Quarterly National Statistics on possession claim actions in county courts by mortgage lenders and social and private landlords in England and Wales.

The quarterly releases are released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority. Note that the figures represent court actions for possession and not actual homes repossessed. Repossessions can occur without a court order being made, while not all court orders result in repossession taking place.

Mortgage and landlord possession statistics – April to June 2012

Introduction

This quarterly bulletin presents the latest statistics on the numbers of mortgage and landlord possession actions in the county courts of England and Wales. The statistics provide a summary overview of volumes of the total number of claims and number of claims that lead to an order including detailed regional breakdowns over time.

The statistics are a leading indicator of the number of properties to be repossessed and the only source of sub-national possession information.  In addition to monitoring court workloads, they are used to assist in the development, monitoring and evaluation of policy both nationally and locally. The quarterly time series, both seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted, show some quarter-on-quarter volatility. Users should take care about interpreting trends based on a single quarter's data.

Main findings

Mortgage possession actions

There were 15,050 mortgage possession claims issued in the second quarter of 2012 on the seasonally adjusted basis, eight per cent lower than the previous quarter. This continues the downward trend since 2008, where the number of claims averaged 35,500 per quarter (see Figure 1 below). This fall in the number of claims coincides with lower interest rates and a proactive approach from lenders in managing consumers in financial difficulties, and various interventions, such as introduction of the Mortgage Pre-Action Protocol.

In the second quarter of 2012 there were 11,642 mortgage possession orders made on the seasonally adjusted basis, eight per cent lower than the previous quarter. Trends in the number of mortgage possession orders are very similar to mortgage possession claims – a downward trend has been seen since 2008, where the number of claims leading to orders averaged 27,900 per quarter.

Figure 1: Mortgage Possession Actions - England & Wales, 1990 to 2012 Q2

Of mortgage possession orders made 49 per cent (5,605) were suspended. This rate has remained stable around 49% since the second quarter of 2011 after the upward trend seen since the first half of 2010.

69 per cent of mortgage possession orders led to actual repossessions in the year ending March 20112, compared to 64 per cent in the year ending March 2011. Between 2008 and 2010, it rose steeply from 44 per cent to 67 per cent and has since stabilised at around this level.

Landlord possession actions

There were 36,190 landlord possession claims, seasonally adjusted, issued in the second quarter of 2012, one per cent lower than in the first quarter of 2012. This breaks the moderate upward trend seen since the second half of 2010, which follows a long downward trend from 2002 (see Figure 2 below).

In the second quarter of 2012 there were 25,422 landlord possession claims that led to an order being made on the seasonally adjusted basis. This represents a slightly higher figure than in the first quarter of 2012 and continues the upward trend since 2010.

Figure 2: Landlord Possession Actions – England & Wales, 1999 to 2012 Q2

 

Of landlord possession claims that led to an order being made, 41 per cent were suspended. The figure for the previous quarter was 45 per cent and this breaks the broadly stable trend from 2007, which followed a steady decline from 65 per cent in 1999.

Revisions: The statistics for the second quarter of 2012 are provisional, and are therefore liable to revision to take account of any late amendments to the administrative databases from which these statistics are sourced. The standard process for revising the published statistics to account for these late amendments is as follows. An initial revision to the statistics for the latest quarter may be made when the next edition of this bulletin is published. Final figures for this quarter, and for other quarters in the same calendar year, will be published in the bulletin presenting the statistics for the first of the following year.

Comparison of mortgage possession data sources

Comparison of data on arrears and possessions (PDF 0.06mb 9 pages)
Published on 30 January 2009

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry's analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:

Ministry of Justice: Secretary of State, Minister of State, Permanent Secretary, Director of Access to Justice policy and the relevant special adviser, one policy officer and three press officers.

Communities and Local Government: Minister of State (Housing), Housing Markets and Planning Analysis Economist and Statistician and the relevant policy official and press officer.

HM Treasury: Two relevant policy officers.