PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Leasehold: Forfeiture (23 March 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases there have been of residential leasehold forfeiture in the last five years; how many such cases were presented to the county courts; and how many residential leases were forfeited.

Asked by:
Emma Reynolds (Labour)

HM Courts & Tribunals Service’s IT systems are not able to determine and collate with accuracy the number of residential leasehold forfeiture cases presented in the last five years and the number of residential leases that were forfeited. The Ministry of Justice does, however, publish statistics on the number of landlord possession actions in the County Court across England and Wales. These statistics are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics.

A manual search of these landlord possession cases would be required in order to identify the specific number of residential leasehold forfeiture claims presented and the number of leases forfeited. The retention period for landlord possession case files is three years. A manual search of these files could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Answered by:
Shailesh Vara (Conservative)
26 March 2015