It might seem minor, but can have troublesome knock-on effects
This is how a simple parking fine can get your mortgage refused – but there’s a solution.
A parking fine might seem like a minor annoyance, but if it ends up becoming a County Court Judgment (CCJ) because you don’t pay it – or refuse to on principle – it could stop you securing a mortgage with many high street lenders. According to Emma Jones, managing director of Runcorn-based WhenTheBankSaysNo.co.uk, parking-related CCJs are a surprisingly common reason buyers are declined, particularly by lenders that rely heavily on automated underwriting systems.
She said: “We see cases like this far more often than people realise. A relatively small parking fine can snowball into a CCJ if it’s ignored or forgotten, and once that appears on your credit file it can trigger an automatic mortgage rejection. Most high street lenders will say ‘no’ if you have a CCJ.”
Emma said the biggest issue wasn’t necessarily the size of the debt, but how many mainstream lenders assess applications.
She added: “A CCJ tells a lender there has previously been a debt that wasn’t paid when it should have been. Automated underwriting systems don’t always look at the story behind it – they simply identify the CCJ and, in many cases, the application is declined.”
That was exactly what happened to first-time buyer Eren Mehmet, who was rejected for three mortgages because of a small CCJ linked to unpaid parking tickets.
Eren said: “After being turned down so many times, I started to feel hopeless. It felt like lenders only saw that one issue rather than my overall financial situation.”
But Emma stressed that a parking-related CCJ should not automatically end someone’s chances of buying a home.
Emma added: “One lender saying no doesn’t mean every lender will. There are specialist lenders who are prepared to look at the whole picture, including why the CCJ happened, how long ago it was, whether it’s been satisfied and how the applicant has managed their finances since.”
How to get a mortgage with CCJ
That’s exactly how Eren eventually secured his mortgage.
Emma said: “Rather than focusing on one historic issue, we presented his full financial background to a lender whose criteria better suited his circumstances and who was prepared to look beyond the CCJ, which was relatively minor. They could see he was otherwise a strong borrower and were happy to lend.”
Eren has now bought his first home and said the experience transformed his life.
He said: “Even when everyone else had said no, they made me feel like ‘no’ wasn’t necessarily the final answer. They looked beyond my CCJ and found a lender willing to support my application.”
Emma believes that too many buyers give up after their first rejection.
She added: “Automated underwriting has an important role, but it can’t always distinguish between someone with a minor parking-related CCJ from years ago and someone with ongoing financial problems and who had serious levels of debt.
“That’s why it’s worth speaking to a broker who understands the whole market and knows which lenders will accommodate people with blips like parking fines. More often than not, the right lender simply isn’t the first one you ask and won’t be found on the high street.”
