Time orders and time to pay orders

A time order is a way of asking the court to give you more time to pay a credit agreement if you have fallen behind with the payments¹. It exists under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which sets the rules for most personal loans, credit cards, hire purchase and other consumer credit in the UK². If the court agrees to make one, it can rewrite the payment terms of your agreement so they match what you can actually afford, rather than leaving you exposed to court action on the original terms.

The power is a real one, not a token gesture. Time orders under sections 129 and 130 of the Act allow a court to amend a credit agreement which has fallen into arrears, to alter the amount of time required to pay back the loan, and to amend the agreement in consequence, such as reducing the rate of interest³. In one Court of Appeal case, the court went further and confirmed that the whole amount owing on the agreement can be brought within the order, and that both the monthly instalments and the interest rate can be cut if the court thinks that is just and needed to make the order work⁴.

Scotland has its own, separate route, the time to pay order, which works differently and is covered in its own section below⁵. Whichever part of the UK you live in, free debt advice is worth having before applying: an adviser can check whether a time order is the right tool for your situation or whether something else, such as a debt management plan or breathing space, fits better. Free debt advice is available from charities and does not depend on which option you end up choosing.

A time order gives you more time to pay

The idea behind a time order is simple. When you fall behind on a regulated credit agreement, the lender's normal route is to issue formal notices and then, if the arrears are not cleared, to take you to court for a county court judgment or to end the agreement altogether. A time order interrupts that process by asking a court to step in first and reset the payment terms¹.

The trigger is usually a formal notice from your lender. The lender usually has to send you an arrears notice if you have missed two or more payments¹⁰. If payments are monthly, the creditor must send the arrears notice if you have missed two payments and owe at least that amount on your agreement; if payments are weekly, the trigger is four missed payments⁷. Once you have received an arrears notice or a default notice, you can apply to the court for a time order¹¹. A default notice gives you a minimum of 14 days to fix things before the creditor can take further action¹².

A time order is not the only way to deal with arrears, and it is not always the first thing to try. Many people in difficulty come to an informal arrangement with the creditor directly, or use a formal solution such as a debt management plan, an IVA or a debt relief order. The time order is distinctive because it is a court order: once made, the creditor is bound by the new terms, and if you keep up with them the creditor cannot apply for a county court judgment¹. That legal certainty is what a private arrangement with a creditor cannot give you.

What a court can change: payments, term and interest

A time order can change three things: the amount you have to pay each month, how long the agreement will last, and in some cases the interest rate¹⁰. If the court agrees to make the order, it can revise the rate of payment and alter the rate of interest, from that which is written in the agreement to that which it thinks is just and fair⁶. The same powers apply whatever the type of agreement: a court can change the amount to be paid each month and how long the agreement lasts¹¹.

The interest powers matter in practice. In a Court of Appeal case, the court confirmed that the monthly instalments and the interest rate on the loan agreement can be reduced, if the court thinks it is just to do so and it is needed to make the time order work⁴. The court can also stop any further interest or charges from being added, under section 136 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974⁷. For a debt that has been growing through default charges, that freeze can be as valuable as the lower instalments.

The court's discretion is wide but not unlimited. Section 129 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 allows the court "to make such order as seems just to it in all the circumstances", as the court put it in Director General of Fair Trading v First National Bank⁴. That means the order is shaped around your particular budget and circumstances rather than a fixed formula, but it also means the outcome depends on the evidence you put before the court about what you can afford. A realistic budget or financial statement is therefore central to any application.

Which agreements qualify for a time order

The basic test is whether your credit agreement is regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974⁷. Most consumer lending is: personal loans, credit cards, hire purchase and conditional sale agreements, and some regulated mortgage contracts and other unsecured lending products fall within the time order rules³. If an agreement is not regulated, the time order route is not available, and you would need to look at other options for dealing with the debt.

Whether an agreement is regulated depends partly on when it was taken out and how much was borrowed. The financial limits have changed over the years: £15,000 if you took out your credit agreement before 1 May 1998, £25,000 if you took it out between 1 May 1998 and 5 April 2008, and no financial limit at all for agreements taken out from 6 April 2008, unless the loan was taken out for business purposes¹. A common reason for an agreement not being regulated is that you borrowed more than £25,000 and the agreement is for business purposes¹².

Some debts sit outside the Act altogether. The Act may not cover all credit union or buy now pay later debts, it does not apply to companies providing gas, electricity, water or phone services, and it does not cover councils¹³. For hire purchase and conditional sale, the Act does not apply to agreements taken out by a limited company¹⁴. If your debt is one of these, the time order route is closed, but other help exists: council tax arrears, energy and water arrears and rent arrears each have their own rules and their own pages on this site.

If you are unsure whether your agreement is regulated, you can ask the creditor for information. You can request a copy of your credit agreement and a statement of account, which should tell you how much you have paid, how much you still owe, and what you still have to pay and when¹³. You must still owe money on the account, and the creditor must not have already taken court action, for some of these information rights to apply¹³.

