Huge rise in court eviction orders as landlords get tough

There has been a 70% rise in court orders to evict private tenants over the past three years.

Homelessness charity Crisis analysed Ministry of Justice figures to reveal that in the last year 36,211 landlords have been granted a court order to evict their tenants, up 12% on the previous 12 months, and 70% higher than the 21,351 court orders granted three years ago.

Duncan Shrubsole, director of policy at Crisis, said: “Sadly it is no surprise that we are seeing tens of thousands of private tenants facing eviction.

“They face a dreadful combination of high unemployment and underemployment, draconian cuts to housing benefit and soaring rents. Our concern is that many of these people will have nowhere to turn, and end up falling victim to homelessness. In fact the Government’s own statistics point to this already happening.”

Latest official figures show that between 2009 and 2011, the number of people approaching their council as homeless due to the end of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy or because of rent arrears went up by 42% to almost 10,000 households.

Shrubsole said: “We are calling on the Government to rethink cuts to housing benefit that will inevitably leave increasing numbers of people unable to pay the rent. We are also in desperate need of more social and affordable housing in order to rein in the soaring rental market.”