Mortgages With a CCJ

A County Court Judgement (CCJ) is a court order in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that you may find registered against you, should you fail to repay money that you owe to a creditor.

A CCJ can only be pursued by a creditor when they have exhausted all of their other options for making things right with their borrower.

When you receive a CCJ, you will get a short window of opportunity in which you can pay it off and have it removed from your credit file.

The court will give you 30 days to pay back the amount owed. If you manage to meet this then the court will approach the registry to get the CCJ removed from your credit file.

If you fail to pay back the money that you owe, you will have a permanent record of a CCJ on your credit file for 6 years.

If you have paid back your debt, you will have a satisfied CCJ. If you do not pay the debt that you owe, you will have what is called an unsatisfied CCJ.

Generally speaking, the longer the length of time that has passed since your CCJ was issued, the better a chance you will have of obtaining a mortgage, whether your CCJ is satisfied or not.

If your CCJ is a lot more recent, say within the last year or two and is unsatisfied, obtaining a mortgage may be a lot more difficult.

The amount of CCJs you have attached to your credit file can also have an impact on your chances of mortgage success. If you have one or two CCJs and a larger deposit of perhaps around or above 25%, you may have a better chance of being accepted by a mortgage lender.

Any more than one or two, especially if they are more recent CCJs, you would need a rather substantial deposit to find mortgage success. It is very likely in this case that you would be immediately declined by a mortgage lender.

Some mortgage lenders out there will also have a cap in place, meaning they will only lend to applicants who have below a certain amount of CCJs. You could have a sufficient deposit, but if you have passed their cap, you won’t find much success there.

Your CCJ will stay around on your credit file for 6 years from the date that it was issued, so to increase your credit score, you will need to show improvement and reliability.

We would recommend that you minimise your applications for further credit and always keep up-to-date with your ongoing financial commitments.

It’s also good practice to check your credit report regularly and make sure that all of your details are correct.

If you want to dispute a CCJ and want to re-open the case against you, you will need to make sure that you can supply enough evidence to why you shouldn’t have been issued a CCJ in the first place. You can appeal the CCJ by completing a N244 form.

The fee will be quite large for them to reopen your case, however, if the court agree that you shouldn’t have been issued the CCJ, it will be removed from the register altogether.

The maximum length that a CCJ will stay on your credit file for is 6 years. After this point, it will no longer appear on your credit file. The impact on your ability to get accepted for a mortgage depends on how long ago the CCJ was issued and the amount that is owed.

A mortgage broker like us has access to specialist mortgage products, some of which have been made for applicants with CCJs.

We will be able to review your CCJ, seeing how recently that you were issued the CCJ in question and check whether or not you will be able to obtain a mortgage or remortgage.

If you match the criteria for a mortgage, you may need to put down a higher deposit to show your reliability; our advisors will talk you through all of this.

If you have one of multiple CCJ’s on your credit file, here are our top 5 mortgage with a CCJ enquiries and why our customers choose us to help:

• First Time Buyer Mortgage with a CCJ – We’ve helped many first time buyers that have poor credit due to a CCJ being registered get on to the property ladder.  Whether this is in sole or joint names, we’ll have options available.
• Home Mover Mortgage Advice with a CCJ – If you are already a homeowner and are looking to move home and borrow more money on your mortgage, we’ll be able to help.  We are very experienced in helping ‘next steppers’ with a CCJ get mortgages accepted.
• Remortgage for Home Improvements with a CCJ – Move or improve is a popular thought process for our clients.  If you are looking to remortgage for home improvements with a CCJ we’ll be able to help you every step of the way.  Maybe you’re looking for an extension, to add an extra bedroom or a renovation project We can consider all your remortgage with a CCJ options to allow you to borrow more money on your remortgage to fund your home improvements.  Also, there may be other products more suitable to your needs such as a secured loan.
• Remortgage for Debt Consolidation with a CCJ – Many of our customers find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place paying off minimum payments each month and not seeing credit card balances reduce. If you are reviewing your debt consolidation with a CCJ remortgage options, then we’d be more than happy to run through the pros and cons with you.
• Over 60’s Mortgage Options with a CCJ – One of our most popular mortgages with a CCJ enquiries is from our older customers who are struggling with debts in later life and are seeking solutions to reduce their outgoings to either move home or remortgage.  Mortgage with a CCJ solutions for older clients include a regular mortgage, an interest-only mortgage, a retirement mortgage or an equity release remortgage.

