Renters’ Rights: Early tribunal insights

Market Insight:

• The first tribunal decisions under the Renters’ Rights regime are now being published, and they offer an early read on a key question: how often are landlords’ proposed rents upheld?
• In a sample of the earliest decisions, 40% of landlords’ proposed rents were upheld in full. A further 51% were set at an intermediate figure, allowing an increase but not the full amount sought.
• The remaining 9% allowed no increase at all. In each of these, the landlord had submitted no evidence to support the proposed rent or there was a disrepair issue.
• Landlords proposed a typical increase of 17%, perhaps reflecting rents being brought back to market levels for the first time in a while. The tribunal’s determinations averaged 10%, pulled down by the cases settled at an intermediate figure.
• A useful comparison comes from decisions made over the same period (July and August) but under pre-Renters’ Rights rules. Here, the average proposed increase was 20%, and a smaller share was upheld. Looking at volumes of usual decisions many of these appear potentially to have been rushed through before the old rules lapsed.
• These are only the first signals, but they are already shedding light on how the tribunal process works and what landlords can expect from it. Source: PriceHubble, gov.uk, based on 80 Tribunal decisions published in July & August 2026 of which 34 relevant for Renters’ Rights