Challenging a rent rise can no longer backfire.
Since 1 May 2026 the tribunal cannot set your rent above what the landlord asked, and it cannot backdate the increase. We read the 28 most recently published decisions, every one twice, to see what it actually does: it cut the rent in 14 of the 25 cases it decided, matched the landlord's figure in 10, and went above it once, under the old law, in the case that shows exactly why the law was changed.
The median reduction from the landlord's proposed figure, across the 14 decisions that cut. The biggest single cut in this set took a £2,150 proposal down to £1,800.
Granted where the tenant sent bank statements, benefit letters or bills. Refused, every single time, where they sent nothing. No other fact in these decisions divides success from failure so cleanly.
All 28 readable decisions were made on the papers. Nobody stood in a room. Your evidence does the talking, which is why the evidence is the whole game.
What changed on 1 May 2026
The cap
in forceSince 1 May 2026 the tribunal cannot set a rent above what the landlord's notice proposed. It determines the open market rent, and the tenant pays whichever is lower. Section 14ZB of the Housing Act 1988, inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025.
No backdating
in forceAbolished. The new rent runs from the tribunal's decision or the notice date, whichever is later, so the months a case takes are never billed retrospectively.
Hardship
in forceWhere paying from that date would cause undue hardship the tribunal can push the start back, by up to two months from the decision.
The old law is still finishing
transitionA notice served before 1 May 2026 still runs under the old law, which is why most decisions published in 2026 so far are old law cases. Under the old law the tribunal could go above the landlord's figure and the rent could run from the notice date, months before the decision. In this set of decisions, 14 of the 16 old law cases were backdated.
How to challenge, in order
England only. Form MR1, apply for an open market rent determination, by post or online. The deadline is the day before the new rent's start date. £47, waived for notices dated before 1 May 2026 and for social tenants, with help with fees for people on low incomes.
- Check the notice. A rent increase for an assured tenancy can only be made by a section 13 notice giving at least two months, no earlier than 52 weeks after the last increase. Two of the thirty cases here were thrown out because the notice itself was invalid, one because it was emailed when the tenancy required post.
- Diarise the start date in the notice. That is your deadline. You must apply before it, even if your evidence is not ready.
- Gather comparables: adverts for similar lets nearby, photographs of every room, and photographs and dates for any disrepair. The single commonest outcome in these thirty cases is a claim failing for lack of evidence.
- Apply on form MR1, online or by post, with the £47 fee unless exempt. The landlord then has 28 days.
- Expect a paper decision. All twenty eight readable cases here were decided on the papers without a hearing. You can insist on a hearing if you want one.
- If the increase would cause you real hardship, say so with evidence: bank statements, benefit letters, bills. Deferrals were granted in five of these cases, every one of them on documents, and refused in eight for the lack of them.
- The tribunal cannot punish you for applying. The worst outcome under the new law is paying exactly what the landlord asked, from a date no earlier than the decision.
The 28 most recent decisions, in full
decisions published June to August 2026. Every row links the tribunal's own decision document. Two further decisions are scanned images nobody can read, and they are named below rather than guessed at.
Scroll sideways to see every column
| Where | Paying | Landlord asked | Tribunal set | What decided it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croydon, CR0 3 bed flat | £1,665.00 | £2,250.00 | £1,750.00 cut from £2,250.00 a month, old law | sought, refused for lack of evidence |
| Croydon, CR0 2 bed bungalow | £1,690.00 | £1,725.00 | £1,725.00 at the proposal a month, new law | £25 a month came off for an ongoing roof leak, landing exactly at the proposed figure |
| Croydon, CR0 room in a shared house | £700.00 | £750.00 | £750.00 at the proposal a month, new law | sought by a full time student, refused for lack of evidence |
| Southwark, SE1 2 bed flat | £1,375.00 | £1,900.00 | £1,850.00 cut from £1,900.00 a month, old law | about £47.50 a month came off for the tenant's own floor coverings and white goods |
| Gainsborough, DN21 3 bed semi | £850.00 | £925.00 | £925.00 at the proposal a month, new law | granted, one month on Universal Credit and PIP evidence |
| Blackpool, FY2 1 bed flat | £488.80 | £512.26 | £512.26 at the proposal a month, new law | the tribunal's own market figure was higher, so the rent was capped at the landlord's proposal. This is the new law doing exactly what it says |
| Manchester, M27 2 bed semi | £700.00 | £1,050.00 | £970.00 cut from £1,050.00 a month, old law | the tenant's own improvements were disregarded, as the law requires |
| Wilmslow, SK9 semi detached house | £2,150.00 | £2,350.00 | £2,350.00 at the proposal a month, old law | claimed, refused for lack of evidence |
