Private landlord possession claims at “highest level ever”: Ministry of Justice

Private landlord possession claims have now surpassed pre-pandemic levels and are at the “highest level ever”, data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has revealed.

The MoJ’s latest Mortgage and landlord possession statistics report reveals that when compared to the same quarter (July to September) in 2021, landlord possession claims increased from 10,202 to 21,012 (106%) in 2022.

Orders went from 5,601 to 15,352 (174%), warrants from 4,552 to 8,505 (87%) and repossessions from 4,891 to 5,403 (10%) in 2022, the MOJ reports.

In July to September 2022, a similar proportion (36%) of all landlord possession claims were social landlord claims compared to private landlord claims (32%), and 32% were accelerated claims, which don’t tend to require a court hearing.

The data revealed that increases in possession claims have been recorded in all regions, but landlord claims remained concentrated in London, with London boroughs accounting for 9 of the 10 local authorities with the highest rate of landlord claims.

One local authority, the Isles of Scilly, had no landlord claims during this period. Excluding this, Ryedale had the lowest rate of landlord claims (3.9 per 100,000 households), the data revealed.

In regards to the time between the claim and landlord repossession, the report stated that the median average time from claim to repossession has decreased to 22.3 weeks, down from 68.6 weeks in the same period in 2021.