The reason almost nobody challenged a rent increase was that the tribunal could set a rent higher than the landlord had asked for. That risk was removed on 1 May 2026. The tribunal can now only confirm the proposed rent or reduce it — never increase it — and the new rent runs from the date of the decision rather than being backdated. The worst outcome available to you is the rent your landlord already asked for.
What the First-tier Tribunal actually decided, from decisions published since January 2025.
That last figure is the whole argument for preparing properly. In nearly half of cases the tribunal fell back on its own knowledge of the local market because neither side gave it usable comparables. Median wait to a decision: 96 days, and 142 in London.
New section 14ZB of the Housing Act 1988, inserted by the Renters’ Rights Act and in force since 1 May 2026, tells the tribunal to set the open market rent if it is lower than the proposed rent, and otherwise the proposed rent. That is a mathematical ceiling. It also stops backdating — the new rent applies from the date of determination — and lets the tribunal defer an increase by up to two further months where paying it would cause undue hardship. One caution: if your section 13 notice was served before 1 May 2026, the old rules still apply to it and the tribunal can still set a higher rent.
This compares your increase against published ONS rent growth for your region and against the average increase actually being served this year, checks whether the notice itself is valid, and tells you what the realistic downside of challenging is. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is no form in front of it.
+16.2%
In nearly half of published decisions the tribunal recorded that the evidence it was given was inadequate and fell back on its own knowledge of local values. That cuts both ways, and it means a modest, well-evidenced case routinely beats an aggressive assertion. Here is what the tribunal asks for, and what it throws out.
Similar properties, genuinely nearby, let on similar terms — with the listings kept. In a July 2026 decision the tribunal rejected a landlord’s entire comparable range because no evidence was supplied of those comparables nor of achieved rents. An agent’s “best price guide” carries no weight at all.
Exterior and interior, dated. This is the single most effective thing a tenant can produce. In the same month a tribunal took £50 a month off the rent for the absence of a room thermostat and the state of the sash windows, entirely on the strength of the tenant’s photographs.
Size is priced. One determination held the rent at its existing level partly because a room was too small to take an easy chair and the comparables were larger and better equipped. Measure the rooms; it takes ten minutes and it is evidence nobody else will produce.
A tenant in July 2026 lost the condition argument entirely because the defects were “either unsupported by evidence or relatively minor matters” — and still won on comparables. Saying the flat is in poor repair achieves nothing. Showing a photograph of the meter with a date achieves something.
The tribunal ignores the fact you are a sitting tenant, ignores any increase in value from improvements you made, and ignores any reduction caused by your own breach of the tenancy. Damage you caused will not reduce your rent. Damage the landlord failed to fix will.
If paying from the proposed date would cause you real difficulty, the tribunal can defer the increase by up to two further months — but you have to ask, with your actual financial circumstances set out, in the application itself. It is not something to raise later.
The percentage is not the legal test. The tribunal decides what the property would let for on the open market today. It does not care whether your increase is 4% or 40%, and a large increase on a rent that was well below market may be perfectly defensible. Our tool leads on the percentage because it is the fastest way to tell whether something is worth looking at — but if you go in arguing “this is above inflation” you will lose. What wins is comparables and condition, which is what the report is actually for.
You can do this yourself for £47. That is the tribunal fee, and there is help with fees if you are on a low income. The application form is short and the process is usually decided on paper. If you are comfortable finding six genuine comparables, photographing every room and setting out the argument, do it and keep your money — we would rather tell you that than sell you a report you did not need. What we sell is the evidence pack and the market analysis, which is exactly the thing tribunals said was missing in nearly half the cases they decided.
Fixed fees, and none of them is a share of whatever reduction you get. That is deliberate: a firm paid out of your saving has every reason to tell you the increase is outrageous, and none at all to tell you it looks fair.
The tribunal fee is £47 and it is yours, not ours. It is paid direct to the First-tier Tribunal and there is Help with Fees if you are on a low income or have low savings. It is not included in our fee and we do not mark it up. You can do all of this yourself. The application is short, most cases are decided on paper, and if you are confident researching comparables you do not need us — the tool above is built to tell you when that is the case. We cannot conduct litigation, but we do not need to: the First-tier Tribunal’s rules expressly permit a representative who is not legally qualified. Fourteen days to change your mind on any paid service, as a distance contract with a consumer. Prices are the total; nothing is added later.
The current rent, the proposed rent, the date it starts and roughly where you live. That is enough for a first view, including telling you that the increase looks reasonable and you should accept it — which is the answer more often than it is in our interest to admit.
Four questions. We come back with whether it is worth challenging, whether the notice is even valid, and whether you are still inside the deadline — which is the thing that ends most of these.
The form it arrived in matters more than most tenants realise.
Choose as many as apply.
The date is the important part — you have to apply before it and there is no extension.
If the increase looks defensible we will say so, and you will not have paid us to find out. If the deadline is close we will tell you to file today and sort the evidence afterwards, which is what the guidance itself says.
Check it over. Tapping the button opens WhatsApp with this ready — nothing has been sent yet.
Send this on WhatsAppEvery one of these has a free tool on it. None of them asks for your details before it gives you an answer.
For tenants. Rent repayment orders of up to two years’ rent where the landlord broke licensing or eviction law.
