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The average time to evict a tenant has increased to 28 weeks even though fewer cases are going before the courts, according to the latest official data.
The figures for Q2 2025 show landlord possession claims, including those by social landlords, peaked at 25,402 in the second quarter of last year and falling to 22,364 in the three months to the end of June 2025.
Meanwhile, court orders dropped 5 per cent from 18,421 to 17,514, warrants by 8 per cent from 11,240 to 10,307 and repossessions 4 per cent from 6,999 to 6,709.
The average time for taking a landlord claim to repossession increased to 27.9 weeks from 25.4 weeks in the same quarter.
The MoJ report analysing the data says:
"All landlord possession actions have decreased when compared to the same quarter in 2024. The reduction in landlord claims is seen across all types of landlord accelerated, private, and social claims.
"The median timelines of landlord claims to repossessions has risen by 2.4 weeks when compared to the same period in 2024 continuing the general increases seen over previous quarters."
In Q2 2025, 66 per cent (14,680) of landlord possession claims were by social landlords, compared to 33 per cent (7,276) from private landlords and 33 per cent (7,404) of accelerated claims. This contrasts with pre-covid proportions when around 60 per cent of claims were from social landlords.
Median timelines for landlord orders have remained similar to Q2 2024 while warrant and repossession timeliness have increased.
The median time taken to complete landlord actions for Q2 2025 are:
The falling numbers of claims were reported in four regions of England and Wales, while three reported small increases over the same period.
As in previous quarters, most were in London, with 7,617 landlord claims at courts in the capital accounting for 34 per cent of national total in Q2 2025. Falls were also seen in the Midlands, North and South West which have fallen by between 17 per cent and 15 per cent each. In London, landlord claims decreased 10 per cent, from 8,486 in Q2 2024.
Private landlord repossessions were highest in the East London borough of Newham, with 238. The borough's neighbours, Redbridge (157 repossessions) and Barking (136 repossessions), claimed second and third places. London councils accounted for eight of the 10 districts with the highest rates of private landlord claims.
South Hams, Devon, had the lowest rate of private landlord claims (15.8 per 100,000 households owned by a private landlord).
Meanwhile, UK Finance, the trade body for buy-to-let mortgage lenders, has released the latest private landlord arrears and repossessions data for Q2 2025.
The figures show 11,270 buy-to-let mortgages in arrears of 2.5 per cent or more of the outstanding balance in Q2 2025, 5 per cent fewer than Q1 2025.
Mortgages in arrears accounted for 0.58 per cent of all buy-to-let mortgages. Lenders took possession of 790 buy-to-let mortgaged homes in Q2 2025, 2 per cent fewer than in the previous quarter.