What happens if a customer ignores a county court judgment? What a trades firm can do next, with the fees

Nothing happens on its own. The court service's guide says the court "will not enforce the judgment unless you ask it to", and each way of asking has a fee of between £82 and £139. The fee is added to what the customer owes, but you do not get it back if there is nothing to collect.

This page covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own courts and their own rules.

Free tool

Letter to a customer after a county court judgment

Fill in the judgment details. The letter works out the last day the customer can pay in full and have the judgment removed from the public register, and says when you will ask the court to enforce it.

Which letterThe day the judgment arrivesReminder before you enforce Your business name, address, phone and emailPenrose Building Services, 12 Quarry Road, Swansea SA1 9ZZ 01632 960000, accounts@penrosebuilding.example Customer's name Claim numberIt is on the judgment and on every letter from the court. Date of the judgmentThe date printed on the judgment, not the day it reached you. Amount of the judgmentThe figure on the judgment. In our guide's example it is the £2,400 invoice plus the £115 claim fee. How the customer can pay Date you will ask the court to enforceSet it on or after the last day of the month the customer has to pay in full. How you will enforce (reminder only)a warrant of controlan attachment of earnings ordera third-party debt ordera charging order Court fee for that method (reminder only)£96 for a county court warrant of control; £139 for an attachment of earnings order, a third-party debt order or a charging order. Your name

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• Count the month from the date printed on the judgment.
• Pick the method by who owes you: an attachment of earnings order needs an employed customer and a debt of £50 or more, and cannot be made against a self-employed person, a firm or a limited company.
• A county court warrant of control is for a debt of £5,000 or less.
• You cannot enforce while the customer has a Breathing Space.
• The fees are from the court service's fees leaflet updated on 13 July 2026; check the current leaflet before you quote one.

The rule this rests on: GOV.UK, County court judgments for debt (paying within one month, 6 years on the register); HM Courts and Tribunals Service, Civil court fees (EX50) and guide EX321. A draft to check and adapt, not legal advice.

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How you got here

You sent a letter before action, waited, made a claim and paid the court fee. If the customer does not respond or refuses to pay, GOV.UK says you can ask the court to order them to pay: you request a judgment online, or on form N225 if you used a paper claim form. Our guide to what to do when a customer will not pay covers the steps up to that point.

First, the lever that costs nothing

A county court judgment stays on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines for 6 years. GOV.UK says a debtor who pays the full amount within one month can get the judgment removed from the register. After a month it stays, marked as satisfied once paid. That gives the customer a reason to pay now, so tell them the day the judgment arrives:

Dear [name], the county court gave judgment against you on [date] for £[amount]. If you pay in full within one month of that date, you can ask the court to remove the judgment from the public register. After that it stays on the register for 6 years. You can pay by [how]. If I have not been paid by [date], I will ask the court to enforce the judgment, and the court fee for that will be added to what you owe.

The ways to enforce, and what each costs

The fees are from the court service's fees leaflet, updated on 13 July 2026. Its page on applying for a warrant, also dated 13 July 2026, still shows £94 for the county court and £80 for the High Court. The two official pages disagree, so budget on the higher figure.

Between £600 and £5,000 you can choose the county court or the High Court for a warrant. The court service says High Court procedure can be complicated and more expensive, and that court staff cannot tell you which is more likely to get your money.

Pick the method by who owes you

An employed householder. An attachment of earnings order tells the employer to take an amount from each pay day. The debt must be £50 or more. It is slow but steady.

A self-employed customer, or another trader. The court service's guidance says an attachment of earnings order cannot be made against someone who is unemployed or self-employed, or against a firm or limited company. A warrant has limits too: enforcement agents cannot remove essential household items or "tradesman's tools". If the builder who owes you has a van full of tools and little else, a warrant may raise nothing.

A limited company. A third-party debt order freezes the bank account when the bank receives it. If the account is overdrawn that day, you get nothing from it. The guidance also warns that the debtor will know about the order and may stop paying money into the account.

A customer who owns their home. A charging order secures the debt against the property. You are not paid until it is sold.

If you do not know what they have

You can apply for an order to obtain information for £69. The customer, or an officer of the company, has to come to court and give evidence of income and spending. It is not a way of enforcing the judgment. It tells you which of the methods above is worth its fee.

How a warrant works

1. You apply on form N323, or online if you claimed online.
2. The enforcement agency writes to the customer, who has 7 working days to pay.
3. If they have not paid within 15 working days of the warrant being issued, an agent calls at the address.
4. The agent can enter a home only if someone lets them in. They take goods only if a sale would cover the cost of taking and selling them and leave something over.
5. The warrant lasts one year. Asking the court to extend it costs £126.

The sums on a £2,400 invoice

We left out interest to keep the sums plain. With a warrant your fees come to £211, about 8.8% of the invoice. If the agent finds nothing worth taking, that £211 is gone as well as the £2,400. Spending £69 first to find out what the customer has can be the cheaper mistake to make.

When you cannot enforce

GOV.UK says you cannot enforce a judgment while the customer has a Breathing Space, which protects them from creditors for a time. If you are owed £5,000 or more you can also apply to make the customer bankrupt, which the court service calls expensive.

Most of this is avoided earlier. A deposit and written payment terms cost nothing; our terms and conditions template has both.

This is general information, not legal advice. For a large debt, or one the customer disputes, speak to a solicitor or your trade body's legal helpline.