Latest Ministry of Justice possession figures

While the Q1 Ministry of Justice figures released today do not currently show a dramatic spike in landlord possession claims overall, the data does suggest that pressure within the private rented sector remained elevated ahead of the Renters’ Rights changes. However, we believe it is still too early for the figures to fully reflect the level of activity that took place before the abolition of Section 21.

The latest figures show accelerated possession claims increased from 6,489 in Q4 2025 to 6,599 in Q1 2026. Overall, landlord possession claims also rose from 21,457 to 22,733 quarter-on-quarter.

In practice, there is often a considerable lag between landlords serving notice, seeking legal advice and cases formally progressing to the court claim stage, meaning much of the activity seen across the sector in the lead-up to the legislative changes may not yet be captured within these figures.

At Landlord Action, we experienced one of the busiest periods in our history ahead of the reforms, with a significant increase in landlord enquiries and instructions as many sought to act before the rules changed. However, a large proportion of those cases would still have been progressing through the early stages of the possession process during Q1.

For that reason, we expect the Q2 and Q3 figures to provide a much clearer indication of the true level of possession activity following the legislative changes and the extent of the pressure moving through the court system.