Section 21 claims are likely to break records this year, despite only being legal for the first seven months, predicts Landlord Action’s Paul Shamplina.

He says the latest Ministry of Justice figures showing that accelerated possession claims jumped 16% in the second quarter of the year are only an indication of travel and that figures in the third quarter will “go through the roof”.

“Those figures will be a proper indication even though there will only have been one month of the quarter that you could have issued a Section 21,” he tells LandlordZONE, adding that Landlord Action was inundated with calls last month and even had to turn people away.

“The record for Section 21 possession claims was 2015 when there were more than 35,000. Speaking to solicitors, agents and landlords – particularly those wanting to get out of the sector - I believe this year will surpass those figures.”

Official

The second quarter - April to June - reflects two months of activity following the Act’s implementation on 1 May. However, the MoJ insists it’s not clear whether the figures can be attributed to commencement of the Act.

The latest figures show that landlord possession claims were up 6% year-on-year to 23,635, while possession orders were unchanged, warrants were down 6% and repossessions down 3%.

Weeks

“There are backups in courts where they’re saying it currently takes 18 weeks just to issue a claim,” adds Shamplina. “Those court actions issued in July will take the best part of a year to see through - particularly as councils are telling tenants to stay put.”

* UK Finance reports that there were 8,390 buy-to-let mortgages in arrears of 2.5% or more of the outstanding balance in the second quarter of 2026, 6% fewer than in the previous quarter, while 630 buy-to-let mortgaged properties were taken into possession in the second quarter of 2026, 22% fewer than in the previous quarter.

‍