Tenants are the ‘forgotten victims’ of the repossession crisis and face sudden homelessness if their landlord is repossessed, charities have warned.

Shelter, Citizens Advice, Crisis and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) say a growing number of private tenants are being evicted when their landlords default on their mortgage.

In some cases, tenants only find out when bailiffs come to their home.

Citizens Advice chief executive, David Harker, said: “The government has pledged to do all it can to prevent people losing their homes as a result of the recession, yet we have these forgotten victims of the repossessions crisis – tenants who have paid their rent and abided by all the terms of their tenancy agreements being evicted without warning because their landlord has been repossessed.”

According to figures from the Financial Services Authority (FSA), repossessions are up 68 per cent from last year – and a large proportion of these are thought to be buy-to-let homes.

The organisations are calling for a change in the law which would mean courts would have the power to defer the possession to allow the tenant to find other suitable accommodation.

Leslie Morphy, chief executive of Crisis, said: “It is outrageous that the first time some people discover they are going to lose their home is when the bailiffs ring the doorbell.

“Tenants need legal protection to ensure that they at least have reasonable time to find somewhere else to live. The alternative too often can be homelessness.”

A Surrey Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) reported the case of a lone parent with two children who came back from a holiday to find that the locks had been changed and a notice announcing that a possession order had been made.

The CAB said the woman was only allowed in for ten minutes under supervision to collect important items, including her son’s GCSE work, and had to make repeated visits to the lender to collect her possessions.

Members of the joint campaign are calling for the law to be changed to give courts the discretion to take into account the circumstances of sitting tenants where an outright possession order is granted, and defer possession for a limited period of time.

The campaigners also say more needs to be done to make tenants aware of possession proceedings by ensuring that notices clearly marked to the tenant are sent to the property by the courts, in addition to the notice currently sent to ‘The Occupier’ by the mortgage lender.