The court system isn’t ready for the Renters’ Rights Bill, it was declared in the House of Lords this week.

During the committee stage debate, Shadow Housing Minister, Baroness Scott of Bybrook urged peers to support her amendment requiring the Lord Chancellor to assess the possession process to ensure courts had the capacity to deal with increased demand. “Backlogs are rising, court rooms lie unused for lack of staff and overburdened judges are stretched too thin,” she said.

For a landlord, delays might mean months without rental income, with mortgage arrears mounting.

Court capacity

“There is no clear commitment to upgrade court capacity before abolishing Section 21 and no phased rollout to protect the system from being overwhelmed,” she added. “As a result, we face a real risk that our courts will be asked to carry out a far more demanding role without the necessary resources, reforms or readiness.”

Baroness Scott warned that if the Government pressed ahead without ensuring that the system was properly resourced, modernised and fully functional, it risked undermining the very objectives that the Bill set out to achieve.

Lord Cromwell said he had attended a meeting with those responsible for court digitisation, which left attendees very doubtful about this still-evolving IT system. “The view from the people I spoke to was that it would take at least five years to bed in,” he added.

However, Housing Minister, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, insisted the Government had no intention of delaying urgent reforms while it waited for an “unnecessary assessment” of the existing possession process. “In the longer term, we expect our reforms to reduce the volume of court possession claims, as only those cases where there is a clear, well-evidenced ground for possession will be able to proceed,” she said. “This will help offset any increased pressure on the courts resulting from our reforms in due course.”

The amendment was withdrawn.

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