It takes over half a year for courts to process legitimate possession claims made by private landlords, figures by the Ministry of Justice show.
Currently there’s a timespan of almost 29 weeks between a private landlord making a legitimate possession claim to the courts and actually getting the property back – in signs the market is not yet ready for the abolition of Section 21 evictions.
It also takes an average of more than 11 weeks between a private landlord making a repossession claim to them securing an order to do so from the courts.
The National Residential Landlords Association warned that tenants could continue to commit anti-social behaviour or fail to pay their rent over this period.
Ben Beadle (pictured), chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “Responsible landlords and tenants need to be confident that the courts will handle possession cases swiftly and fairly when section 21 goes. At present that is not happening.
“Ministers have been warned for many years that improvements to the justice system have been needed. It is disappointing therefore that little to no action has been taken to address this so far.
“The government needs to get on and build confidence in the ability of the courts to handle legitimate possession cases.”
The number of buy-to-let mortgages in arrears has increased by 29% between the second and third quarters of the year, data from UK Finance shows, likely caused by rising interest rates.
Beadle added: “Today’s figures from UK Finance are therefore extremely worrying.
“The Chancellor needs to undo the damage done by tax hikes on the sector and reinstate mortgage interest relief in full for the private rented sector.”