Jonathan Fagg
BBC England Data Unit

Let’s dig into the freedom of information requests.

The BBC got usable figures from 244 local authorities across England on how many people are seeking help from their council because they’re at risk of becoming homeless.

The responses show that, across those councils, the number of people asking for help is going up – from 1,563 in 2022-23 to 3,546 in 2024-25. About three-quarters of councils who responded reported a rise.

Bury, in the North West, had 177 people seeking help in 2024-25, the most of any council that responded.

Somerset, in the South West, saw the largest change over the period: 150 people sought help in 2024-25, up from just one in 2022-23.

If we factor in population, we can work out which local authority has the highest rate of people asking for help. In 2024-25 that’s Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, where 95 out of 100,000 people were seeking help to prevent becoming homeless.

Charlotte Rose
East and London Investigations

We talked to Henry Sabati McRae, who lives in Croydon, south London, who has so far managed to stave off repossession.

A software developer by training, Henry's financial woes came in the wake of the death of his brother in 2020 and his mother in October 2023.

Since October 2024, the 51-year-old has been out of work and, despite applying for hundreds of jobs, he has not managed to get a new contract.

"It doesn't matter how much you have in savings," he says.

"Within a few months it is wiped out. I managed to stretch it as far as I could, because I'd been quite conservative with how I was doing."

Even so, the mortgage arrears on his two-bedroom flat eventually grew to about £13,000 and his bank said if that figure was not reduced to below £8,000 it would seek to repossess his home.

To scrape by, he has turned to selling off his possessions on an internet auction site and accepting a loan from a friend.

Jonathan Fagg
BBC England Data Unit

The chart above shows the number of mortgage repossessions by county court bailiffs.

As you can see, the number has been rising after a dip during the pandemic. That said, it is still well below what we saw during the financial crisis.

In the first nine months of 2025, there have been 3,497 mortgage repossessions by county court bailiffs across England and Wales. That’s according to provisional figures from the Ministry of Justice.

It is the highest figure for that Jan – Sep period since 3,780 in 2019.

To put it in perspective, 2025’s figure is well below the first nine months of 2009 – when there were 25,481 repossessions by county court bailiffs. But since the financial crisis the figure had been trending down – recently it has been ticking up.

Image source, Jessica Ure/BBC

"When I began my career, up until a few years ago, I would think to myself 'that person won't actually end up homeless'," says Angus King, a housing solicitor from Southwark Law Centre.

"I knew we would find some way to keep them from it, but now that simply isn't the case."

He says the absence of free legal aid for housing, unaffordable rents in London and a chronic lack of housing are all contributing factors.

"Even when an authority is obligated, often they cannot find the accommodation," says Angus.

"Families can be waiting for years, and very vulnerable people too".

Of the court work his centre does, he adds: "We are at capacity, we are completely overrun".

"We do welcome the Renters' Rights Act, external, but without the supply of social housing and the lack of rent controls, it could actually make things worse, with landlords withdrawing from the market and nothing to replace it.

"It's a half solution."

We shared at the beginning that the number of mortgage repossessions reached a five-year high in 2024-25.

Oxford Economics' chief UK economist Andrew Goodwin says there are two main factors that cause repossessions to increase: joblessness and interest rates.

"What we've been seeing over the past couple of years is that both of those factors got worse. Unemployment has risen and there's been a steady increase in debt-servicing costs," he says, adding many mortgage-holders had gone from paying 2% to between 4 and 6% interest.

He adds that high living costs also doesn't help.

"It's been a bit of a perfect storm homeowners have had to deal with over the past few years," he says.

Karina Hutchins, of UK Finance which represents the banking industry, says that seeking to repossess a home is "always a last resort" for lenders.

She says that while the number of repossessions has been creeping up in recent years, the current levels are "historically low".

In the first quarter of 2025, about 2,000 homes were repossessed compared with 13,000 in the same quarter of 2009, coming in the wake of the 2008 financial crash, according to Ms Hutchins.

She advises that customers who are getting into financial difficulty should get in touch with their mortgage lenders as soon as possible.

Options offered by lenders, she says, include reduced mortgage payments to allow time to get back on track, budgeting and other tools to understand "their full financial situation".

Image source, PA Media

When a landlord wishes to evict their tenants in order to take back their property, there are steps they must take.

