Courts across the country are struggling to cope with the volume of property repossession cases they are hearing, with private landlords warning this could reduce the supply of homes available for rent in the future.

The delays are worse in London where the average length of time between a claim from a landlord to a court issuing an order for a property to be repossessed is now 30 weeks, up from 23 weeks a year ago.

London accounts for 29 per cent of all repossession claims and it appears to be particularly suffering from a shortage of experienced and trained bailiffs.

Landlords in the north east have the next longest wait in the country with an average wait of 23.5 weeks. This compares to a ‘best practice’ timeframe of 10 weeks in total from application to possession being enforced.

The Residential Landlords Association is warning the Government that without substantial reform and greater resources allocated to the courts, the waiting times are likely to get worse.

David Smith, Policy Director for the RLA, said: “If landlords feel they might have to wait forever to regain possession of their property where they have good reason, such as tenants committing anti-social behaviour or failing to pay their rent, increasing numbers are going to feel it is not worth the risk of letting the property out in the first place.

“This will just add to the already growing shortage of investment in rented housing which is badly needed to meet a rising demand.”

The RLA made a series of freedom of information requests to the Ministry of Justice over bailiff recruitment rates and court wait times by region, for the period from Quarter 1 2018 to Quarter 3 2019. They found:

• At 30 weeks, wait times for enforcement in London are eight weeks longer than the national average and three times higher than the ideal wait time. This wait time has increased substantially in 2019;
• Rent arrears continue to be the most common reason for landlords to serve notice. If a tenant continuously fails to pay rent through the entire repossession process, a landlord in London will lose almost £10,000 on average before a bailiff enforces the judgement;
• London landlords wait 1.4 weeks longer on average for a court hearing for possession. This gap has widened in 2019;
• A decline in accelerated possession orders has not led to a decline in possession orders from the private rented sector. Instead, there was a 20 per cent increase in private landlord possession cases in Quarter 3 2019 compared to the same quarter in 2018; and
• There has been a significant increase in the time taken to process applications. Quarter 3 2019 saw a 31 per cent increase in the time taken to complete possession actions, while warrants for enforcement fell by 19 per cent in the same period.

Faced with such difficulties in regaining possession of their property when there is a problem, the RLA says many good landlords will be put off providing property to rent in the capital and elsewhere.

The Government has committed itself to scrapping Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions but this will almost certainly result in more repossession cases being heard by the courts, exacerbating the current problems with caseloads and processing times.

The RLA supports plans to establish a dedicated housing court to improve and speed up access to justice for landlords and tenants. David Smith added: “The RLA was delighted when the Government consulted on its proposal for a housing court a year ago but nothing has happened since. It needs to get on and get it set up for the benefit of landlords and tenants alike.”

By Patrick Mooney, Editor