Defending rent increases under the new Renters’ Rights rules

By Tom Entwistle, LandlordZONE

Demonstrating that you’re claiming a fair market rent at the tribunal hearing is crucial to winning your case. 

Key to this is finding and demonstrating comparables, that means achieved rents (not advertised rents) for similar accommodation, as opposed to just advertised rents. 

Based on a recent early First-tier tribunal case propertymark the agents’ professional body, has come up with some useful tips for landlords if they are faced with a challenge to their rent increase proposal by their tenant.

The first published First-tier Tribunal decision at 25C Skylark Point, 1 Portlands Court, London on a Section 13 rent increase under the Renters’ Rights Act has confirmed what most practitioners expected. Reading the decision can be quite instructive.

That shows a tribunal will prefer evidence of rents that are actually agreed and achieved over rents merely advertised. The harder question for the average landlord, readers of this site, is not what the tribunal wants to see, but how a landlord with one flat, rather than five hundred, is supposed to get hold of this information.

This article is intended as general information for landlords and letting professionals and in England and does not constitute legal advice. Landlords facing a tribunal referral, or considering a contested rent increase, should take independent professional advice based on their own particular circumstances.

A higher standard of evidence

From 1 May 2026, a landlord wishing to increase the rent on an assured periodic tenancy in England must use the Section 13 procedure set out in the Housing Act 1988, as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. 

A rent increase can happen no more than once every 12 months, it cannot take effect during the first year of a tenancy, and it requires at least two months’ notice using Form 4A. Where the tenant disputes the landlord’s figure, they can refer the notice to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) before the proposed start date, currently for a fee of £47.

See: LandlordZONE: Notice is coming – the Renters’ Rights Act will require special notices

The tribunal’s role has not changed from before the new Act. It decides an open market rent for the property type and location, which may be lower than or the same as the landlord’s proposed figure, but it will never be higher.

It is expected that challenges to rent increases may be far more common than previously, and now, as a body of published decisions is built, some clarity around the new process is beginning to emerge.

The first reported case reported above gives a useful indication of the requirements from landlords if they are to be successful in their claim. It’s worthwhile reflecting on the case and understanding both the decision itself and its practical implications.

What the Skylark Point case decided

Interestingly, and usefully for small-scale landlords, propertymark has carried out its own detailed analysis and come up with some useful tips.

The case at Skylark Point concerned a two-bedroom flat, a build-to-rent development in London’s East Village, which was let by Get Living. 

The landlord proposed increasing the rent from £3,102.82 to £3,180 per calendar month, but the tenants suggested this was too high and argued for £3,040, a figure that was below the existing rent.

Both sides submitted comparable evidence. The tenants cited a two-bedroom flat advertised by the same landlord in the same development, averaging £3,042.50 per month. This being a figure that was close to their own proposed rent. 

Conversely, the landlord produced evidence of nine actual lettings that had been agreed across two neighbouring developments between April and June 2026. All of these lettings were let at rents above the rent the landlord at Skylark Point was proposing.

The tribunal’s reasoning, set out in its decision of 17 July 2026, was clear and direct. Greater weight was to be placed on the landlord’s evidence because it comprised agreed lettings rather than asking prices.

The tenants’ comparables lacked some supporting detail on the exact sizes and layouts of these other flats, and their proposed rents sat below all nine of the landlord’s comparables. The tribunal therefore confirmed the landlord’s proposed full increase to £3,180.

Two important points

Propertymark’s analysis highlights two important points worth noting. First of all, the tribunal didn’t simply prefer the landlord’s evidence because it came from the landlord. It confirmed the landlord’s claim because it agreed that the comparable lettings put forward by the landlord demonstrated what tenants were actually willing to pay.

This is a more direct and reliable measure of open market rent than an asking price placed in an ad that nobody has yet accepted, it hasn’t so far been achieved. 

Secondly, the tribunal did not approve the landlord’s claimed increase without some detailed scrutiny. The Tribunal noted that the tenants’ missing detail from their evidence was close enough in time, location and specification to carry weight regardless, but it was evidence quality, not just evidence type, that swung the result.

The gap for small-scale landlords

Get Living was in the fortunate position that it could produce nine directly comparable lettings because it managed multiple near-identical flats across two towers. Its live pricing and lettings system recorded every letting transaction as it occurred, giving them a real advantage over the tenants and other landlords. 