First they must give their tenants notice of their decision, which will include the date they wish the tenant to leave.

If the tenant stays in the home after the notice expires, the landlord can make a claim for possession in the county court.

Tenants who believe they are likely to suffer extreme hardship as a result of leaving the property can ask the court to postpone the possession for a maximum of six weeks.

During the court hearing, the judge will decide whether or not to make a possession order. If a possession order is granted and the tenant does not leave the property within the time limit provide, the landlord can then apply for a warrant.

Remember, if you have been affected by this story or would like support then you can find organisations which offer help and information at the BBC Action Line.

Jessica Ure
Reporting from Wandsworth County Court

"My landlord is abusive," says one defendant who is waiting to enter the courtroom.

"I went to him with legitimate issues and he served me with a no-fault eviction after almost 10 years of living there," she says.

Speaking about the abolition of Section 21 to come in May, she says the delay in implementing the law might cause her to lose her home.

"If the law was implemented sooner, I would have been saved - why the delay?" she asks.

She shares with me that she doesn't have full-time employment at the moment, despite having many qualifications and years of experience.

"If I have degrees, I can't imagine how much harder it must be for single mothers, and I'm in a pretty bad position," she says.

"It's a huge crisis."

The government says it expects money lenders to "live up to their responsibilities" and provide support to mortgage borrowers who find themselves struggling.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says it is doing "everything we can to turn the tide on the homelessness crisis".

This includes "investing more than £1bn in homelessness services, launching a cross-government strategy and building the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation".

They add there are a range of services to help people avoid having their homes repossessed.

These vary from Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI), external loans, Pre-Action Protocol protection, external in the courts, and the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS), external, which allows any tenants at risk to get free non-means tested early legal advice.

Charlotte Rose
East and London Investigations

Image source, Charlotte Rose/BBC

I talked to Mike Williams, a businessman who lives in Caterham, Surrey, who has managed to stave off having his home repossessed.

He and his wife separated after building their own house, and he took on the mortgage.

But in three years, repayments on the interest-only loan, taken out 20 years ago, tripled.

It put him in a tricky position financially, leaving him with hardly any disposable income.

In court, a repayment plan to settle the arrears was agreed on, with this adding an extra 20% to monthly payments.

Mike says he has also made the "heart-wrenching" decision to sell up when his mortgage finishes in five years' time.

Stephen Menon
Reporting from Croydon County and Family Court

I have just spoken to a lady who is the guarantor for her son's ex-wife. The former daughter-in-law is on universal credit which, previously, was paid straight to the landlord.

Since the agreement of their new lease, when the couple split up, this has not happened.

"We're now in large rent arrears,” the lady tells me.

She says her former daughter-in-law has now closed down completely.

Her big bugbear as a guarantor is that because of general data protection regulation, she has no way of knowing if she is receiving what the son's ex-wife says she is receiving. She has even reached out to her local MP for help.

The former daughter-in-law was not present today.

All together, the costs and rent arrears run up to a minimum of around £13,000, plus £47-a-day the daughter-in-law and their three children do not leave beyond the set date.

This has to be paid over the next six months, and if the daughter-in-law doesn't pay, she will have to.

"I can’t tell you how worried I am," she says. "I’m retired, I’m a widow, I don’t have that kind of money."

We've been hearing some powerful stories as our reporters relay the cases that have brought those facing the loss of their home before court today.

• "It was the perfect place": A former management consultant tells Stephen Menon he and his wife were left £13,000 in arrears after the pair lost their jobs last year. He says the stress caused his wife to have a miscarriage and the potential loss of his son's childhood home has hit them hard
• A woman who left a property 15 years ago following a marriage breakdown was crying in court, telling the judge she had only learned of the repossession threat last week, with the property £87,000 in arrears
• "Took a lot of money": A 75-year-old man living in social housing says he ended up in court after a scam contributed to him getting £3,000 behind with payments

Our live reporters have been asking legal advisors at the various courts both whether they have noticed a rise in cases (the answer is an overwhelming "yes") and why they think there has been an uptick.

Advisers we've spoken to at Wandsworth County Court say they are already stretched to the limit and "have no capacity" for more cases.

They say the growth in rental repossessions are particularly pronounced.

The cause? They say rent prices in London, a lack of social housing and being overrun by Section 21 cases in the run-up to changes next May, when no fault evictions will be banned.

