Form N245: Vary a CCJ and Set a Court Instalment Plan

Form N245 is the County Court application you file when you cannot afford a County Court Judgment (CCJ) as ordered, either as a lump sum or on the instalments the court originally set. It costs £15 to file, and it does two jobs: it asks the court to vary your payments to an amount you can realistically manage, and it can ask the court to suspend a warrant of control so bailiffs stop enforcement while your finances are reassessed.¹

When Form N245 Is the Right Form

You can use N245 once a County Court has entered a money judgment against you and either the payment terms have become unaffordable or you were ordered to pay the full amount in one go. The two requests, varying payments and suspending a warrant, can be made together or separately on the same form.¹

One boundary matters before you download anything. N245 only works for County Court enforcement. If your debt has been transferred to the High Court and a writ of control has been issued, you cannot use N245; you would file Form N244 at the High Court with a financial statement and a witness statement, and even a successful application there only suspends the writ itself.²

Financial Information the Court Expects

Most of the form is a detailed picture of your household finances. The court uses that picture to decide whether the payment you are offering is genuinely the most you can manage, so accuracy matters more than presentation. Before you start, pull together:

Income: net wages, self-employment earnings, benefits (Universal Credit, ESA, and so on), pensions, and any other regular money coming in.
Housing costs: rent, mortgage, council tax, and buildings or contents insurance.
Household bills: gas, electricity, water, phone, and broadband.
Living expenses: food, clothing, transport, and any regular childcare or school costs.
Other debts: credit cards, personal loans, catalogue accounts, and any arrears on priority obligations.
Assets: whether you own property (and roughly how much equity), any vehicles, and savings or investments.

The form asks you to say how you occupy your home, so know whether it is owned outright, jointly owned, mortgaged, rented, or council-provided. Incomplete or unsigned forms cannot be processed, so the court will send it back rather than work around the gaps.³

Priority Debts Come Before Your CCJ Offer

Priority debts are the ones where non-payment can cost you your home, your energy supply, or your liberty: mortgage or rent arrears, council tax, gas and electricity, magistrates’ court fines, and child maintenance. If you owe arrears on any of these, include the repayments in your expenditure. What is left after essential costs and priority debt payments is your genuine disposable income, and your CCJ offer should come from that figure.

Working Out an Offer That Will Stick

The most important line on the form is the offer of payment, where you propose a specific weekly or monthly amount. Two mistakes trip people up here. Lowballing the figure invites objections from the creditor and scepticism from the court, especially if your stated income clearly supports more. Overcommitting is worse in the long run, because an offer you cannot maintain will collapse within a few months and put you back where you started, facing fresh enforcement.

Keep the arithmetic consistent across the form. If income of £1,400 and expenditure of £1,350 sit in your figures, an offer of £100 a month will not match, and that kind of discrepancy weakens the whole application.

Filling In and Filing the Form

Download the form from GOV.UK.¹ Fill in the claim number from your original judgment paperwork and the names and addresses of the claimant (who you owe) and yourself as defendant. Then work through the financial statement, transferring your income and expenditure figures into the designated boxes, and complete the offer of payment.

Send the signed form to the court office handling your case. The filing fee is £15,⁴ payable by cheque to “HM Courts and Tribunals Service,” or by cash, debit card, or credit card in person.

If you cannot afford the fee, apply for a full or partial waiver using Form EX160 in the same envelope.⁵ You are likely to qualify if you receive income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related ESA, Income Support, Universal Credit with earnings under £6,000 a year, or Pension Credit (guarantee credit).⁶ If the court receives the N245 without either the fee or a fee waiver application, it will return everything untouched.

Post the paperwork by a method that gives you proof of delivery. If bailiffs are already instructed, evidence of the date you filed matters. Note that if your original claim was issued through the Online Civil Money Claims system, filing an N245 transfers the case out of that digital service to a physical court office.⁷

What Happens After You File

The court sends a copy of your form and financial statement to the creditor, who can accept your proposed payment or object to it. If they accept, a court officer issues a new order that formally changes the payment schedule.

If the creditor objects, a court officer still makes a decision, using Court Service guidelines and the financial information you provided.⁸ Either way, the new order replaces the previous payment terms.

Processing takes time. StepChange notes it can be several weeks from submission to decision, and you must keep paying the amount set in the original CCJ during that wait. Stopping payments before the court varies the order gives the creditor grounds to pursue further enforcement.⁹

If the Payment Is Still Too High

If the court officer sets payments at a level you still cannot afford, you can ask a district judge to reconsider. The request has to be in writing within 14 days of the date the new order was served on you.¹⁰ No special form is needed and there is no fee.⁸ The creditor has the same right if they think the payments were set too low.

The court will list a hearing where both sides can attend, and the district judge can make whatever payment order they consider appropriate on the evidence.¹⁰ Thorough, honest financial records are what make the difference in that room.

If You Miss the New Payments

A varied order protects you from further enforcement only while you keep up with it. Fall behind, and the creditor can apply to enforce again. The main tools available to a CCJ creditor are:¹¹

Warrant of control: bailiffs attend your home and can seize belongings to sell towards the debt.
Attachment of earnings: the court orders your employer to deduct money from your wages.
Third-party debt order: the court freezes money in your bank or building society account.
Charging order: the court places a legal charge on your property, so the debt is paid from the proceeds when you sell.

If your circumstances change again and you genuinely cannot manage even the reduced amount, you can file another N245. There is no cap on how many times you can apply, but each application costs £15 unless you qualify for a waiver, and the court will expect a credible explanation for the change.

Effect on Your Credit File

A CCJ is recorded on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines and on your credit file with all three main credit reference agencies. It stays there for six years from the date judgment was entered, regardless of what you pay during that time. Filing an N245 and varying your instalments does not remove the entry or shorten the six-year period. What it does is give you a payment schedule you can actually meet, which keeps enforcement off your back while the record runs its course. Once the debt is paid in full, you can apply separately for it to be marked as “satisfied,” which lenders treat very differently from an outstanding CCJ.¹²

1
GOV.UK. Apply to Suspend a Warrant or Vary Payments Made by a Court Order: Form N245
2
Shelter Legal England. How a Creditor Can Enforce a Judgment
3
GOV.UK. N245 Application for Suspension or Variation
4
Shelter. Court and Tribunal Fees
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GOV.UK. Apply for Help With Court and Tribunal Fees
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HM Courts & Tribunals Service. Apply for Help With Fees (EX160)
7
Justice UK. Practice Direction 51R – Online Civil Money Claims Pilot
8
Citizens Advice. Changing a Court Order for Debt
9
StepChange. N244 and N245 County Court Forms
10
Shelter Legal England. Defendant’s Application to Vary a Money Judgment
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GOV.UK. Make a Court Claim for Money: Enforce a Judgment
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GOV.UK. County Court Judgments for Debt: CCJs and Your Credit Rating