Written Question · S3W-09468 · Session 3
How many repossession decrees have been granted by courts in each year since 1997.
The question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many repossession decrees have been granted by courts in each year since 1997.
The answer
It is not possible to provide information on the total number of repossession decrees granted. However, the following table shows the number of mortgage lender decrees granted by sheriff courts under ordinary cause procedure in each year since 2003.
Information from 1997 to 2002 is given in table 3.7 of Civil Judicial Statistics, copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 44768, 16386, 16249, 19702, 26040 and 31061 for each year from 1997 to 2002, respectively).
The Number of Ordinary Cause1 Mortgage Lender2 Actions Disposed of by Sheriff Courts, by Nature of Final Judgment, 2003-07
| 2003
| 2004
| 2005
| 2006
| 2007
Decree granted for pursuer
| 2,983
| 3,041
| 4,057
| 3,818
| 3,782
Otherwise disposed of
| 99
| 145
| 173
| 210
| 198
Total
| 3,082
| 3,186
| 4,230
| 4,028
| 3,980
Notes:
1. An ordinary cause is a type of court procedure. In relation to the data above, it refers to cases where the value of the claim was over £1,500 (this was increased to £5,000 from 14 January 2008) or the case involved complex legal issues.
2. Repossession of property in breach/default of a house purchase loan.
3. The data are management information statistics which have not been subjected to the same quality assurance standards as statistics produced by the Government Statistical Service. In addition, there are general concerns surrounding the accuracy of some of the civil judicial statistics collected by the Scottish Government. In relation to these data, it is believed that inaccuracies exist when identifying disposed cases and some mortgage lender actions may be misclassified as land or heritable estate actions, and vice versa.
4. Action is being taken to improve the accuracy and reliability of the civil judicial statistics collected by the Scottish Government. In particular, it is intended that actions for repossession will be more easily and accurately identified.
5. A decree for repossession which has been granted does not necessarily result in an actual repossession or eviction. Therefore, the figures cannot be used to estimate the number of repossessions. It is not known what proportion of mortgage lender decrees granted result in an actual repossession or whether the proportion stays constant each year. Hence it cannot be inferred that a rise (or fall) in these decrees equates to a rise (
Information from 1997 to 2002 is given in table 3.7 of Civil Judicial Statistics, copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 44768, 16386, 16249, 19702, 26040 and 31061 for each year from 1997 to 2002, respectively).
The Number of Ordinary Cause1 Mortgage Lender2 Actions Disposed of by Sheriff Courts, by Nature of Final Judgment, 2003-07
| 2003
| 2004
| 2005
| 2006
| 2007
Decree granted for pursuer
| 2,983
| 3,041
| 4,057
| 3,818
| 3,782
Otherwise disposed of
| 99
| 145
| 173
| 210
| 198
Total
| 3,082
| 3,186
| 4,230
| 4,028
| 3,980
Notes:
1. An ordinary cause is a type of court procedure. In relation to the data above, it refers to cases where the value of the claim was over £1,500 (this was increased to £5,000 from 14 January 2008) or the case involved complex legal issues.
2. Repossession of property in breach/default of a house purchase loan.
3. The data are management information statistics which have not been subjected to the same quality assurance standards as statistics produced by the Government Statistical Service. In addition, there are general concerns surrounding the accuracy of some of the civil judicial statistics collected by the Scottish Government. In relation to these data, it is believed that inaccuracies exist when identifying disposed cases and some mortgage lender actions may be misclassified as land or heritable estate actions, and vice versa.
4. Action is being taken to improve the accuracy and reliability of the civil judicial statistics collected by the Scottish Government. In particular, it is intended that actions for repossession will be more easily and accurately identified.
5. A decree for repossession which has been granted does not necessarily result in an actual repossession or eviction. Therefore, the figures cannot be used to estimate the number of repossessions. It is not known what proportion of mortgage lender decrees granted result in an actual repossession or whether the proportion stays constant each year. Hence it cannot be inferred that a rise (or fall) in these decrees equates to a rise (
In the Official Report
No contribution in the Official Report cites S3W-09468 by reference.