Buy-to-let arrears are down 26%, so why are landlord possession claims rising?

Two sets of official figures published on the same day appear to point in opposite directions. Fewer landlords are falling behind with their mortgages, yet more landlords are asking the courts to return their properties. The distinction may reveal something more important than a simple arrears story.

Two official reports published today tell very different stories about the private rented sector.

The latest UK Finance mortgage arrears and possessions figures show a substantial reduction in financial distress among buy-to-let borrowers. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice mortgage and landlord possession statistics show that more landlords are beginning court proceedings to recover properties from tenants.

Those findings may appear contradictory, but they measure two entirely different events.

A property recorded as being taken into possession by UK Finance normally means a mortgage lender has taken control of a mortgaged property from its borrower. A landlord possession claim recorded by the Ministry of Justice means a landlord has begun the county court process to recover a property from a tenant.

The first measures serious mortgage distress. The second can arise for many different reasons, including rent arrears, antisocial behaviour, a landlord intending to sell, a landlord or family member wishing to occupy the property, or the final use of the previous Section 21 procedure.

Once that distinction is understood, the figures raise a much more interesting question. If fewer landlords are losing properties to their lenders, why are more landlords seeking possession from their tenants?

Buy-to-let mortgage distress has fallen sharply

UK Finance recorded 8,390 buy-to-let mortgages in arrears of at least 2.5% of the outstanding mortgage balance during the second quarter of 2026.

That was 6% fewer than in the previous quarter and 26% fewer than during the equivalent quarter of 2025.

Buy-to-let mortgages in arrears at that level represented just 0.44% of all outstanding buy-to-let mortgages. The more detailed figures also show annual falls across every buy-to-let arrears band, including a 36% reduction in mortgages where arrears represented between 7.5% and 10% of the outstanding balance.

The number of buy-to-let mortgaged properties taken into possession also fell. There were 630 during the quarter, representing a reduction of 22% compared with the first quarter of 2026 and 20% compared with the same period last year.

These are UK-wide figures covering first-charge mortgages reported by UK Finance members and grossed up to reflect the wider market. They do not suggest that the buy-to-let sector is experiencing a general mortgage insolvency crisis.

That does not mean every landlord is enjoying comfortable cash flow. Refinancing costs, maintenance bills, taxation and regulatory compliance continue to affect profitability. The arrears measure also only begins once missed payments reach 2.5% of the outstanding mortgage balance.

Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of buy-to-let mortgages are being serviced, while the number experiencing serious arrears has fallen substantially.

Landlord possession claims are moving in the opposite direction

The Ministry of Justice figures cover possession proceedings in the county courts of England and Wales.

Landlords issued 23,635 possession claims between April and June 2026, 6% more than the 22,352 claims issued during the equivalent quarter of 2025.

Within that total, accelerated possession claims increased by 16% to 8,569. Private landlord claims using the standard procedure increased by 5% to 7,617, while social landlord claims fell by 3% to 7,449.

The increase in claims has not yet translated into an increase in completed repossessions.

Possession orders remained broadly stable, landlord possession warrants fell by 6% to 9,715, and repossessions carried out by county court bailiffs fell by 3% to 6,560. The median time between a landlord issuing a claim and a property being repossessed was still 27.1 weeks.

As the Ministry of Justice explains in its supporting guide to the possession statistics, a possession claim is only the first stage of the court process. A judge may subsequently make an outright order, suspend possession subject to conditions or make no order at all. Even after an order and warrant have been issued, the parties may agree terms that prevent an eviction.

It would therefore be wrong to describe all 23,635 claims as evictions. What the figures show is that more landlords decided it was necessary to begin the legal process of recovering a property.

The Section 21 transition cannot be ignored

The timing is important.

Phase one of the Renters’ Rights Act reforms took effect in England on 1 May 2026. Section 21 was abolished, assured shorthold tenancies were replaced by assured periodic tenancies, and landlords generally became reliant upon the revised Section 8 possession grounds.

A landlord who had served a valid Section 21 notice before 1 May could only use that notice to begin court proceedings by the earlier of the remaining time limit on the notice or 31 July 2026. The Government’s transitional possession guidance for landlords confirms that landlords who missed the deadline can no longer rely upon the old notice.

The second-quarter figures cover April, May and June. They therefore include the final month before the reforms took effect and the first two months of the transitional period.

