Eviction Statistics UK

We analysed data from the Office for National Statistics to learn about evictions in the UK, from how long an average eviction takes to the number of eviction processes that are started and completed in the UK each year. Here's what we found.

• Average time to evict a tenant
• Number of evictions in the UK

How Long Does it Take to Evict a Tenant?

On average, in 2024 an eviction takes 37.6 weeks to complete via the county court in the UK—that's about 8.5 months from making the claim to repossessing the property. However, half of evictions complete within 24.1 weeks (5.5 months).

There are multiple steps in the eviction process. First, it takes 12.3 weeks (3 months) on average to get the orders issued by the court. Then it's another 18 weeks (4+ months) to get the warrant issued. Once you have the warrant of possession, it takes on average another 7.6 weeks (almost two months) to repossess your property via the county court.

Note the big difference between the average (mean) times and the median times in the table above. In fact, the average times are more than 1.5X - 1.9X as long as the median times. Why? First let's look at the definitions of mean and median. The mean is the average time (e.g., add up all the times and divide by the number of cases). The median is the time lying at the midpoint (e.g., half of the cases take less time and half of the cases take more time than the median).

When the mean/average is so much larger than the median, it implies that there are some outliers on the high side—in the case of evictions it means that half of landlords evict within 24.1 weeks and the other half take longer, with some landlords having to wait a very long time indeed to repossess their property. In fact, ONS data shows that 9.5% of repossessions take 7 or more quarters from claim to eviction—that's at least 1 year and 9 months!

Keep this in mind if you buy rent guarantee insurance (an add-on to landlord insurance) to protect you against non payment by tenants—policies will only cost unpaid rental income for a certain period of time (e.g., 6 months or 12 months) and this varies from policy to policy.

Timeliness figures are higher than the legal guidelines. The law requires between 4 and 8 weeks between claim and court hearing. Possession orders stipulate when a tenant must vacate the property, typically within 4 weeks from the date the order was made. Landlords cannot issue a warrant until after this period (if the tenant has failed to comply).

How Common are Evictions in the UK?

In 2023, there were 25,282 evictions by county court in England and Wales. Not all instances of non payment or breach of contract result in an eviction, however. Many disputes are resolved at some point in the process after a landlord makes a claim. For instance, there were 94,211 claims issued, but only 69,654 turned into orders. The difference reflects tenants either paying their overdue rent, moving out or otherwise resolving the issue with the landlord.

In fact, only 69% of claims lead to orders, 33.4% of claims lead to warrants and 19.5% of claims lead to an actual physical eviction via the county court.

In January to March 2024, 9,193 (37%) of all landlord possession claims were social landlord claims compared to private landlord claims 7,719 (31%). This contrasts with pre-covid proportions when a majority of claims (around 60%) were social landlord claims.

Evictions by UK Region

By far, London has the most evictions in the UK. In 2023, there were 32,821 claims issued and 7,500 county court repossessions (aka evictions).

Wales had the fewest evictions, with just 3,866 claims and 1,295 county court repossessions.

Not only do landlords lose out on rental income during an eviction process, but they're also responsible for paying the costs to evict their tenant which can reach into the thousands of pounds.