A CCJ, default or IVA does not close the door on a mortgage. It changes which lenders will look at your application, and why.

What happens when a lender looks at your application

This section sets out the sequence a lender actually follows when your file shows a CCJ, a default, an IVA, or any other form of adverse credit. It's a mechanism: the same file can produce different decisions at different lenders, because each one weighs these steps differently.

1. 1

   You find out what's actually on your file

   Everything starts with what's recorded and how. A CCJ, a default, missed payments, a debt management plan, an IVA, bankruptcy, and repossession all show up differently on a credit file, and a lender reads each one on its own terms.

   Checking your own file before a lender does means you know what they'll see.

2. 2

   A lender runs a search

   When you make an enquiry or apply, the lender checks your credit file. Which kind of check it runs at this stage matters, because one type leaves a mark and the other doesn't.

   Soft search

   Used for an early eligibility check. It doesn't show to other lenders and doesn't affect your score.

   Hard search

   Run at full application. It leaves a visible mark on your file, which is one reason several hard searches close together can look worse than one.

3. 3

   Underwriting weighs the specifics

   An underwriter doesn't stop at the fact that a CCJ or default exists. The date, the amount, and what's happened since all get looked at separately, because they point to different things about risk.

   The date of the entry is fixed and can't be changed. Your payment conduct since then is something you have influence over.

   Age

   How long ago it happened. Older entries carry less weight; a CCJ from four years back is read differently to one from four months back.

   Satisfaction status

   Whether it's been paid off (satisfied) or is still outstanding. A satisfied default is treated differently from one that's still open.

4. 4

   You get placed in a credit tier

   Based on the type, age, size, and satisfaction status together, the lender places the application in a tier. That tier decides which products are even under consideration before affordability is looked at.

   This is where mainstream and specialist lenders tend to part ways.

   Mainstream lender

   Standard criteria often rule out recent or unsatisfied adverse credit automatically, before an underwriter reviews the rest of the file.

   Specialist lender

   Assesses the whole file, the type of entry, its age, its size, and conduct since.

5. 5

   Affordability and deposit size are checked against the tier

   How much can be borrowed against the property's value (the loan-to-value ratio, or LTV) tends to be more conservative for higher-risk tiers, and the affordability check looks at income against outgoings, including any ongoing DMP or IVA payments.

   This depends on the individual lender's own criteria, which vary and aren't fixed across the market.

6. 6

   The lender decides, and on what basis

   The final decision sits with that lender's underwriter, weighing everything above together against their own criteria. No combination of file facts guarantees a particular outcome, because different lenders weigh the same file differently.

   A decline from one lender is a statement about that lender's criteria.

   Accepted

   The lender is satisfied with the overall picture against its own criteria for this tier.

   Declined

   The file doesn't meet this particular lender's criteria. That doesn't mean no lender would consider it.

   Offered with conditions

   A larger deposit, a different rate structure, or a shorter fixed term, depending on what the underwriter flagged.

This describes the general shape of the process.