A 16% annual rise in accelerated claims is consistent with at least some landlords acting before the previous procedure finally closed. It does not prove that the Renters’ Rights Act caused the increase, particularly because the Ministry of Justice figures cover both England and Wales, while these particular reforms apply to England.

The Ministry of Justice has itself cautioned that it is not yet possible to attribute changes in possession activity conclusively to the Act. That is a sensible warning. We should not pretend that a national statistical return can tell us the motivation behind every individual claim.

There is, however, additional evidence that the deadline affected behaviour. As Property118 recently reported, Landlord Action experienced a 28% annual increase in new instructions during July, with almost one-third of its enquiries involving landlords attempting to progress Section 21 cases before the final deadline.

That firm’s cases are not a representative sample of the entire market, but the breakdown is revealing. Rent-related grounds featured in 39% of its new Section 8 cases, the ground used when a landlord intends to sell appeared in 30%, and landlord or family occupation appeared in 8%. Some cases relied upon more than one ground.

Possession proceedings cannot simply be reduced to one explanation.

A solvent landlord can still decide to leave

The most important point may be that a landlord does not need to miss a mortgage payment before deciding that continuing to let a property no longer makes commercial sense.

A landlord may be entirely up to date with their mortgage and still decide to retire, reduce debt, release capital, simplify a portfolio, dispose of a poorly performing property or move their money into a less management-intensive investment.

Others may conclude that the return available from a particular property no longer compensates them adequately for the work, regulation, legal obligations and commercial risks involved.

This is why falling buy-to-let mortgage arrears and rising landlord possession claims can occur simultaneously.

One measures financial distress severe enough to affect mortgage payments. The other may reflect tenant default or misconduct, but it can also reflect a deliberate decision by a financially solvent owner to sell, retire or deploy capital elsewhere.

That interpretation is supported by the Government’s own English Private Landlord Survey 2024. It found that 31% of landlords planned to reduce their portfolios during the following two years, including 16% who planned to sell all their rental properties. Only 7% intended to expand.

Among landlords planning to reduce their portfolios, 66% identified recent tax or legislative changes as a reason, 44% mentioned forthcoming legislative changes and 40% identified factors affecting investment viability, such as rising interest rates.

The Government correctly warns that intentions do not necessarily result in completed sales and that a property sold by one landlord may be bought by another. Nevertheless, its survey shows that landlords considering withdrawal are not a marginal or purely hypothetical group.

The more recent Property118 Landlord Sentiment Survey for the first quarter of 2026 found an even stronger direction of travel. Of 2,380 landlords who answered the question about their plans, 39.7% expected to sell one or more properties and 17.3% expected to leave the sector completely. Only 6.8% planned to buy.

Our survey was conducted among Property118 readers and was not weighted to represent the entire national landlord population, so it should not be treated as a forecast of national sales volumes. It is nonetheless a substantial indication of current sentiment among active landlords.

Crucially, the same survey found that 29.3% of respondents had no mortgages at all, while just over 60% were either mortgage-free or had average loan-to-value ratios of no more than 50%.

Many landlords considering selling are therefore not necessarily distressed borrowers. They may be financially secure owners with substantial equity and the freedom to choose where their capital is invested.

Making possession harder does not guarantee tenant security

Responsible tenants deserve secure, well-maintained homes, and landlords who fail to meet their legal obligations should face effective enforcement.

Equally, responsible landlords must have confidence that they can recover a property within a reasonable and predictable period when a legitimate possession ground applies.

Tenant security cannot be measured solely by how difficult it is for a landlord to recover one particular property. It also depends upon there being enough responsible owners willing to provide homes to rent.

Increasing the cost, delay or uncertainty associated with possession may prevent some unjustified recoveries. It may also encourage landlords to sell when a property becomes vacant, apply more restrictive affordability criteria when selecting tenants or decide not to invest in the sector at all.

That is not a threat. It is an ordinary commercial response to changes in risk.

The latest figures do not prove that every landlord possession claim represents an owner leaving the market. Nor do they prove that the Renters’ Rights Act caused the increase.

What they do show is that the rise in landlord claims is happening while serious buy-to-let mortgage arrears and lender possessions are falling.

The third-quarter figures will be particularly important because they will include the final July deadline for historic Section 21 claims and the first complete quarter under the new tenancy regime.

If landlord possession claims remain elevated while buy-to-let mortgage distress continues to fall, policymakers will need to confront an uncomfortable question.

Are landlords recovering their properties because they can no longer afford to continue, or because an increasing number have concluded that they no longer wish to provide homes on the terms now being imposed upon them?

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