What is an order for sale?
If you have a charging order, you need to keep making some payment to the debt. If you don’t, the creditor could apply to the court for an order for sale. This would force you to sell your house so the creditor can get their money back.
If your CCJ was dated on or after 1 October 2012, the creditor is not allowed to apply for an order for sale if the court told you to pay the debt by instalments and these are up to date.
Orders for sale are only possible for debts of £1,000 or more.
In practice, orders for sale are very rare.
The Ministry of Justice no longer publishes statistics on these, but the last figures they released, in 2014, showed an average of only 19 orders for sale each month in the whole of England and Wales, compared to around 3,600 final charging orders a month.
If a creditor applied for an order for sale, there would be another hearing and you would have a chance to explain your situation to a judge. The order for sale will only be granted as a last resort.
Worried about charging order or CCJ?
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