Form N9A: How to Admit a County Court Claim and Request Time to Pay in Instalments

If you have been served with a county court money claim and accept you owe the money — or part of it — Form N9A is how you formally tell the court. It also lets you propose paying in instalments rather than as a lump sum, which matters when a £3,000 claim would empty your account.

When to Use Form N9A

Use N9A when you admit some or all of the debt claimed against you. Two scenarios:

Full admission: You accept you owe the entire amount. You complete N9A offering either immediate payment, payment by a specific date, or monthly instalments.

Partial admission: You accept you owe part of the amount but dispute the rest. You fill in N9A for the sum you admit, and file a defence on Form N9B for the disputed balance. Both forms are submitted together.

Do not use N9A if you dispute the entire claim — that is a full defence on Form N9B with no admission component.

The Income and Expenditure Statement

The core of N9A is a detailed financial statement. The court uses this to assess whether your proposed payment plan is realistic. You must set out:

• Monthly income (employment, self-employment, state benefits, household contributions)
• Fixed monthly expenses (mortgage or rent, council tax, utilities, insurance)
• Priority debt payments (existing court orders, tax arrears, child maintenance)
• General living costs (food, transport, clothing)
• Number and ages of dependants

Be honest and thorough. If you understate expenses to make your offer look generous, the claimant will challenge the figures. If you overstate them, the court officer may reject your proposal and set a higher payment schedule.

What Happens After You Submit

Three possible outcomes:

The claimant accepts your offer. Judgment is entered on your proposed terms. You pay the admitted amount in the agreed instalments, and the case closes on completion.

The claimant rejects your offer. A court officer reviews your income and expenditure statement against HMCTS affordability guidelines and sets a binding payment schedule. This is called a "determination." If either side objects to the court officer's determination, they have 14 days to apply for a redetermination by a District Judge.

Partial admission rejected as insufficient. If you admitted part of the claim and the claimant rejects the partial admission (they want the full amount), the admitted sum is dealt with under the admission process and the remaining disputed balance proceeds to a defended hearing.

CCJ Implications

An admission — full or partial — results in a County Court Judgment being entered against you. This goes on the Register of Judgments for six years and affects your credit rating.

One critical exception: if you pay the full judgment amount within one calendar month of the judgment date, you can apply to have the CCJ removed from the register entirely. The removal application costs a small fee, but the CCJ disappears as if it was never there.

If you cannot pay within a month, you can still apply to have the entry marked as "satisfied" once fully paid — the judgment stays on the register for six years, but being marked as satisfied is better than an outstanding CCJ.

Where to Send Form N9A

For specified sum claims (a fixed amount), send Form N9A directly to the claimant or their solicitor — not to the court. The address is on the claim form. The claimant then notifies the court whether they accept or reject your proposal.

For unspecified sum claims (where the court needs to assess the amount owed), use Form N9C instead and send it to the court.

The England & Wales Money Claim Response Guide includes a response route decision map that tells you exactly which form to use and where to send it based on your specific situation.

See more England and Wales guides →