Rent decisions › guide

How to challenge a rent increase in England

A landlord of an assured tenancy in England can only raise the rent by serving a Section 13 notice, and the tenant can ask the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the rent. This page sets out what the law says, what GOV.UK and Shelter say about applying, and what the tribunal has actually decided, from every decision it has published. It is information, not advice about any one tenancy.

What a Section 13 notice is

Section 13 of the Housing Act 1988 lets a landlord propose a new rent by serving a notice in the prescribed form (form 4A for notices served on or after 1 May 2026; the older form 4 or a letter with the same information before that). The notice proposes a new rent to take effect at the beginning of a period of the tenancy. If the tenant does nothing, the new rent takes effect on the date in the notice.

The notice rules

From 1 May 2026 the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed the rules. Which set applies follows the date the notice was served, not the date written on it (S.I. 2026/421 reg. 8).

The notice checker compares the dates on a notice with these rules and says, line by line, which it appears to meet, which it does not appear to meet, and which it can't check from what was entered.

The deadline, the form and the fee

• Deadline: the application has to be made before the start date on the notice (s.13(4)). GOV.UK adds that this applies even if you are still collecting your evidence.
• Form: form MR1, online, or by email or post to the regional tribunal office. If you apply by email or post, GOV.UK asks you to send the landlord a copy; an online application is sent to the landlord by the tribunal. The landlord can reply on form MR2 within 28 days.
• Fee: £47 for a notice served on or after 1 May 2026; none for a notice served before that, or for a social rented property (form MR1). Help with fees is available on a low income (GOV.UK).

What the tribunal can and can't decide

• It decides the rent the home could be let for on the open market under an assured tenancy on the same terms (s.14), looking at rents for similar homes nearby. Evidence from actual agreed lettings is stronger than asking prices or housing association rents (GOV.UK).
• From 1 May 2026 it can confirm the proposed rent or set a lower one, never a higher one: the new rent is the open-market rent if lower than the proposed rent, otherwise the proposed rent (s.14ZB(5)). The new rent takes effect from the period after the determination, or the notice's date if later, or a later date the tribunal directs for undue hardship (s.14ZB(3)).
• Before 1 May 2026 it could set the rent higher than the landlord asked, and the new rent normally ran from the date in the notice (s.14(7) as it then stood).
• It can consider whether a notice appears valid, and declines to set a rent where it finds it isn't; a binding decision on validity is for the county court (Mooney v Whiteland [2023] EWCA Civ 67).
• The decision is often made on the documents alone. The tribunal says if it needs a hearing or an inspection; a hearing can be in person or online (GOV.UK).

How long it takes

From the date on the tenant's application to the tribunal's decision, in decisions that state both dates: 91 days (median, n=2,415); for decisions made in the last six months, 82 days (n=642), against 128 days for the same six months a year earlier (n=205). By tribunal region: Southern 69 days (n=669), Eastern 83 days (n=390), Northern 84 days (n=259), Midlands 137 days (n=287), London 139 days (n=808). Cases still waiting for a decision, and cases that settled or were withdrawn, can't be in these figures.

What tribunals decided

In the 1,891 published decisions since 2018 where the landlord's figure and the decided rent can be compared, the tribunal set the rent below the landlord's figure in 75% (1,426), the same in 20% and above it in 4% (above only under the old rules). The typical rise the landlord proposed was +20.8% and the typical rise the tribunal decided +10.5% (medians, n=1,843). Under the new rules so far: below the landlord's figure in 64% of 85 comparable decisions, a small number. Left out of these figures: housing association and affordable rents, rooms in shared houses, rents including bills, register entries and figures not yet checked (why). Each decision is a single home on its own evidence.

You can see the decisions for homes near any postcode: search by postcode, or browse by local authority.

The challenge pack and the letter

The rent challenge pack takes the details from a notice and puts together, as one PDF, the notice dates checked, the last day to apply, the typical outcome around the postcode, up to ten of the most comparable decided cases with the tribunal's own valuation reasoning, the area's waiting time and the facts on applying. The letter template acknowledges the notice to the landlord and says the tenant is considering a referral, or has made one. Nothing entered is stored.