| Walsall, WS2 3 bed semi | £995.00 | £1,200.00 | £1,100.00 cut from £1,200.00 a month, old law | a 20.6 per cent proposed rise, cut and deferred |
| Camden, NW3 studio flat | £1,750.00 | £1,950.00 | £1,824.00 cut from £1,950.00 a month, old law | sought with evidence, still refused |
| Leeds, LS15 3 bed semi | £950.50 | £1,300.00 | £1,200.00 cut from £1,300.00 a month, new law | granted, one month on bank statements and a council tax bill |
| Chesterfield, S42 2 bed bungalow | £1,100.00 | £1,150.00 | £1,150.00 at the proposal a month, new law | |
| Scunthorpe, DN17 3 bed semi | £550.00 | £650.00 | £600.00 cut from £650.00 a month, old law | cut below the proposal for damp, mould and heating problems |
| Huddersfield, HD7 2 bed terrace | £850.00 | £900.00 | £855.00 cut from £900.00 a month, old law | 5 per cent off the market figure for damp in the basement room |
| Wandsworth, SW11 3 bed terrace | £2,750.00 | £4,000.00 | £3,650.00 cut from £4,000.00 a month, old law | the landlord asked for a 45 per cent rise and got 33 |
| Westminster, W2 1 bed flat | £1,170.00 | £2,150.00 | £1,800.00 cut from £2,150.00 a month, old law | the landlord asked for an 84 per cent rise and got 54 |
| Cleethorpes, DN35 4 bed terrace | £750.00 | £825.00 | £800.00 cut from £825.00 a month, new law | the tenant asked for an inspection and the tribunal said the photographs were enough |
| Birmingham, B31 2 bed flat | £1,100.00 | £1,150.00 | £1,150.00 at the proposal a month, new law | |
| Salford, M7 2 bed flat | £1,085.00 | £1,250.00 | £1,225.00 cut from £1,250.00 a month, new law | the landlord is a large build to rent fund |
| Salford, M7 2 bed flat | £1,140.00 | £1,255.00 | £1,215.00 cut from £1,255.00 a month, old law | the landlord's own agent conceded a lower figure than the notice during the case |
| Waltham Forest, E17 flat | £2,066.64 | £2,475.00 | struck out a month, struck out law | struck out: both sides accepted the notice was invalid, and the landlord served a fresh one |
| Wirral, CH46 house | £101.00 | £105.85 | struck out a week, struck out law | struck out: the tenancy has its own rent review clause, so the tribunal had no power to decide |
| Sleaford, NG34 3 bed terrace | £850.00 | £900.00 | £875.00 cut from £900.00 a month, old law | |
| Doncaster, DN4 3 bed semi | £1,000.00 | £1,095.00 | £1,095.00 at the proposal a month, old law | claimed, rejected for lack of evidence |
| Altrincham, WA15 house | £1,350.00 | £1,400.00 | struck out a month, struck out law | struck out: the notice was emailed, and the tenancy requires hand delivery or first class post, so it was never validly served |
| Runcorn, WA7 3 bed terrace | £1,040.00 | £1,195.00 | £1,195.00 at the proposal a month, old law | the new rent ran from April, two months before the decision. Backdating like this is exactly what the new law has abolished |
| Barnet, NW4 1 bed flat | £1,067.08 | £1,300.00 | £1,300.00 at the proposal a month, old law | granted, start moved to the decision date, tenant unemployed on Universal Credit |
| Tower Hamlets, E1 2 bed flat | £336.79 | £352.96 | £500.00 above the £352.96 proposed a week, old law | the tribunal set the rent at £500 a week when the landlord had asked £352.96. Under the old law it could do that. Under the new law it cannot, and this case is why the change matters |
If you rent outside England
Wales is a different system. Rent varies by notice under an occupation contract, and only tenancies converted from before December 2022 have a confirmed referral route to a rent assessment committee, with no cap at the landlord's figure.
Scotland refers a rent increase to a rent officer within 21 days, with an appeal to its own tribunal. The same cap at the landlord's figure has been legislated but does not start until 1 April 2027.
Northern Ireland has no tribunal route at all. Increases are limited to once a year with three months' notice, and an increase in breach has no legal effect.
Where this comes from, and where it could be wrong
The method, plainly
Thirty of the most recently published rent decisions were read in full, each twice by two readers working separately, and only figures both returned identically are here. Two of the thirty are scanned images with no readable text and are excluded rather than guessed at. Every row links the decision itself.
- Two of the thirty decisions are scanned images with no readable text, so they are excluded and named rather than guessed at: BIR/31UG/MNR/2026/0070 and MAN/00BU/MNR/2026/0337.
- These thirty are the most recently published decisions at the time of reading, not a sample designed to be representative. The tribunal publishes hundreds a year and the mix of old and new law cases will shift as pre May 2026 notices work through.
- The statutory instrument that set the £47 fee was not read directly. The fee comes from the government's own guidance page.
Sources
30 price changes logged. Every one had a date you could have known in advance.
Tell us which bills you care about and we will email you when one of them changes, with the figure, the date it starts and a link to the regulator that set it. Free, no account, one click to stop.
Email alerts are not running yet. We would rather say that than take your address and send you nothing. Until they are, the change log carries every dated change the day we find it, and you can bookmark it or follow it in a reader.