Private sector landlords demand court reform, saying it takes “far too long” to process legitimate possession claims

The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has urged Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk to set out details of how courts will speed up their workflow once the Renters (Reform) Bill becomes law.

In a letter to Chalk, NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle said: “It will be vital that as section 21 repossessions end, the courts vastly improve the speed at which they process legitimate possession cases.”

He pointed to a select committee report earlier this year which had noted courts are “already struggling to process housing cases quickly enough” and went on to predict the repeal of section 21 would see landlords seek possession under section 8, especially in the case of rent arrears and antisocial behaviour. Section 21 covers ’no fault’ evictions.

Beadle said: “It simply takes far too long for the courts to process legitimate possession claims from private landlords”, noting it averaged 29.1 weeks between a landlord making a legitimate repossession claim and a tenant leaving.

“This means around half a year of landlords waiting to regain possession of properties, during which tenants may be continuing to commit anti-social behaviour or failing to pay their rent,” he said.

The Government had recognised the need for more rapid processing of claims once section 21 repossessions end, but “no detailed plan has yet been published outlining precisely how the courts will be improved, and how long tenants and landlords will be expected to wait whilst the courts process possession claims”, Beadle complained.

He urged the Lord Chancellor to give the detail needed on courts reform and to set out plans to increase the number of court staff handling possession cases when section 21 ends.

Experience in Scotland, where section 21 evictions finished in 2017, suggested a 72% increase was needed in the number of administrative officer grade caseworkers.

Beadle said the Government’s anti-social behaviour plan would “seek to halve the delay between a private landlord serving notice for anti-social behaviour and eviction”.

But he said the Government did not collect data on how long such cases take, so “there will be no way of knowing when the time has been halved”

Beadle also called for publication of the Justice Impact Test expected to be undertaken to understand the impact of the Bill on the justice system.

A Government spokesperson said: “We have noted this letter and will respond in due course.”

The Government said work was underway to increase bailiff capacity with recruitment campaigns and reduced administrative burdens to enable them to focus on enforcement.

Average time from issue to possession order was 12 weeks for the most recent quarter, compared with 15 weeks for the equivalent quarter in 2022, and for landlord claims these figures were 37 and 44 weeks respectively, the Government said.

Mark Smulian