Renters' Rights Bill Expected To Fuel Rise In Tenancy Disputes
Image by Jörg Hertle from Pixabay
The latest market analysis from Inventory Base, one of the UK's market leading Property Inventory Specialists, reveals that tenancy disputes are on the rise, with the number of disputes seen in 2023 hitting the second highest number seen over the last decade.
The company analysed historic data from the TDS over the past decade, looking at the number of tenancy disputes that occur in the UK rental sector each year and how this has changed.
The data reveals that tenancy disputes are on the rise and have been increasingly consistently with the exception of the pandemic period.
Ten years ago, the UK saw an estimated total of 27,035 disputes per year. In 2023, this annual total had increased to 42,180 - a jump of 56%.
Over the past decade, there have only been two years in which the number of tenancy disputes has fallen.
2021 and 2022 recorded drops of -5.3% and -13.6% respectively, but it’s important to note that tenants were benefiting from protection measures, including eviction bans, that were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And once these protections were removed, 2023 saw an enormous increase of +20.5% in a single year in the number of disputes recorded..
What’s more, the TDS expects that the number of tenant disputes seen across the rental market is expected to increase further by the end of 2025.
It’s estimated that by the end of this year alone, tenant disputes will reach a total of 42,542 which will mark an annual increase of +0.9%.
It’s also expected that this will be followed by a further increase of +3.5% in 2025 pushing the number of annual disputes to a total of 44,040 - the highest yearly total seen since 2014.
Full data tables and sources can be viewed online, here