Rent repayment orders › guide

Rent repayment orders: who can apply, the maximum and what tribunals ordered

A rent repayment order makes a landlord repay rent to a tenant where the landlord has committed one of a list of housing offences, most often letting a home without the licence it needed. The tenant applies to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber); no conviction is needed. This page sets out the rules in the Housing and Planning Act 2016, as changed by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 on 1 May 2026, and what the tribunal has actually ordered in every decision it has published. It is information, not advice about any one case.

Who can apply, and for what

• A tenant can apply if the offence relates to housing that was let to them at the time of the offence (s.41(1), (2)(a)). A council can apply too (s.41(3)).
• The offences (s.40(3)): letting an HMO without the licence it needed (Housing Act 2004 s.72(1)); letting a home in a selective licensing area without a licence (s.95(1)); illegal eviction or harassment (Protection from Eviction Act 1977 s.1(2), (3), (3A)); using or threatening violence to get in (Criminal Law Act 1977 s.6(1)); not complying with an improvement notice or prohibition order (Housing Act 2004 ss.30(1), 32(1)); letting while banned (s.21 of the 2016 Act). From 1 May 2026, also three offences in the Housing Act 1988 (s.16J): knowingly or recklessly misusing a possession ground, letting or marketing a home within 12 months of using the moving-in or selling ground, and continuing breaches of the tenancy reform requirements. For the first two the home need not have been let to the applicant at the time (s.41(2A)).
• The tribunal can make an order only if it is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the landlord committed the offence, whether or not the landlord has been convicted (s.43(1)).
• A licence application or a temporary exemption notice that was still in effect at the time is a defence to the licensing offences, and so is a reasonable excuse (Housing Act 2004 s.72(4), (5); s.95(3), (3A)).
• From 1 May 2026 an order can be made against the immediate landlord, a superior landlord or a licensor, and against a director, manager or other officer of a company landlord where the offence was committed with their consent or caused by their neglect; not against a letting or managing agent (GOV.UK, Shelter).

The time limit

The offence has to have been committed in the period ending with the day of the application: 12 months for an offence before 1 May 2026, 2 years for one on or after it (s.41(2)(b)). For a continuing offence such as an unlicensed let, the period is counted from its last day. The rent repayment order pack works out the last day to apply from the dates entered, shown a day early to be safe.

The maximum, and how the amount is fixed

• For the licensing, improvement-notice, prohibition-order and banning-order offences the order relates to rent paid during the period, at most 12 months (24 months for an offence on or after 1 May 2026), in which the landlord was committing the offence; for violence to get in, illegal eviction and harassment, rent paid in the 12 (24) months ending with the offence (s.44(2)). Any universal credit paid towards the rent is taken off (s.44(3)).
• Within that maximum the tribunal takes into account the conduct of the landlord and of the tenant, the landlord's financial circumstances and whether the landlord has been convicted of an offence in the list; from 1 May 2026 also any rent the tenant received for the home, any financial penalty the landlord has received and any previous rent repayment order against them (s.44(4)).
• When the tribunal must order the maximum (s.46):
  • Offence before 1 May 2026 (s.46 as it then stood): only if both the landlord has been convicted of the offence, or has received a financial penalty for it with no prospect of appeal left, and, on a tenant's application, the offence is violence to get in, illegal eviction or harassment, an improvement notice, a prohibition order or a banning order. So never, on a tenant's application, for an unlicensed HMO or an unlicensed house, whatever the landlord's record.
  • Offence on or after 1 May 2026 (s.46 as amended by the Renters' Rights Act 2025): if either the landlord has been convicted of the offence, or has received a financial penalty for it with no prospect of appeal left; or the landlord has at any time, for any tenancy or home, been convicted of, received a financial penalty for, or had a rent repayment order made against them for another offence that is the same offence. Letting an unlicensed HMO and an unlicensed house count as the same offence (s.46(4A)). This now applies to every offence in the list.
  • Under both, the tribunal does not have to order any amount that, because of exceptional circumstances, it considers unreasonable for the landlord to pay (s.46(5)). A continuing offence that runs across 1 May 2026 is split: the old rules for the part before it, the new rules from it (S.I. 2026/421 reg. 11).
• The Upper Tribunal set out the usual approach in Acheampong v Roman [2022] UKUT 239 (LC), 5 September 2022: find the whole rent for the period; take off anything that paid for utilities the landlord provided; decide how serious this offence was, against other offences and other examples of the same one, as a percentage; then adjust for the s.44(4) factors.
• The calculator does the arithmetic for the maximum on any rent and dates, splitting a period at 1 May 2026, and shows what tribunals ordered for the same offence beside it.

What tribunals ordered

In 1,629 published decisions since 2015, 79% of the 1,539 with a known outcome ended in an order (1,212); the rest were dismissed, withdrawn, struck out or out of time. Where the tribunal made an order and the amount has been checked, the typical (median) amount was £3,146 per applicant (n=1,157) and £6,480 per decision (n=1,216, typically 2 applicants); where the decision states the maximum, the typical share of it ordered was 70% (n=638). Since Acheampong: 74% of 785 ended in an order, £3,158 per applicant (n=579), 65% of the maximum (n=334).

By offence, where there are at least five decisions:

Every figure on this page is under the old 12-month maximum: no published decision yet concerns an offence on or after 1 May 2026. Amounts are counted only where the figure read from the decision has been checked (how). Each decision turns on its own facts, including both sides' conduct, so these are not a prediction.

From the date on the application to the decision, in decisions that state both: 237 days (median, n=1,113). Cases still waiting, and cases that settled, can't be in this figure.

See the decisions near any postcode: search by postcode, browse by local authority or by offence.

Applying

Applications go to the regional office of the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) on form RRO1, by post or email. There is an application fee, and a further fee if the tribunal schedules a hearing; both are stated on the form, and help with fees is available to those who qualify. The landlord answers with a bundle of evidence, the tribunal sets a hearing date, and applicants are expected to attend or explain why they can't (GOV.UK). The rent repayment order pack puts together the licensing position for the address, the maximum on your figures, the most comparable orders nearby with the tribunal's reasoning on the amount, the time limit and what applicants in those cases provided, as one PDF. Nothing entered is stored.