It’s important for you to understand how a mortgage lender sees a CCJ and what implications this has on you when wanting a new mortgage.

A CCJ is a ‘red flag’ to lenders that evidences that you have a history of not repaying your debts. Having a CCJ significantly impacts your credit score, making it challenging, without an experienced mortgage broker on your side, to secure traditional mortgages from high-street lenders.

CCJ’s can often be from younger years when you were a student or at the beginning of your career learning about money management.

We understand that you can get a CCJ even without realising these days, situations such as:

• Changed address and didn’t receive your bill.
• Details sent to an old mobile or email address.
• Service was poor therefore you didn’t pay, an example of this would be with a mobile phone company where the signal is unusable.
• Recent split up and bill send to the wrong address etc.

The good news is that it is usually possible to help customers that have a CCJ get a mortgage accepted.  It’s usually harder and our mortgage broker team will be able to run through everything with you before your application to get you mortgage ready.

With a great mortgage advisor team on your side, you’ll likely be accepted for a mortgage with your CCJ. Receiving bad credit mortgage advice, whether for a purchase or a remortgage, is important and will prove invaluable with your situation.

The key challenges of getting a mortgage with a CCJ are:

• Limited options – The high-street lenders typically have strict eligibility criteria, and a CCJ may automatically disqualify you from their standard mortgage products.  You won’t be able to simply go online and find the best deal.  Mortgage brokers like us have access to many products aimed at customers with bad credit just like you.
• Higher interest rate – Expect to pay a slightly higher rate of interest than a customer with clean credit.  Usually, if we manage to secure you a mortgage with a CCJ, the rate is slightly more than with a regular mortgage deal to incorporate the additional risk to the lender.   Don’t worry though as this rate won’t be forever, you may have the opportunity to remortgage onto a normal rate in the future once your CCJ has dropped off your credit file and you’ve increased your score.
• Smaller loan amount – Often, mortgage lenders can be cautious about the amount they are willing to lend to clients with a CCJ.  This might mean that you must put down a slightly bigger deposit or buy a smaller property, however, this does not apply to all customers with a CCJ looking to get a mortgage.  Regular mortgage deals may be available to you.

As we mentioned earlier, it’s possible, however we may meet some challenges along the way when looking to secure a mortgage when you have bad credit or a CCJ. Our 5 top tips when looking to secure a mortgage with a CCJ are:

• Specialist Lenders – There are hundreds of mortgage lenders out there, each has different products and criteria. Some of these lenders will specifically have products aimed at helping customers, like you, secure a mortgage with a CCJ. It isn’t usually forever, down the line, once your credit score has improved and your CCJ has dropped off your credit file, it might be possible for us to remortgage you over to a normal lender again. See it as more of a ‘stepping stone’ lender.
• Mortgage Broker with Experience – We see it all the time where clients have tried a mortgage application elsewhere and wasted both time and money with a bank or estate agency mortgage advisor and are no further along.  Using a mortgage broker that has experience and knowledge will prove invaluable in this area.  Mortgage brokers will have the skills to get you placed with the most suitable lender for your individual situation first time! There are lenders and products that specialise in the adverse credit market and who will be able to help.
• Time – Working with specialist mortgage lenders can take longer due to their systems and underwriting process requirements.  It usually takes longer to get a mortgage offered for a client with a CCJ or bad credit.  Leave yourself plenty of time and speaking with a mortgage broker early on will help.
• Deposit – Typically, due to lowering the risk for the lender, a larger deposit can be a persuasive factor when considering new mortgage and remortgage applications from clients with a CCJ.  The minimum deposit you’ll need is 5% however, depending on when it was registered and for how much your CCJ was for this could be more.  Our mortgage advice team will be able to help guide you here early in the process, so you know what your budget is and how much deposit you’ll need.
• Credit Report – Knowing the facts is vital for a successful application.  Your mortgage broker will need to know when your bad credit/CCJ was registered, how much it was for which company it was by and if its status, i.e., settled or unsettled.  A good start would be do download an up-to-date copy of your credit report, if you haven’t got one already, here’s our useful credit report link. Please do not go paying off CCJs etc without speaking to our mortgage broker team first.