Respond to a County Court Claim by Post — CNBC Address and Paper Forms

Not every county court claim needs to be — or can be — answered online. If you received a paper claim pack through the post, you can respond by post using the N9 forms included in the pack. The question most defendants get stuck on is where to send them.

Where to post your response

The address depends on what you are filing:

Acknowledgment of Service (Form N9) and Defence (Form N9B) for paper or MCOL claims go to the issuing court or centre named in your response pack. For claims handled by the CNBC, use:

Civil National Business Centre St Katharine's House 21–27 St Katharine's Street Northampton NN1 2LH

The CNBC is the central processing hub for civil money claims in England and Wales. It handles the administrative side — receiving forms, logging responses, and forwarding papers to local hearing centres when cases are ready for a judge.

Full admission (Form N9A) goes directly to the claimant (or their solicitor), not to the court. For a partial admission, send Form N9A to the issuing court with Form N9B. Use the return address in your response pack; sending a partial-admission N9A to the claimant can delay processing and risk missing a deadline.

Online Civil Money Claims (OCMC) cases with a claim number containing "MC" can still be responded to by post. Paper responses for OCMC claims go to:

Civil Money Claims PO Box 12747 Harlow CM20 9RA

Check your claim number. If it contains "MC," use the Harlow address. If it is an eight-character alphanumeric code (legacy Money Claim Online), use the CNBC Northampton address.

Timing: when does a posted response arrive?

For paper or MCOL filings, the court treats forms received after 4:00 PM as filed the following business day. If your deadline falls on a Monday, a form arriving at 4:15 PM Monday counts as filed on Tuesday. OCMC responses have their own online deadline, ordinarily 4pm on the 28th day after issue; if the court sends a paper response form because you could not respond online, use the 28-day deadline from the date it was sent.

Post your response by first-class recorded delivery. Recorded delivery does two things: it gives you a proof-of-posting receipt with a timestamp (which you keep), and it lets you track whether the envelope was delivered. Standard first-class post within England and Wales normally arrives the next business day, but delays happen. Give yourself at least three to four working days before the deadline.

What goes in the envelope

For a standard defence response, you send:

1. Form N9 (Acknowledgment of Service) for paper or MCOL claims if you are buying time — this extends your defence deadline from 14 to 28 days from deemed service. OCMC claims do not use this extension.
2. Form N9B (Defence and Counterclaim) when you are ready to set out your full defence
3. A copy of any documents you reference in your defence, if you want the court to have them at this stage (this is optional — the main evidence bundle comes later)

Keep photocopies of everything you send. The CNBC processes thousands of forms daily and postal loss, while rare, does happen. Your photocopies plus the recorded delivery receipt are your proof of filing.

For paper or MCOL claims, you must also serve a copy of your defence on the claimant (or their solicitor), using the address on the claim form. Filing at court and serving on the other side are two separate obligations. For OCMC claims, follow the online or paper-response instructions; the court notifies the claimant through that process.

The phone line

If you need to check whether the CNBC has received your form or have questions about the administrative process:

CNBC phone: 0300 123 1056

For an OCMC claim query, call the Civil Money Claims helpline on 0300 123 7050.

Hold times can be long — Citizens Advice and forum posts consistently report waits of 20 to 45 minutes. Call in the morning for shorter queues. The phone line handles administrative queries, not legal advice. They can tell you whether your form has been logged and what happens next, but they will not advise you on how to draft your defence.

Welsh-language support

If you want to respond in Welsh, or need assistance in Welsh, call 0300 303 5174. You can tell the court in Form N180 that you or a witness may use Welsh; the court will consider Welsh-speaking judicial and interpretation arrangements under the Welsh language practice direction.

The county court money claim response guide includes a step-by-step walkthrough of both paper and online response routes, with deadline calculators that account for deemed service rules — so you know exactly which date your response must arrive by.

See more England and Wales guides →