Hamptons says First-tier Tribunal rent decisions jumped to 143 in July after the Renters’ Rights Act rewrote the rules on challenges, up from just 37 in April before the new regime took effect.
The agency’s latest analysis says the rise has come even as rental growth cooled, breaking the old pattern where tribunal volumes broadly tracked the pace of rent increases. By August, 73 percent of decisions involved applications submitted on or after 1 May, meaning more cases were already being judged under the post-RRA rules.
Landlords now face a more active challenge route at the same time as the tribunal appears to be moving faster, which means weak evidence behind a Section 13 increase can be tested far more quickly than many owners were used to before May.
Why challenges are rising after 1 May
Hamptons says the legal shift matters because tenants no longer face the same downside if they dispute a rent rise. Under the Act, the tribunal cannot set a higher rent than the figure in the landlord’s notice, increases can no longer be backdated to the notice date, and panels now have explicit powers to defer rises where paying immediately would cause undue hardship.
That removes several of the risks that used to discourage challenges. In April, before the Act came into force, the tribunal registered 37 decisions. That rose to 109 in May, then 129 in June, before reaching 143 in July. Hamptons says further decisions are still being published, so the summer total may move higher again.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s report on Hamptons’ finding that rent increases eased after the Renters’ Rights Act launch, which showed formal increases were already slowing. The latest figures suggest the battleground is shifting from the size of rent rises to the evidence used to justify them.
Tribunal times are falling, not rising
There is another point landlords should not ignore. Hamptons says average processing times fell from 173 days in March to 82 days in July, before edging up to 93 days in August. That is a sharp drop from roughly five to six months at the start of the year to under three months in mid-summer.
In the body of recent decisions, Hamptons says judges place most weight on achieved local rents rather than advertised listings. The agency also says around a quarter of recent rulings discounted the market rent because of property condition, ranging from worn carpets and tired white goods to the home’s EPC rating.
That creates a practical warning for self-managing landlords. Hamptons says 42 percent of August decision cases involved self-managing owners, some of whom failed to substantiate the rent they were asking for. A higher target rent without comparable lets, a record of condition and a clean paper trail is less likely to survive a challenge.
Landlords can read Hamptons’ First-tier Tribunal analysis here. Alongside the government’s plan to add more court and tribunal capacity, the direction of travel is clear – rent disputes are becoming a more normal part of day-to-day letting.
What this means for landlords
- If you’re planning a rent rise: build the case around achieved local rents, not just portal listings or higher costs.
- Watch for: property condition issues that give a tribunal a reason to trim the rent, including older fittings and weaker EPC scores.
- Bottom line: post-RRA rent reviews need evidence and process, not assumptions.
Editor’s view
The surprise here is not only that challenges are rising, but that the tribunal is clearing them faster. Landlords who still treat Section 13 notices as a routine admin step are likely to come unstuck under the new rules.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 28 August 2026
Sources: Hamptons
Related reading: ONS: UK rents rise 3.7% as landlord supply stays under pressure
📘 Renters’ Rights Act: Complete Landlord Guide
Everything you need to know about the new rules – 1 May 2026
