The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and three other leading housing charities launched a joint campaign to win better protection for tenants who face sudden homelessness because their landlord is repossessed.

Shelter, Citizens Advice, Crisis and the CIH are raising the alarm over growing numbers of private tenants who face eviction with little or no warning, and through no fault of their own, because their landlord has defaulted on mortgage payments and the lender has taken possession of the property.

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.

As the law stands, most tenants whose landlords are repossessed have none of the legal rights that usually protect tenants from losing their homes without notice. Advisers report seeing cases where the first the tenant knows about the situation is when they come home to find bailiffs in their home.

In some cases their belongings have been put out on the street and the locks have been changed. In other cases they have no or very limited access to their things, including personal and valuable items. In one case a family with nowhere to go had to sleep in a car before moving into overcrowded and temporary emergency hostel accommodation a long distance from the children's schools.

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Shelter, Citizens Advice, Crisis and CIH have today written to MPs urging them to sign an Early Day Motion calling for changes to the law to tackle the problem. They estimate that thousands of tenants in the private rented sector could be at risk of losing their homes in this way and are warning that urgent government action is needed to avoid a potential crisis.

Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: "At a time when many people are focused on homeowners, we risk forgetting that tenants of private landlords are extremely vulnerable to the recession. 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."

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.

"Tenants at risk of eviction in these circumstances need proper legal protection to ensure they have reasonable time to find somewhere else to live and are notified clearly and in good time that they are at risk, along with information on their rights and sources of help."

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.

They say more also 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. The campaigners say these notices should include information for tenants about their rights and where they can go for further advice.

(CD/JM)