On September 20th the six month tenant eviction ban came to an end, which although it gave tenants a ‘holiday’ from being evicted it left landlords financially worse off and unable to legally repossess their properties.

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Courts must prioritise those cases of tenants who are committing domestic violence or anti-social behaviour, and for those who had ongoing possession cases prior to lockdown for not paying their rent and/or causing damage to properties without further delay.

There is a major stumbling of the backlog of cases as between January and March there were 24,320 claims by private and social landlords to repossess properties; of which 8,093 had led to possession orders and 1,332 warrants were issued for repossession in England and Wales.

A spokesperson for an industry body, said: “After a six month ban on repossessions it is important that landlords can start to take action to tackle the most serious cases. This includes those where tenants are committing anti-social behaviour or domestic violence and situations where rent arrears were building before lockdown and have nothing to do with Covid-19.

“The framework put in place by the judiciary and the government largely strikes the right balance between the needs of landlords in such situations and those of tenants affected by the pandemic.

“We continue to encourage landlords to work with their tenants to sustain tenancies wherever possible, making use of the guidance we have prepared. To support this, the Government should follow the example of Scotland and Wales and develop a stronger financial package to help tenants to pay off rent arrears built since the lockdown started.

“Ministers also need to address the crisis faced by those landlords who have rented their homes out whilst working elsewhere. The six months’ notice required in such circumstances freezes them out of accessing their own homes, effectively making them homeless.”