Landlords ask courts to evict 65 tenants every day

Landlords ask courts to evict 65 tenants every day

16:01 PM, 11th May 2012, About 13 years ago

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Buy to let landlords filed nearly 6,000 claims to evict tenants in the first three months of the year, according to the latest Ministry of Justice figures.

County courts handle around 65 new cases every day and lawyers are concerned that backlogs will cause financial problems for landlords as strikes and work-to-rules by public sector workers and delays as courts trim lists during the London Olympics.

Some law firms claim landlords will bear the cost of these delays as tenants in rent arrears take longer to be evicted.

Landlords started 5,857 possession claims in the first quarter of 2012, with 3,804 cases leading to evictions.

However, when social landlords are included in the figures, the numbers of cases started soar to 36,605 with 25,360 leading to successful possessions.

Between 2002 and the first half of 2010 there was a long downward trend in landlord possession claims issued in the county courts of England and Wales.

During this time, they decreased by around 30%. Since the first half of 2010, they have generally increased, says the ministry.

The London districts of Hackney, Newham and Greenwich had the most landlord claims, while

Meanwhile, Plus Dane Housing Association, Liverpool, is training police officers so they can issue eviction warnings to misbehaving tenants.

The housing association has trained seven police officers in tenancy law so they can take the right action when called to incidents at social housing properties.

Plus Dane’s Nicola Andrews said: “Every police officer should have a copy of partner housing providers tenancy agreements in their back pockets as they offer a wide range of sanctions for dealing with anti-social behaviour. For example, police officers may warn people that their behaviour could see them losing their home.”

Training police officers in landlord and tenant law removes duplication, such as sending staff out to warn tenants they could lose their home when the police have already spoken to them, said Andrews.


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