There were 56% more mortgage possession claims made between July and September this year than in 2023, totalling 6,525, government figures showed.
Data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) revealed that mortgage possession orders also rose notably by 38% to 4,038 year-on-year.
Meanwhile, warrants were up by a third to 3,199 and repossessions by county court bailiffs increased 36% to 861.
The MoJ said both mortgage and landlord possession actions continued to rise over the quarter, reaching 2019 levels, while mortgage actions outpaced landlord actions.
Landlord possessions
During the third quarter, landlord possession claims rose 2% annually to 25,418, and there was a 7% yearly increase in landlord possession orders, which amounted to 19,254.
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There were 17% more landlord possession warrants than in the same period last year, at a total of 11,763. Meanwhile, repossessions increased 13% to 6,942.
The rise in landlord claims was driven by the private rental sector as claims within the social housing sector remained “relatively stable”.
The MoJ said landlord possession actions had increased in general since Q2 2021, and within this, accelerated claims fell 2%, private landlord claims rose 5% and social landlord claims increased 3% year-on-year.
However, possession claims made by social landlords accounted for the largest share of landlords claims at 36%, compared to 31% of private landlords and 34% of accelerated claims.
This was compared to pre-Covid activity, when 60% of all claims were from social landlords.
The figures showed that the rise in claims and orders was concentrated in London, with 8,818 claims and 6,674 orders processed through the capital’s courts and accounting for 35% of each of the respective totals.
Within London, this represented a 10% increase in claims and a 20% rise in orders.
Shorter mortgage claim to repossession times
The average median time from mortgage claim to repossession fell from 57.8 weeks in Q3 2023 to 43.9 weeks this year.
However, the time for claim to order rose slightly to eight weeks, compared to 7.4 weeks a year ago.
The average claims to warrant timeline was 35.9 weeks in Q3, down from 42.6 weeks last year.
For landlord possessions, the median average time from claim to possession rose from 23 weeks last year to 24-and-a-half weeks this year.
Claims to order timeliness rose to eight weeks, up from 7.3 weeks in 2023, while claims to warrant timeliness was 14 weeks in Q3, up from 13.3 weeks a year ago.
