The number of people with County Court Judgements registered against them for unpaid debts soared in the last year in another worrying sign of the UK\'s over-indebtedness.



A massive, 843,853 people had County Court Judgements registered against them, up by a third compared with last year and the second consecutive year that the figure has grown.





According to the Registry Trust, the organisation that tracks the figures on behalf of the Lord Chancellor\'s office, lenders are going to the courts at an earlier stage of the process of debt recovery to make sure they have a claim on the debtors property.



A County Court Judgement is the first stage in a legal process that can lead to bailiffs knocking on your door, able to take goods to the value of the debt. It is also the first step for a lender to take out a charging order, which converts any unsecured debt into a secured one, enabling it to make a recover its debt from the value of the borrower\'s property.



County Court Judgements are of course best avoided completely whenever possible, and for homeowners who have a number of debts which are proving difficult to manage and are in danger of acquiring County Court Judgements as a result, an oft used and valuable tool is to consolidate a number of smaller, unsecured loans by applying for a debt consolidation loan using their home equity to secure a lower interest rate, which can serve to lower the monthly cost of servicing their debts, especially if combined with a longer repayment period.



A County Court Judgement stays on a person\'s credit file for six years unless they pay it off in full within a month of its being issued. Even if the debt is paid within the six years, the CCJ will remain on file, but will be marked as \'satisfied\'.



Even for debtors who already have County Court Judgements, there are still solutions available to get their finances back on track. There are a number of lenders who specialise in offering debt consolidation loans to debtors with adverse credit, and who will lend to debtors with not only County Court Judgements, but also mortgage arrears and even to debtors in an IVA or bankruptcy.



Lenders have seen their bad debt levels rocket in the last few years as an increasing number of borrowers utilise the less stringent bankruptcy laws and Individual Voluntary Arrangements. The latest set of financial figures from the banks show that HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (owners of NatWest) and Lloyds TSB wrote off a collective 11.6bn in bad debts from customers last year.



Registry Trust chairman Malcolm Hurlston said: Judgements are an important item in creditors\' armoury, particularly for dealing with people who are \'won\'t pays\' rather than \'can\'t pays\' and the sharp rise indicates that it is creditor behaviour that is changing.



Mr Hurlston continued: Creditors are seeking judgements as the necessary first step to obtaining charging orders against debtors\' properties, thus securing their share in any equity. It is a further warning to homeowners who may have borrowed too heavily on top of rising interest rates and escalating house prices.