More landlords writing off unpaid rent to speed up evictions

There has been an 11% increase in the number of landlords prepared to write off unpaid rent in order to speed up the process of eviction, according to figures released by Thomson Reuters.

Researchers say the number of accelerated procedure notices jumped from 26,929 in 2013/14 to 29,821 in 2014/15.

Speaking to the Solicitors Journal, property law barrister Daniel Dovar said: “With demand for rental property outweighing supply and forcing rents upward, the opportunity cost to a landlord of having a property occupied by someone that can’t pay the rent has increased, which makes emptying a loss making property quickly a bigger priority.

“Private landlords are also under increasing pressure to meet their mortgage payments on buy-to-let investments. They simply don’t have the time to go through the potentially lengthy process of recovering unpaid rent.”

In a further development, the number of landlords using County Court bailiffs to repossess property has reached records levels. There were 41,489 cases in 2014/15 compared with 37,706 in 2013/14.

Mr Dovar said higher rents had driven many tenants to breaking point, particularly in London where rental costs are at record levels.

Please contact Janice Young if you would like more information about landlord and tenant issues or any aspect of commercial property law.