Housing Courts Overwhelmed by Eviction Cases and Landlord

England's housing courts are overwhelmed. A 16% rise in no-fault evictions and a wave of landlords selling properties have created a crisis, with some tenants waiting up to a year for a hearing.

Lawyers describe a "perfect storm" in the system. Mustafa Sidki, a litigation partner at law firm Thackray Williams, said courts are overloaded with insufficient judicial time. "Tenants are living in absolute stress because they don’t know how long they’ve got," he stated. The situation is exacerbated by a severe shortage of affordable rental homes.

A Glimpse Inside a Strained Court

At Stratford housing court on a recent Wednesday, every seat was full. Up to 29 cases were processed in a single day. In one hearing, a tenant with chronic ill health and three young children sought more time after a section 21 eviction. The judge granted 28 days, not the requested 42, leaving the family facing potential homelessness by month's end. Another case saw an eviction order postponed because the landlord's documentation was outdated, buying the tenant important time.

Meanwhile, landlords are attempting to speed up the process by requesting transfers to the high court. In parts of London, the current wait for bailiffs to enforce evictions has stretched to seven months.

The Data Behind the Crisis

Official data shows a 16% increase in section 21 no-fault evictions between April and June this year compared to the same period in 2025. Sidki noted that in every section 21 notice his firm served, the tenant refused to vacate, asking the court for more time to find accommodation.

Parallel to this, a significant exodus of landlords from the rental market is flooding courts with different cases. Property analysts report about 93,000 landlords left the market in 2025, with a further 110,000 forecast to leave during 2026. Savills estimated that 254,000 buy-to-let homes were listed for sale in the year to March 2026, a 28% increase on 2024.

The Shift to Section 8 and Tenant Advice

With the recent Renters' Rights Act banning new section 21 notices, landlords are increasingly using section 8 eviction notices, which are for tenant breaches of agreement. Sidki clarified that many are now served because the landlord intends to sell, a valid ground under section 8. "Sometimes these are tenants who have lived in the property for a decade, and they can’t find anywhere else to go," he said.

Facing a lack of options, tenants are advised to delay leaving. Neli Borisova, a senior associate at law firm JMW, explained that tenants are regularly told by local authorities not to leave until bailiffs arrive to qualify for emergency housing support. "Even where the tenants and landlords want an amicable resolution... Tenants regularly get advised to basically not leave until they’re evicted by the bailiffs," Borisova said. She expects this will continue to frustrate the system.

Nye Jones from the campaign group Generation Rent criticized the pre-act rush to evict. "The fact so many landlords uprooted tenants’ lives just because they still could, shows how badly we needed greater protections," Jones said. He also noted the dilemma for local authorities, which want to avoid placing people in costly temporary accommodation for as long as possible. The wait for bailiffs in London now stands at seven months.