The number of tenants evicted from their homes in England and Wales hit record levels in November, a trend that was reflected in the crowded waiting room for eviction hearings at Bournemouth county court last week.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice show that 11,100 properties were repossessed by bailiffs between July and September this year, the highest quarterly figure since records began in 2000. The homelessness charity Shelter estimates that over 1,300 people a day (560 households) in England are put at risk from eviction or repossession.

The reason for this sharp increase is complex, with a number of factors from rising property prices to welfare reform at play, but accounts from people waiting for their eviction hearing in the Bournemouth court reveal high levels of distress, whatever the cause.

In a room by the entrance to the court, Ann Smith, a legal adviser for Shelter, offers free advice to anyone at risk of eviction. She meets Kate (who didn’t want her name printed), who made a tactical error when she told her landlord that her ground floor flat was so damp that black mould was spreading across the walls and through her belongings. In response she received a repossession order, telling her that the landlord wanted her to vacate the property.

Smith explains that this sounds like a “revenge eviction”. Shelter estimates there were 213,000 examples of them last year (around 2% of renters). As the rental market is so buoyant, it is often easy for landlords to find new tenants prepared to put up with the problems. An attempt by Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather to prevent rogue landlords from evicting tenants who raise concerns about poor conditions failed on Friday, when her private members bill, the tenancies reform bill, was defeated.

Kate has 24 hours to stop an eviction process, but Smith thinks there is very little chance that a visit from the bailiffs can be averted, since she has already been given an extra two months to find somewhere new to live. After she complained, environmental health inspectors discovered a leaking water mains beneath the house, which has now been fixed. Despite the mould, she had hoped to be able to stay, because the flat has finally been repaired and represents some stability; she has never been late with the rent and considers herself to be a good tenant. Trembling and distressed, Kate tries to put a brave face on developments, but expects to have to move into bed and breakfast emergency accommodation.

Shelter’s analysis of MoJ figures highlights high-risk hotspots across the country where families are particularly at risk of losing their homes, with households in Newham, east London, most exposed to the possibility of eviction or repossession, with one in every 36 homes threatened. Bournemouth is one of the most high-risk areas in the south west for possession claims.

Smith meets her next client, Olivia Evans, 19, who is facing eviction from a housing association landlord, because of a bureaucratic muddle over housing benefit payments. The confusion stems from Evans’s decision to return to work once her son turned two. She took a job at the local Tesco on a three-month contract and told housing officials that she was working and therefore no longer eligible for housing benefit payments. But there was a long delay before the payments were stopped, by which time Evans had been paid too much. By the time the change in her circumstances had been processed, her contract with Tesco had ended, so she needed the housing benefit reinstated. There was another long delay and she accrued £1,450 of arrears and in August received an eviction notice. Her son’s father, who she lives with, is an apprentice so only earns £100 a week, and can’t offer much help.

Smith manages to get a suspended possession order, postponing eviction, provided Evans (who has a new job) pays her rent on time and pays back her arrears at a rate of £5 a week. She is also ordered to pay £200 court costs, and discusses with her mother how drastically that will affect her weekly food budget as she pays it back in instalments. “£100 a month for food, for three of you? That won’t be enough,” she tells her daughter.

“The housing benefit system is so complicated, and people get so befuddled by what’s happening to them, and then they end up in court,” Smith says. “Often we see people under pressure to return to work, taking jobs with zero-hours contracts, very insecure employment, temporary work that then stops. It can take up to eight weeks before their benefits are reinstated, and in that time they can accrue big rent arrears.”

Next she sees a couple who are up to date with rent on the house where they live but still face eviction because their landlord has failed to keep up the mortgage payments. “It happens so often. People rent a property in good faith and then they find out that the landlord isn’t paying the mortgage. They get a warrant for eviction through the post. They have to leave, and have little hope of ever recovering the deposit they have paid,” Smith says. She manages to get the eviction postponed, but warns them that their case is serious.

Smith, who has been working for Shelter for 11 years, and as a court adviser for 18 months, says she has seen more cases where tenants face eviction because of bedroom tax-related arrears.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, says: “A wave of welfare changes including the bedroom tax, mixed in with a chronic lack of affordable homes and a hugely insecure private rental market are leaving more and more families teetering on a financial knife-edge.

More than 40,000 households lost that battle to stay in their home in the last year, and right behind them are thousands more but a few steps away from the same fate.”

Advisers with Citizens Advice say they have also seen an increase in requests for help from people who are threatened with eviction by private landlords (up 20% in the last year). Gillian Guy, the charity’s chief executive, says: “The imbalance of power in the private rented sector leaves people vulnerable to the whims of landlords. Renters’ rights need to be brought up to a decent 21st century standard.”

Housing minister Brandon Lewis says: “We’re introducing measures to ensure tenants can be confident they will get a fair deal. Our How to Rent guide helps tenants know their rights and responsibilities, and letting agents are now required to belong to a redress scheme so landlords and tenants have somewhere to go if they get a raw deal.”

“This government has kept strong protections to guard families against the threat of homelessness. We’ve increased spending to prevent homelessness...and ensure we don’t return to the bad old days when homelessness in England was nearly double what it is today.”