After several years of stability the number of mortgage possessions claims is rising, according to newly released statistics from the Ministry of Justice. Between April and June 2019 there were over 6,000 mortgage possession claims issued, representing a 39% increase on the same quarter of the previous year. Warrants and actual repossessions between April and June 2019 had also increased by 34% and 30% respectively compared to the previous years figures.

 

The numbers of mortgage repossession claims had reduced dramatically over the last decade – in the second quarter of 2009 over 25,000 claims were issued. MOJ have noted that the recent increase in possession claims have been driven by a single lender; accordingly one cannot safely draw conclusions about the mortgage market as a whole based on this recent data.