That sort of information is not readily available to the great majority of small-scale landlords who are this site’s regular readers. A landlord with one flat, or a handful of properties spread across different streets and different property types, simply has no internal database of comparable lettings to draw on.

propertymark’s own observations of the Tribunal decision make the same point: small-scale landlords are likely to depend far more heavily on their letting agent’s local market knowledge. 

That does not mean the smaller landlord has no options. It does mean building an evidence file with a slightly different approach. It involves drawing on those sources that do exist for them because most of the private rented sector currently does not have a database of rental values.

How to find achieved-rent evidence

Letting agents are probably your main source. For most readers, this is the most practical starting point, and the implication is you should build up relationships with your local agent or agents.

Agents active in the local market hold records of recent rents actually agreed in their own books, not just current listings. They are generally willing to provide anonymised comparables, especially if they are likely to receive business from you in the future – property sales and purchases, lettings, management and inventory. Otherwise, they may require a fee.

This is also Propertymark’s recommended guidance, pointing landlords and agents in this direction to compile evidence. 

ONS/VOA Private Rental Market Statistics is data published twice a year which draw on rental information voluntarily supplied to rent officers by thousands of letting agents and landlords.

The data reports median and interquartile monthly rents by property type, right down to the local authority level. It is capable of informing landlords about specific comparable property let data, a genuinely evidence-based benchmark. It covers reasonable local rents for a given size and type of property, and it explicitly reflects rents actually paid rather than rents advertised.

The ONS Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) tracks the rate of change in private rents rather than the rent level itself. For England and Wales, this data is also based on achieved-rent data. This reveals trends more than actual rent figures, so if local rents have risen by, say, 6 per cent over the past year, that context can support the reasonableness of a proposed increase.

As evidence builds with more cases, the tribunal’s own published decisions at GOV.UK, a searchable database, maintains information on all residential property tribunal decisions. 

Past decisions are not binding, and as the tribunal made clear in the Skylark Point case, every determination is unique, but reviewing recent decisions for similar property types in the same region can give a useful guide.

If you use a referencing agency, your agent certainly will. It may have reports of anonymised data from recent referencing to give a useful sense of regional trends. Transaction-level data for a specific street or development, but they will definitely indicate trends and add to the statistics in your pack of evidence that a tribunal is likely to find persuasive.

What does government guidance say? 

The government’s guidance for tenants making a challenge says that information from letting agents and property portals of advertised rents can help, but evidence from completed rental agreements is much stronger.

Your evidence pack should contain information on the property so that the tribunal has enough to make an accurate assessment. Floor plans or a rough measured layout, recent photographs of each room, exact room sizes, and details of any repairs or improvements, including who carried them out and who paid. 

None of this is rocket science. It is the sort of evidence pack most landlords could compile from their own records and a quick walk around the property with a phone camera. You should do this as you negotiate an increase or at one of your periodic inspections rather than waiting for a tenant to challenge the proposed increase. 

Building the evidence file

Remember, when you are going to a small-claims court or a tribunal, the judge or adjudicators want clear, concise information. They don’t want to be confused or having to read reams of script. Keep it simple.

List recently achieved rents for genuinely comparable properties. Match them as closely as possible on location, size, condition and specification.

Write a clear, concise explanation of the rationale behind your reasoning for arriving at a fair market rent.

Supply photographs which are as current as possible, a floor plan or room-by-room measurements.

Provide records of any repairs, upgrades or improvements carried out before and since the tenancy began, including who paid for them.

Don’t forget to provide details of the setting, the local amenities, transport links and any factors relevant to the property’s market position which make it more valuable.

Provide details of your negotiations with your tenant, emails, letters or contemporaneous notes you made and your S13 application.

A photo is worth a thousand words, supply plenty from inside and outside.

Make sure you index and reference all of this so you and the panel can easily refer to the items of evidence.

Timing 

Propertymark’s members have reported considerable variation in how quickly cases are being processed. In London delays are the most common. The date on which a tribunal determined rent takes effect depends on when the decision is issued rather than when a new rent is proposed.  

When a tribunal decides after a proposed new rent start date has already passed, the new rent will generally begin from the next rent payment date following the decision – it won’t be backdated. 

A final word

The early decision of this new S13 and tribunal process in the Skylark Point decision has provided a clear sign as to the way these tribunals will progress. Rents that were actually agreed upon near the time and location and supported with enough good supporting evidence should be taken seriously by the tribunal. 

Landlords managing large portfolios will have access to more data, but that does not mean that small-scale landlords, with a bit of effort, cannot produce convincing evidence to support their case.