Every remedy screened, with what we can and cannot touchfree, or £295 assessed →For tenants. The deposit is your money and the landlord has to prove every deduction — we build the case that says so.
Score every deduction against the rules adjudicators usefree, or £49 prepared →Is this property compliant right now — and could you actually get it back if you needed to?
The possession test, scored per propertyfrom £110 →Not any more, provided your section 13 notice was served on or after 1 May 2026. The Renters’ Rights Act inserted a new section 14ZB into the Housing Act 1988 which directs the tribunal to set the open market rent if it is lower than the proposed rent, and otherwise the proposed rent. That is a mathematical ceiling: the outcome is the lower of the two, so the worst that can happen is the rent your landlord already asked for. The same section stops backdating — the new rent applies from the date of the determination rather than the date in the notice — and lets the tribunal defer an increase by up to two further months where paying it from that date would cause undue hardship. Before this change the tribunal could and did set higher rents, in roughly 9% of published decisions, and that risk was the main reason tenants did not challenge. It is gone.
There are three real costs and we would rather set them out than pretend otherwise. There is a £47 tribunal fee, with help available if you are on a low income or have low savings. There is a wait — the median across published decisions is about 96 days, and 142 days in London — during which the uncertainty is its own kind of cost. And there is the work of assembling comparables and photographing the property, which is real effort whether you do it or pay us to. There is also a relationship cost that nobody writes down: your landlord will know you challenged. Since the abolition of section 21 they cannot evict you for it without a ground, but if you were hoping for goodwill on something else, spend that consideration knowingly rather than discovering it afterwards.
Until the date the new rent is due to start, and not a day after. The application must reach the tribunal before that date and the time limit cannot be extended — there is no discretion, no good reason exception and no late filing. The government’s own guidance is blunt about the consequence: apply before the start date even if you are still collecting your supporting evidence. That is the right order of operations and it is the single most useful sentence on this page. Get the £47 application in, then build the case in the weeks that follow, because the tribunal will not decide it for three months anyway. Almost every tenant who loses the chance to challenge loses it by waiting until the evidence felt ready.
The open market rent — what your property might reasonably be expected to let for today, to a new tenant on the same terms. It is not deciding whether the increase was fair, reasonable, affordable or above inflation. This matters because it cuts both ways. If your rent has been well below market for years, a large increase may be entirely defensible and you could challenge and get nowhere. If your rent was already above market, even a small increase may be reducible. Three things are disregarded: the fact you are a sitting tenant, any increase in value from improvements you made yourself, and any reduction caused by your own breach of the tenancy. So damage you caused will not lower your rent. Damage the landlord failed to repair will.
Yes, but only when it is evidenced, and the difference between a tenant who wins on condition and one who does not is photographs. In a decision published in July 2026 the tribunal valued a flat at around £1,700 in good condition, then took £50 a month off for the absence of a room thermostat and the state of the sash windows — entirely on the strength of the tenant’s own photographs. In another decision the same month, a tenant’s disrepair arguments were dismissed outright as “either unsupported by evidence or relatively minor matters”, though that tenant still won on comparables. The lesson is consistent: the tribunal prices condition, it does not remedy it, and it will not take your word for anything. Three specific, dated, photographed defects are worth more than a paragraph describing six.
Then the increase may not have taken effect at all, and this is worth checking before anything else. Since 1 May 2026 a formal notice on the prescribed form is the only lawful way to raise the rent on an assured tenancy — a new section 13(4A) says the rent cannot be greater than in the previous period except by a notice or a genuine agreement. So a rent review clause in your tenancy agreement no longer works, and nor does a letter or an email. The notice period also doubled to two months, and rent can only go up once in any 52 weeks. If any of those is wrong, do not simply refuse to pay, because the position is not always as clean as it looks and arrears are dangerous. Get it checked, and be careful not to reply with anything that reads like agreement, because agreeing in writing binds you where the notice would not have.
Frequently not, and the tool above is built to tell you when. The application form is short, the fee is £47, most cases are decided on paper without a hearing, and if you are comfortable finding six genuinely comparable lettings, photographing every room and measuring them, you should do it yourself and keep your money. Where we earn a fee is the bit tribunals keep complaining about: in 47% of reasoned decisions they recorded a problem with the evidence they were given and fell back on their own knowledge of local values. That is nearly half of all cases decided on something other than what the parties put in. Comparable analysis is the part of this that is genuinely hard and it is also, as it happens, what this firm does for landlords all week.
Ask the question, and read our answer on the fees. Fraser Bond sells compliance and advisory services to landlords and agents, and three pages on this site act for tenants. We will not take a tenant instruction against a landlord or agent who is a client of ours, and we will tell you that at the outset rather than after you have paid. On this service in particular our incentives are worth examining: we charge a fixed fee rather than a share of any reduction, precisely so that telling you your increase looks defensible costs us the sale. The tool above will say exactly that on a lot of inputs, and we have left it that way. The reason we are useful is that valuing residential lettings against local comparables is our day job — usually for the other side.
The government’s own guidance says to apply before the new rent’s start date even if you are still collecting your evidence, because the deadline cannot be extended and a late application is simply refused. If your date is close, put the £47 application in today and build the case in the weeks that follow. We can help with the second part. Nobody can help with the first once it has gone.
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