When a time order is likely to be granted

Courts do not grant time orders automatically. The leading guidance comes from the Barnes case, where the Court of Appeal said that time orders should only normally be made if someone is in temporary financial difficulty⁴. That is the central test: a time order is designed to bridge a period when your income has dropped or your costs have risen, not to permanently reprice a loan you could never have afforded. The court may be willing to make a time order for a specific period if you have temporary financial difficulties¹⁵.

The court is also likely to want the order to be time-limited. The court may only give a time order for a limited period, and is likely to want a time-limited period only¹¹. A typical order might reduce payments for a set number of months, with the payments stepping back up, or the term extending, afterwards. When you apply, there will be a hearing and the District Judge will decide whether to make a time order in your case⁸.

What persuades a court is evidence. The judge will want to see your income, your essential spending, and what you can realistically pay each month, together with an explanation of what went wrong and why it is temporary. Payments for goods bought under hire purchase or conditional sale agreements belong in your household budget alongside your other commitments¹⁶. The judge does not have to have received a request to make a time order: a court can make one on its own initiative when a claim is already before it¹, but an application supported by a clear budget gives the court something concrete to work with.

How to apply for a time order in England and Wales

There are three main routes to a time order, and the one you use depends on how far things have gone with your creditor.

Before court action. To apply for a time order before your creditor has started a claim, you need to start a claim yourself using a claim form called an N440, which you fill in with supporting information called the particulars of claim¹. Before you do that, you must write to your creditor and give them 14 days' notice that you are going to apply for a time order⁷. There is a fee to pay when you apply for a time order before court action¹.

When the creditor issues a claim. If your creditor has already sent you a claim form, you can apply for a time order in your response to the claim, and there is no fee if you apply this way, so you would usually be better waiting for this to happen rather than paying to apply first⁴.

After court action. You can apply for a time order after your creditor has taken you to court by using a general court application form called an N244¹. There is a fee to pay when you apply this way, although depending on your circumstances you may not have to pay it¹.

Timing in the courts varies. As a rough guide from official statistics, mortgage possession claims in England and Wales took a median of 8 weeks from claim to order in July to September 2025¹⁷, and 7.7 weeks in April to June 2026, down from 8.4 weeks in the same period in 2025¹⁸. A time order application is usually dealt with more quickly than a full possession claim, but these figures give a sense of how long court processes can run. If you are defending a claim, the deadline for replying is short, and the page on replying to a claim form explains what you need to do and when.

Court fees: when a time order application is free

The fee position depends entirely on the route you take. Applying before court action, on form N440, carries a fee¹. Applying after court action, on form N244, also carries a fee, although depending on your circumstances you may not have to pay it¹. But applying in your response to a claim is free⁴, and if your creditor has already started court action you can use the court papers your creditor sent to make a free application for a time order⁷.

There is also a no-cost route that many people miss. You can write to the court asking the judge to make a time order on the court's own initiative, and there is no fee to pay to write this kind of request¹. This can be worth doing if a claim is already before the court and you cannot afford an application fee, though the court will still need your budget and reasons before it can make an order.

If a fee does apply and you cannot afford it, court fee remission may be available depending on your income and circumstances, and a debt adviser can help you check before you apply. The practical message is that the timing of your application can cost or save you a fee: waiting for the creditor to issue a claim, and then applying in your response, is the free route in England and Wales⁴.

Hire purchase and conditional sale: the whole balance, not just arrears

Car finance is where time orders are used most, and the rules have a particular feature. A time order application on a regulated hire purchase or regulated conditional sale agreement always deals with the full amount owing on the agreement, not just the arrears⁸. That is because of how these agreements work: if the creditor terminates and repossesses, you will usually have to pay the full amount owed on the original agreement, minus what you have paid, minus what the creditor gets back from selling the goods, and minus the option to purchase fee¹⁹.

The whole-balance rule has consequences both ways. It means a time order can bring the entire debt, including the arrears, within one court-approved schedule, which is why the Barnes case matters so much for car finance⁴. It also means the court is being asked to reschedule everything you owe, not just catch up the missed payments, so the budget you put before it needs to cover the whole agreement.

A time order also protects the goods. If a time order is in place, the lender cannot terminate the agreement or repossess the goods¹¹. That protection can be decisive if you need the car for work or caring responsibilities. It sits alongside other rules for hire purchase: you cannot sell the goods yourself without the creditor's written permission, and selling them without permission can be a criminal offence¹⁵; and if you have paid a third or more of the total amount payable, the goods become protected goods and the creditor must go to court for an order before they can be returned, unless you consent¹⁵.

A time order is not the only option on car finance. The Consumer Credit Act gives consumers the right to terminate most hire purchase and conditional sale agreements before the final payment is due, and caps the amount due, based on the final price and the amount already paid²⁰. The two routes suit different circumstances: terminating ends the agreement and the goods go back, while a time order keeps the agreement running with rescheduled payments. The rules for hire purchase and conditional sale are usually the same whether they are a business or a household priority debt¹⁴.

