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Call for limit of rent increases

Without an overhaul of rent tribunals, renters will continue to face unaffordable rent increases and economic evictions after the abolition of Section 21 evictions.

This is the assertion of tenants’ rights group Generation Rent.

It wants landlords to be stopped from raising rents during tenancies unless they and their properties meet basic requirements, such as deposit protection, gas and electrical safety certification and compliance with licensing requirements. It also wants rent increases during tenancies to be capping at the rate of wage inflation.

The demands were included in a research paper from the group Rent tribunals in England – what do we know?

This argues that, should the Section 21, ‘no blame’ possession procedure be abolished, as expected, landlords will turn to use of Section 13 rent increases to persuade unwanted tenants to leave their properties by means of ‘economic eviction’. Such increases can be challenged by tenants who can take their opposition to a first tier tribunal.

All very well, said Generation Rent, but rent tribunals are not working when it comes to restricting rent increases.
This is because too few tenants know about their right to go to the tribunal and those that do usually find they have to pay a rent increase anyway.

Generation Rent found that there were just 341 tribunal cases between January 2019 and August 2023. On average tenants who challenged a proposed rent increase had to satisfy themselves with limiting this to 5.5 per annum – generally less than asked for by the landlord.

This was ‘much higher than rent inflation in the country as a whole, and much higher than most people see their wages increase by’, said the group.

But it admitted that it was also based on the tribunal’s assessment of the rents commanded locally by similar properties.

‘One bit of good news is they do take into account any disrepair in the property that your landlord should have taken care of, and any improvements you have made yourself. But the big bit of bad news is that as a tenant you get no benefit from a spotless record of paying your rent on time or anything’.

Generation Rent said it wanted it made a requirement that rent tribunals take tenants’ rent payment records into account. There should be action to increase tenants’ awareness of their rights to challenge proposed rent increases by going to a tribunal and it should be made easier for tenants to use the system.