![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/01\/Rising-debt.jpg\" "\\"Rising")
<\/a><\/p>\nArrears are set to rise in the buy-to-let market, as more landlords face having to deal with tenants who cannot keep up their rent payments. According to research by Templeton LPA<\/a>, a specialist practice of LPA Receivers, the number of court orders to evict tenants is up by 11%. In the last quarter, 24,966 tenants faced eviction notices \u2013 an increase of 11% on 22,558 a year ago. The number of tenants in severe financial difficulty has also shot up in the last three months, says the firm and during the last quarter of 2011, there were nearly 11,400 more tenants over two months in arrears than in the same period of 2010 \u2013\u00a0a rise of 18%.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At the end Q4 2011, nationally there were 78,970 tenants in England and Wales in severe arrears.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It is clear that a growing minority of renters are falling deeper and deeper into payment difficulties, and the number of severe arrears cases is rising. While the wider tenant mix has changed since the mortgage market downturn \u2013 with a greater number of financially sound yet frustrated first-time buyers \u2013 a growing number of tenants are seeing their job prospects affected by the UK\u2019s economic malaise. Arrears levels on buy-to-let mortgages have not yet felt the impact of growing severe tenant arrears and evictions, but this would change this year. In the last quarter of 2011, the number of buy-to-let mortgages more than three months in arrears fell by 7% compared to the previous quarter, representing an annual decline of 17%. By Mike Edwards Arrears are set to rise in the buy-to-let market, as more landlords face having to deal with tenants who cannot keep up their rent payments. According to research by Templeton LPA, a specialist practice of LPA Receivers, the number of court orders to evict tenants is up by 11%. In the last …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[55],"tags":[24,67,70,73],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1691,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions\/1691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHowever, at 26,300, there are still more than five times as many buy-to-let mortgages in severe arrears compared with Q3 2006.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
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\nMortgage rates have kept monthly payments low, but there has also been a change in landlords\u2019 behaviour. With capital gains falling by the wayside in the past six months on higher loan to value BTL properties as their values fall \u00a0rental income has become the most important component in an investor\u2019s annual return \u2013 but it also pays a landlord\u2019s mortgage cheque. As a result, many landlords are being less lenient with tenants facing initial payment problems, and are looking to use court orders to replace tenants quickly in expectation of finding a financially sound substitute \u2013 and potentially an increased rent. However it is highly likely that mortgage arrears will climb this year and that both overall arrears and severe arrears will rise. This in turn will feed into increased tenant evictions and hamper a growing number of landlords\u2019 ability to meet their monthly mortgage costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"