Why Do People Get CCJs? The Most Common Causes

The single most common cause we see: the claim form was sent to an old address. You move house, a creditor isn't updated, the court papers go to the previous property, and the court enters a 'default judgment' because nobody responded. The first you hear of it is a declined credit application months or years later.

This is also one of the strongest grounds for having a judgment set aside, because you never had the chance to defend the claim.

Parking charges, old mobile phone contracts, gym memberships, a final utility bill at a previous address. These start small, get passed to debt collectors, and quietly escalate to court while the letters pile up unopened. The judgment is often for a few hundred pounds — but its effect on your credit file is identical to a judgment for thousands.

Sometimes the debt itself is wrong: a bill you already paid, an account opened fraudulently, a balance inflated by charges. People ignore the paperwork because they know the debt isn't right — but the court can only decide on what it's shown. No response usually means judgment by default, even when the underlying claim was disputable.

Redundancy, illness, divorce, a business that failed. Some CCJs do come from debts that were real and unpayable at the time. Even then, if the claim wasn't served properly or the process wasn't followed, there may still be grounds to challenge the judgment.

Check your credit file with all three agencies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) and look at the judgment date, the amount and the claimant. If you never received the claim, or the debt is disputed, it's worth getting the judgment properly assessed — removal may be more achievable than you think.