Secured loans with a CCJ

How lenders typically treat it

A general guide to how the market behaves, not a promise about any lender. Criteria change and every case is assessed individually. See the lender criteria database for named lenders.

Can you get a secured loan with a CCJ?

Yes, and for most people with a single judgment that is now paid, it is not the obstacle they expect. A county court judgment is a court order confirming that you owe a creditor money and have not paid it. It is entered on the public register, copied to the credit reference agencies, and stays on your file for six years. To an unsecured lender that is often the end of the conversation. To a second charge lender it is one data point weighed against the equity in your home, your income and how you have run your accounts since.

The reason is the security. A secured loan sits as a second charge behind your mortgage, so if the loan is not repaid the lender has a claim on the property. That lower risk is what lets specialist lenders such as Pepper Money, Norton Home Loans, Together, Equifinance and Evolution Money publish criteria that name CCJs explicitly and set out when they will consider them. Our lender criteria database collects those policies in one place, with the date we last checked each one.

What the lender actually asks is a set of narrow questions. When was the judgment registered? Has it been paid, and if so, when? How much was it for? How many are there? Has anything else gone wrong since? The answers place you in a tier, and the tier decides whether that lender will look at you at all, how much of your equity you can borrow against, and the rate. A £400 judgment from 2023 that you paid the following year lands in a very different tier from a £6,000 judgment registered in the spring that is still outstanding. Because every lender draws the tiers differently, one decline tells you very little about the rest of the market.

What does a satisfied CCJ mean, and does it matter?

It matters a great deal. A CCJ is "satisfied" when the debt it relates to has been paid in full and the court has recorded that fact. The judgment does not disappear; it remains on the register and on your credit file for the full six years, but it is marked as satisfied along with the date you paid. An "unsatisfied" CCJ is one that is still outstanding. Lenders treat the two very differently, because a satisfied judgment shows a debt that was resolved, while an unsatisfied one shows a creditor who is still owed money and may take further enforcement action.

There is one important exception. If you pay a CCJ in full within one calendar month of the judgment date, you can apply to the court to have it removed from the register altogether. It will then come off your credit file, and as far as a lender's search is concerned it never existed. If you are inside that window now, paying it and applying for removal is worth more than any other step on this page.

If the month has passed, paying the debt does not automatically update the record. You need to ask the court that issued the judgment for a certificate of satisfaction, which involves a small fee and proof of payment. The court updates the register and the credit reference agencies follow, usually within a few weeks. Check all three of your credit files afterwards, because one agency often lags behind the others.

One further situation comes up often: a judgment you did not know about, typically because the claim went to an old address. You can apply to have that set aside, and if the court agrees the CCJ is removed. Disputes take time, so start before you speak to a lender rather than after.

How do the age and size of a CCJ affect the rate and loan to value?

Lenders read a CCJ along two axes, and both move you between tiers. The first is age, measured from the registration date rather than the date you paid. The commonest thresholds are 12, 24 and 36 months. Inside the first year the market is thinnest: some lenders will not consider the judgment, others only if it is satisfied, and the maximum combined loan to value tends to drop to 65% or 70%. Between one and two years old, many more lenders are available, often one tier below clean-credit pricing. Past two or three years, several lenders disregard a satisfied judgment entirely if nothing else has gone wrong since.

The second axis is size. Many lenders publish a floor, commonly £250 or £500, below which a CCJ is ignored regardless of age, on the basis that a small parking or utility dispute says little about how you handle a mortgage-sized commitment. Above that floor, the amount and the number of judgments both count. A single £1,500 judgment reads as an episode; three totalling £9,000 read as a pattern, and some lenders set a combined value limit or a maximum count in the last 24 to 36 months.

Combined loan to value is where the two axes land. It is your existing mortgage plus the new secured loan, as a share of your home's value. On a £280,000 home with a £170,000 mortgage, a lender that allows 80% combined LTV could lend up to £54,000; one that caps a recent CCJ at 65% could lend only £12,000. Equity is what offsets the judgment: the more you hold, the more forgiving the tier a lender can place you in. Our guide to how much equity you need works through the arithmetic, and affordability sits over the top of it all: whatever the tier allows, the payment still has to fit your income alongside your mortgage.

How much does a secured loan with a CCJ cost?

More than a clean-credit secured loan, by an amount that tracks the tier. A satisfied judgment from three years ago may cost nothing over the lender's standard rate; an unsatisfied one from last year will cost noticeably more and may carry a lower loan to value ceiling. Fees are the usual set: a lender arrangement fee, a valuation, any broker fee and a small legal charge, normally added to the loan. Our guide to how secured loan rates are set explains the tiering.

Even at a higher rate, the point of consolidating is that card and unsecured loan rates are usually higher still. The example below uses the fixed illustrative secured loan rate used across this site. Someone with a recent or unsatisfied CCJ should expect a higher figure from the adviser, and should judge the loan on those real numbers.

The monthly cost of the same £20,000 of debt falls from £532 to £190, but the total repaid over 15 years is £34,196, well above the £20,000 borrowed, because the balance runs for far longer than the original card and loan would have. Add a CCJ-tier rate and the monthly saving shrinks while the total grows. If the judgment must also be paid from the loan, that sum comes off what is left for other debts, so ask for the figures both ways.

Should you clear the CCJ before applying, or use the loan to pay it?

Clear it first if you can, because it changes your tier. A satisfied judgment opens up more lenders, a higher loan to value and a lower rate than an unsatisfied one. If the judgment is small, paying it from savings or by agreement with the creditor before you apply is usually the single most effective thing you can do. Then get the certificate of satisfaction and make sure all three credit files show it.

If you cannot pay it first, some lenders will consider an unsatisfied CCJ on condition that it is paid from the loan on completion. The solicitor or lender sends the money direct to the creditor and the judgment is satisfied as the loan pays out. That is a workable route, but it comes with the unsatisfied-tier rate and loan to value, so it is worth asking the adviser whether a short delay to pay and age the judgment would produce better terms.

One thing a CCJ should prompt before any of this is a look at the wider picture. A judgment usually means a creditor was chased for some time without success, and if the debts around it are still uncomfortable, a secured loan is not the only answer. MoneyHelper, StepChange and Citizens Advice give free, impartial debt advice, and will say plainly if a different route fits better. Remember that a secured loan is secured on your home, and if you do not keep up the payments your home may be repossessed. Consolidating a CCJ into a loan you then cannot afford would replace a county court problem with a far bigger one.

What improves your chances

• Pay the judgment and apply to the court for a certificate of satisfaction, so both the register and your credit file show it as settled.
• If you paid in full within a month of the judgment date, apply to have the CCJ removed from the register altogether.
• Check that the judgment is really yours and for the right amount; claims sent to old addresses can be set aside.
• If the 12, 24 or 36-month anniversary is close, wait for it, because many lenders' tiers change at those points.
• Keep your mortgage and every other commitment paid on time since the judgment; clean recent conduct is what lenders weigh against it.
• Tell the adviser the date, amount and cause of the CCJ up front, so the application goes to a lender whose criteria already fit.

Alternatives worth considering

A remortgage is the other consolidation route Equiclear offers, and a small number of adverse credit mortgage lenders will consider a satisfied CCJ, usually at a lower maximum loan to value and only if your current deal has ended or the early repayment charge is small; our remortgage with a CCJ page covers what is realistic. For a modest amount, a guarantor loan or a specialist unsecured lender may be possible without putting your home at risk. And if the judgment is one symptom of debts you cannot see the end of, a debt management plan or an IVA through a free debt charity may be the better answer than any new borrowing; our comparison with a debt management plan sets out the trade-offs.