Jessica Ure
Reporting from Wandsworth County Court

Image source, Jessica Ure/BBC

"People turn up at crisis point," says Billy Harding, a housing case worker from the charity Southwark Law Centre, who is at Wandsworth County Court today.

He tells me the lack of early legal advice available is causing serious problems, while the prospect of attending court, plus a limited understanding of how the legal system works, can be overwhelming for many people.

An average day in court for them sees 30 repossession cases listed, but Mr Harding tells me on average a third of defendants do not show up.

He adds that Clerkenwell County Court in particular has seen a surge in repossession cases recently.

Today at Wandsworth he says the court is unusually quiet, with more complicated listings seemingly grouped together for the day.

Stephen Menon
Reporting from Croydon County and Family Court

One man tells me he and his wife lost their jobs in the summer of 2024, and since then he has applied for more than 3,000 jobs on LinkedIn, with no luck.

The man was a former management consultant and his wife was a speech and language therapist, and he says they were used to living very well.

Nearly 18 months later, everything has changed. He was facing not only eviction today, but a County Court Judgement (CCJ), external on the money he owed - which would have not only made it difficult to find a new home to live in, but almost a death sentence on his ability to find a new job in his sector.

He and his wife tried everything before applying for Universal Credit. They spent their savings and maxed out their credit cards as they did not want a "handout".

While he has found work as a labourer and a painter-decorator, the situation still weighs heavily on them.

"The stress led my wife to having a miscarriage," he says.

The ruling went against them today and they have until March to pay the arrears - about £13,000 or they will be evicted.

However, the CCJ was separated from the proceedings after he "pleaded" with the claimant, meaning the issue will be dealt with privately rather than through the court.

Despite the relative good news, the potential loss of his son's childhood home hits hard as he says it was "the perfect place for us".

Phil Shepka
Reporting from Peterborough Crown and County Court

"I feel like I'm robbing Peter to pay Paul."

Those are the words of one woman, who asked not to be named, who was visibly emotional after possession proceedings brought against her by her council were suspended.

She tells me afterwards at its worst she was in rental arrears of about £2,500, but has recently got that figure down to £938.

Working full-time with two teenage children, she says she does not qualify for housing benefit. "I earn too much a month, but I don't earn enough," she says, alluding to the fact she is in court for the second time over arrears.

She says the cost of living is "astronomical" and bills on top of rent are more than what she earns.

After today's hearing, she admits feeling apprehensive, but tells me: "I know I'll stick to the order, because I have to, otherwise I lose my home."

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Regulation dictates that lenders must help anyone struggling to cover their mortgage repayments.

Missing payments can affect your ability to borrow money in the future, so speaking to a debt charity or your lender beforehand is highly advised.

The so-called Mortgage Charter, external, introduced by the last government, ensures lenders offer flexible, short-term options. They include lengthening the term of the mortgage or moving to interest-only for up to six months without affecting your credit file.

About 250,000 homeowners have done so since it was introduced two years ago when mortgage interest rates were high.

"I see the sheer number of people that this is affecting," says Lucy Davies, a housing law adviser with the Suffolk Law Centre.

"People get into difficulties largely through no fault of their own.

"Quite often there's mental health, there's employment issues, there's family issues, and I think it can very quickly spiral out of control."

On the day the BBC joined Lucy at Ipswich County Court, none of the five people facing mortgage repossession cases turned up.

This, she says, is often a symptom of shame, despair and the sense that losing one's home is a foregone conclusion.

"It is quite frightening coming to court, but it doesn't have to be."

Matt Precey
Reporting from Norwich County Court

A woman facing eviction from her council property in a week's time applies to Judge Tim Earl for the action to be suspended.

She is unwell so does not attend court, and her application is made in the form of a letter.

"I am prepared to do whatever it takes to keep my home," she writes.

She ran up an arrears of £5,377, she explains, because her previous employer did not pay her on time and she "buried my head because I was unwell".

"I have a better job now," her letter continues.

"I just need one more chance to prove I am a good tenant. I understand this is my last chance."

The council representative in court explains the tenant has not responded to any communications since the possession order on 9 October.

There is still no offer of payment and no money has been received since then, she adds.

Judge Earl says no evidence has been given to back up her promise to meet the rent and reduce the arrears.

"This application is significantly flawed," he says.

"I am going to refuse the application".