Stories from the courts as home foreclosures hit highest level in five years

Stories of people facing court proceedings to get their homes back have been shared with the BBC. as foreclosures hit five-year high.

BBC journalists from the East of England and London attended several county courts as mortgage holders and tenants appeared before judges.

They included a couple now £13,000 arrears on a house they bought, and a woman facing repossession of a house she abandoned after the breakdown of her marriage 15 years earlier.

The BBC also heard that homeowners were dealing with financial pressures, while the body representing lenders said trying to repossess a home was “always a last resort”.

Data obtained by the BBC investigations team showed that mortgage recovery orders in England and Wales reached 10,853 in 2024-2025, the highest figure for five years.

Andrew Goodwin, senior economist at Oxford Economics, said rising unemployment and interest rates had been contributing factors in recent years.

Reporters were sent to courts in Northampton, Peterborough and Norwich in the East, as well as Stratford, Wandsworth and Croydon courts in London to hear cases and the pressures faced by mortgage holders and tenants.

The courts heard matters related to mortgage and rent liens.

In Croydon, a former management consultant said he and his wife lost their jobs in 2024, leaving them in arrears on their mortgages.

The prospect of his son losing his childhood home had hit him hard, adding that it was “the perfect place for us.” They now have until March to pay the arrears.

In Stratford, a tearful woman who had not lived in her property for 15 years after the breakdown of her marriage had her house repossessed with £87,000 in mortgage arrears.

Other stories heard throughout the day included:

• Three homes repossessed in less than an hour at Stratford Magistrates’ Court, including one with arrears of £87,672
• A Wandsworth case where a tenant of 30 years faced losing his rental property because the landlord needed to increase the rent.
• A 75-year-old man from Peterborough, who lived in social housing, ended up almost £3,000 in arrears when he told the court he had been the victim of a scam.
• Single mother at Norwich County Court who owed her landlady £5,200 in unpaid rent

It wasn’t just those who faced the loss of their homes who shared their challenges.

Social workers and court lawyers revealed they were being “invaded” with requests for help.

“When I started my career, up until a few years ago, I was thinking, ‘that person won’t actually end up homeless,'” said Angus King, a housing lawyer at Southwark Law Centre.

“I knew we would find some way around it, but now that’s just not the case.”

Billy Harding, a Southwark Law Center housing caseworker who assisted at Wandsworth County Court on Wednesday, said people were turning up “at a critical point”.

The BBC found that across England the number of people asking their council for help to avoid becoming homeless was increasing.

Figures from 244 councils that responded to freedom of information requests showed three quarters of them reporting an increase.

By 2024/25, Broxbourne in Hertfordshire had the highest rate, with 95 in every 100,000 people seeking help.

Similarly, bailiff executions were rising again after a drop during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A landlord who attended Norwich County Court also told how eager she was to go to court to try to collect £2,200 in unpaid rent.

He told the judge that the tenant, a carpenter, had offered to repair the property’s windows in exchange for paying rent.

“That was fine, but he never got back to me about it,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of the landlords in a separate court, a lawyer said the landlords also had bills to pay or financial problems and could not be expected to subsidize their tenants.

Karina Hutchins of UK Finance, which represents the banking industry, said trying to repossess a home is “always a last resort” for lenders.

With additional reporting by Charlotte Rose, Gabriela Pomeroy, Stephen Menon, Jon Ironmonger, Phil Shepka, Matt Precey and Jessica Ure.

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