Courts are having to delay adoption hearings and personal injury claims to deal with a surge in mortgage repossessions.

County courts in England and Wales issued 28,658 repossession orders between April and June as banks and building societies clamped down on borrowers who fell behind with mortgage payments. The volume of repossessions, up 24 per cent on the same period last year to the highest level since 1992, at the end of the last recession, has alarmed judges.

On a single day this week, Judge Stephen Gerlis, a district judge at Barnet County Court, in North London, heard 45 repossession cases. His court has appealed for additional part-time judges to help with the caseload.

“The only way that extra cases can be accommodated is by squeezing out less urgent ones,” Judge Gerlis told The Times. “They have been steadily increasing for at least the past two years and are now accelerating at an alarming rate.”

How the courts are coping with the mortgage crisis

Judge Stephen Gerlis explains how his court is dealing with the surge in repossession actions by lenders

• Surge in repossession orders clogging up the courts

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He said that the increase in repossession applications was causing havoc with court schedules, because these applications must legally be dealt with within eight weeks of being filed.

The court previously set aside one day a week for hearing repossession orders, and two days each for family cases and small claims. Most days are now dominated with applications from people whose homes were about to be seized.

People waiting for the court to hear other civil matters, including adoption applications, contract disputes and personal injury claims, have been forced to wait hours or even days while judges deal with the repossession cases.

Judge Stephen Gold, who sits at Kingston-upon-Thames County Court, in South London, had also experienced an increase in repossession cases but so far the court had been able to cope. He said that the courts had managed to deal with other sudden “blitzes” of cases, such as the recent claims over bank charges.

Lenders issued 39,078 claims for repossession in the past three months, according to figures published by the Ministry of Justice, 17 per cent more than a year ago. Not all are granted and in some cases borrowers come to a late arrangement to pay. According to separate figures issued by the Financial Services Authority, the number of people who missed three or more mortgage payments doubled in the first three months of this year to 300,000, which suggests that many more homeowners could be at risk of repossession. So far 18,900 homes have been repossessed this year, 6,100 more than in the first six months of last year.

Housing charities have accused banks and building societies of becoming more aggressive in pursuing homeowners who fail to keep up with their payments. Andy Sampson, chief executive of Shelter, the housing charity, said that mortgage lenders were using repossession as a first, rather than last, resort.

Not all repossession orders result in borrowers losing their homes, as homeowners can still negotiate with lenders after the order is issued. Earlier this year, the Civil Justice Council, the body responsible for advising the Lord Chancellor on civil law, issued a set of draft guidelines that would require lenders to seek a compromise with defaulting borrowers and avoid legal action unless necessary.

The guidelines, which are based on existing rules that govern disputes between landlords and tenants, will be handed to the Ministry of Justice’s rules committee for endorsement in October, with a view to being implemented in March next year.

The number of bankruptcy petitions also rose to nearly 20,000 in the three months to June. More than 15,300 people petitioned for bankruptcy while creditors sought to force a further 5,625 people into becoming insolvent. The total number of petitions was 5 per cent higher than in the same period last year.