Time to pay orders in Scotland

Scotland has its own system, and the terminology is different. Once the formal process of diligence has begun, in other words once a charge for payment or a bank arrestment has been served on you, you may be able to ask the court for time to pay using a time to pay order⁹. An order for time to pay is an order of the sheriff that the respondent must pay the claimant a sum of money in a particular way, such as by instalments or by a delayed payment²¹. Before diligence begins, the equivalent tool is a time to pay direction, used in simple procedure cases⁹.

The protection a time to pay order gives is substantial. It allows you to repay the debt by monthly instalments, and it prevents creditors from making you bankrupt or using most types of diligence against you²². It effectively freezes diligence: the creditor cannot carry out an attachment, apply for an exceptional attachment order, or instruct an arrestment of your wages or bank account⁹.

There are limits. The court cannot make time to pay directions for debts over £25,000, or for awards in connection with divorce, maintenance, income tax, VAT or car tax⁹. In practice, debts need to be paid off in approximately two years⁹. Council tax arrears follow a separate route: you can apply for a time to pay order once the summary warrant has been granted and the council has served a charge for payment and offered time to pay the debt²².

Applying is straightforward and free. You can get an application form for a time to pay order, called a DSA 2, from the sheriff clerk's office, a Citizens Advice Bureau, law centre or money advice centre⁹. There is no charge for making an application to the sheriff court for a time order, although a fee will be payable to sheriff officers in some circumstances¹⁰. The creditor has 14 days from receiving the form to object; if the creditor does not object, the sheriff will grant the order after 14 days, provided the payment offer is reasonable⁹.

A time to pay order is not the only Scottish option. The Debt Arrangement Scheme is a separate, statutory debt payment programme, and its eligibility rules note that someone with a single debt being paid under a time to pay order under the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 is not eligible for DAS for that debt²³. Scotland also has protected trust deeds and sequestration for more serious situations. A money adviser can tell you which fits, and the page on diligence in Scotland explains what creditors can otherwise do.

If the court refuses or the creditor wins

A refusal is not the end of the road. You can ask the court to look again at your request by writing a letter to the court within 14 days of its delivery, known as service, of the judgment¹. The date of service is normally the second working day, for example not a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday, after the date of the postmark on the envelope¹. That 14-day window is short, so it is worth diarying the date as soon as a judgment arrives.

If the refusal stands, or if the creditor obtains a county court judgment, other routes remain. You can apply to vary the CCJ, which means asking the court to change the order so you pay in affordable instalments; you will need to provide a detailed budget and there may be a small court fee²⁴. The page on paying a CCJ in instalments covers that process. If you have been sent a return order in a hire purchase case, you can still apply for a time order to be made using an N244 form⁴.

For people with multiple debts and at least one county court judgment against them, an administration order may be an alternative. It is free to apply²⁵, though an administration order appears for six years on your credit file and on the public Register of Judgments, and it is harder to take out credit during that time²⁶. Beyond the courts, the full range of debt solutions remains open, and a adviser can help you choose between them.

What happens if you miss payments under an order

A time order only works if the payments under it are kept up. If the court makes a time order and you keep up to date with the payments, your creditor cannot apply for a county court judgment to be made, so a judgment will not appear on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines or on credit reference agency files⁷. That protection is conditional, and it is the main practical reward for staying on track.

In Scotland the rules are explicit. If you have a time to pay direction and you miss two payments, on the date the third payment becomes due, the time to pay direction collapses⁹. The same rule is stated for directions in the Scottish guidance: miss two payments and the direction falls on the date the third falls due⁹. When a direction or order collapses, the creditor can resume diligence, which is why the order should be based on a budget you can genuinely sustain rather than an optimistic offer.

If you are struggling under an order, do not wait for it to fail. Ask the court to vary the order before payments are missed, and take advice: a debt management plan, a renegotiated arrangement or one of the formal solutions may fit better than an order you cannot maintain. The page on what to do when a creditor refuses your repayment offer and the one on how lenders must treat you when you fall behind explain the rules that creditors themselves must follow.

Changes to consumer credit law

The law behind time orders is in flux. In May 2026 the government announced it would repeal much of the law governing consumer credit²⁷. The announcement followed long-standing criticism of the Consumer Credit Act as prescriptive, confusing and duplicating, in requiring credit providers to communicate with customers in technical language which they may not understand²⁷. A government review of the Act had already noted the time order provisions in sections 129 and 130 as part of the framework that allows a court to amend a credit agreement which has fallen into arrears³.

Nothing in the announced changes takes away the current rules. The Consumer Credit Act 1974 as published on the legislation website is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 28 September 2026², and the same legislation service notes that there are changes that may be brought into force at a future date². Until any repeal is actually implemented, time orders under the Act remain available in England and Wales, and time to pay orders remain available in Scotland, on the terms set out on this page. If the law does change, this page will be updated, and free debt advisers will always know the current position.