Eviction disputes involving landlords and tenants are generating escalating costs and delays across the courts, according to South East law firm Thackray Williams, which has seen a sharp rise in instructions from both sides since the Renters' Rights Act (RRA) came into force on 1 May 2026.
The firm reports a surge in instructions from landlords seeking vacant possession both before and after the RRA's implementation, followed by a corresponding wave of instructions from tenants contesting the notices they received.
Government figures support the picture on the ground: accelerated landlord possession claims, including Section 21 claims, rose 16% in the April to June 2026 quarter compared with the same period in 2025. A Savills survey of landlords conducted in June found that 11% had already sold one or more of their rental properties.
"Unfortunately, the number of landlords looking to sell their investments is exacerbating the lack of affordable rental housing, prompting tenants to challenge eviction notices because they can't find anywhere else to live," said Mustafa Sidki, contentious construction litigation partner at Thackray Williams (pictured).
"The pressures on both sides in the private rental sector are creating a perfect storm, which is leading to lengthy and costly litigation, and further pressure on a court system that is already struggling.
"Unless the economics of the private rented sector improve and more affordable rental homes become available, renters will struggle to find homes, landlords are going to face increasing costs as their tenants resist eviction and the courts will have to contend with a growing backlog."
Before the RRA took effect, Thackray Williams received a flurry of instructions from landlords intending to sell who wanted to serve last-minute Section 21 notices before the no-fault eviction route was abolished.
"Every one of these has been resisted by the tenants, who have refused to vacate, necessitating accelerated possession proceedings," Sidki explained. "In turn, every accelerated possession claim has been challenged by the tenants, and in each case they are asking the courts to give them more time to find alternative accommodation.
"These challenges require full court hearings, increasing the costs that landlords are facing and the amount of time before they will be able to secure vacant possession of their properties, at the same time leaving renters in limbo."
The firm is also seeing a rise in enquiries from tenants facing eviction, alongside new instructions from landlords to serve notices under Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 and to pursue possession proceedings more broadly, as the exit from the market continues.
The RRA's procedural changes are one part of the picture, Sidki notes, but the underlying economics of the sector are driving the volume.
"The route to acquiring possession has changed with the implementation of the RRA, but the increasingly difficult economics of being a landlord haven't," he said, "so we're continuing to see increased activity as landlords look to divest because their property investments are no longer commercially viable.
"As well as the reduced flexibility and increased administrative burden imposed by the RRA, they're facing an impending 2% increase in tax on income from property, having already lost the ability to deduct full mortgage interest from rental income (under Section 24 of the Finance Act).
"Additional pressures include a new requirement for quarterly financial reporting under Making Tax Digital, alongside increased costs for maintenance, service charges, insurance premiums and local authority licensing fees.
"Many landlords are also facing new re-finance rates of 5-6% as their fixed-rate buy-to-let mortgages of 1-2% come to an end this year, and there's uncertainty as to what the requirements to upgrade their properties to EPC C by 2030 under the Decent Homes Standard 2026 will mean in practice."
The Savills data reinforces the scale of the sentiment shift. Thirty per cent of landlords surveyed said they were considerably more likely to consider disposing of their rental properties in the next 24 months, a figure that climbed to 54% among mortgaged landlords. Sixty-two per cent of respondents said they had become significantly less likely to buy another property.
"This is not simply a landlord issue or a tenant issue, it is a system-wide pressure point," Sidki said. "Possession disputes are now exposing the strain across the whole rental market, from landlords reassessing whether they can afford to stay invested, to renters struggling to find homes, and courts being asked to absorb the fallout."
