have the CCJ cancelled altogether. Submit Form N443 (Application for a Certificate of Satisfaction or Cancellation) to the court that issued the judgment, with evidence of payment such as a letter from the creditor confirming receipt or a bank statement showing the transaction.4GOV.UK. Apply for a Certificate to Show You Have Paid a Court Order – Form N443 A court fee applies. Once the application is processed, the court notifies Registry Trust and the entry comes off the register and your credit file as if the judgment never existed.
Paying After One Calendar Month
Pay after that first month and the judgment isn’t deleted. You still use Form N443 and still need proof of payment, but the entry is marked “satisfied” rather than removed. It stays on the register for the remainder of the six-year period, with a notation showing the debt was paid.4GOV.UK. Apply for a Certificate to Show You Have Paid a Court Order – Form N443
The update isn’t instant. After the court reviews your evidence, it sends notification to Registry Trust, and the change can take several weeks to appear. And here’s where people trip up: the responsibility to apply falls on the debtor, not the creditor. Pay the debt but skip the N443 and the register will keep showing it as outstanding.
Setting Aside a Judgment You Shouldn’t Have
If a CCJ was entered against you unfairly, or you never received the original claim form, you can ask the court to set it aside using Form N244, the general application notice.5GOV.UK. Make an Application to a Court (Application Notice) – Form N244 A successful application wipes the judgment as though it never happened, removing it from the register and your credit file.
The court must set aside a default judgment in certain situations: if you actually paid the debt before the creditor obtained judgment, if you filed your acknowledgement of service or defence within the time limit, or if you returned the reply form on time requesting more time to pay. For these grounds, there is no time limit on your application.
Outside those mandatory grounds the court has discretion. It may set aside a judgment if you can show a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, or if there’s another good reason the judgment should not stand. Common examples include never receiving the claim form because it went to an old address, or being out of the country when the papers arrived. There’s no hard deadline for discretionary applications, but the court will weigh whether you acted promptly once you learned about the judgment.
If the CCJ was entered because you missed a court hearing rather than because you failed to respond to the claim form, the bar is slightly different. You’ll generally need to apply within 14 days, explain why you missed the hearing, and show you would have had a reasonable chance of success had you attended.
One detail people miss: filing the N244 does not automatically stop enforcement. If bailiffs are already involved, you need to specifically request on the form that enforcement be “stayed” while the court considers your application. A court fee applies.
Searching the Register
TrustOnline is the only public search service for the complete register.6TrustOnline. TrustOnline – Search the Official Register of CCJs and Fines You’ll need the full name and a current or previous address for the person or business you’re checking. A misspelled name or wrong postcode can return results for someone else entirely, so accuracy matters.
Fees include VAT:7TrustOnline. Our Fees Explained
- One register: £6.00 per search
- Two registers, or all sections of the England and Wales register: £8.00 per search
- All registers: £10.00 per search
Each search covers a single name or trading style at one specified address, or a single limited company. Payment is by debit or credit card, and results typically arrive by email within minutes. The report shows any active or satisfied judgments as of the search date and can be saved or shared with prospective landlords or business partners.
What Happens If You Don’t Pay
A judgment on the register is a court order, not a collection mechanism. If you don’t pay, the creditor can apply for enforcement, and each route carries different consequences.
The creditor can send enforcement agents (commonly called bailiffs) to seize belongings and sell them at auction. County Court bailiffs handle CCJ enforcement; High Court Enforcement Officers handle debts over £5,000 that have been transferred to the High Court.8UK Parliament. Enforcement Agents and High Court Enforcement Officers Neither can force entry to your home, only to business premises, and they must visit between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. Essential household equipment, children’s belongings, pets, and work tools up to a set value are exempt. Enforcement fees are added to the debt in stages, so the total grows quickly once the process starts.
If you’re employed, the creditor can apply for an attachment of earnings order, which makes your employer deduct money from your wages above a protected earnings rate set by the court. If you own property, the creditor can apply for a charging order, which doesn’t force a sale but secures the debt against the proceeds whenever the property is sold, after any mortgage.9GOV.UK. Apply for a Charging Order Charges are registered at HM Land Registry and show up on any property search a future buyer would run.
A third-party debt order freezes your bank account. On the day it’s served, the order prevents you from accessing funds held by your bank or building society; the bank must search all accounts in your sole name and report balances to the court within seven days. Joint accounts are generally protected unless every account holder owes the debt. If the freeze creates genuine hardship, you can apply for a hardship payment order to release enough to cover daily living costs while the court decides whether to transfer the frozen money to the creditor.10GOV.UK. Apply for a Third Party Debt Order
On top of enforcement, interest can accrue on the unpaid amount. For most debts, the standard rate used to calculate interest on a court claim is 8% per year.11GOV.UK. Make a Court Claim for Money – Claim the Interest The County Courts Act 1984 gives the court discretion to award simple interest at whatever rate it considers appropriate, and different rates can apply for different periods.12Legislation.gov.uk. County Courts Act 1984, Section 69 A judgment left alone for several years will register substantially more than the amount originally ordered.