Landlords received their proposed rent increase in full in just 28.4% of tribunal cases decided in England in September.
Cyborg Finance examined 74 publicly available First-tier Tribunal decisions from September.
The remaining cases ended with a smaller increase than requested, an unchanged rent, a reduction or the case being struck out.
A strike-out does not determine a new rent.
Evidence for rent rises
Mark Hosker, a mortgage adviser at the firm, said: “The rent a landlord proposes and the rent a tribunal determines are not always the same.
“Landlords should be ready to support proposed rents with comparable local evidence, while tenants should remember that challenging an increase does not guarantee their rent will stay unchanged.”
He added: “More than two-thirds of September cases still resulted in an increase, with rents rising 6.7% overall.
“However, with a challenge potentially delaying higher rent payments by around four months, and nearly three-quarters of landlords failing to secure their full proposed increase, the £47 tribunal fee could prove money well spent.”
Tribunal rent decisions
Of the cases examined, 21 resulted in the full proposed increase and 29 in a partial rise.
Rents were unchanged in 12 cases, reduced in six, and a further six cases were struck out.
Across the 68 cases with comparable original and determined figures, average monthly rent rose from £1,372 to £1,464.
That amounted to approximately £92 more a month, or £1,104 a year, with unchanged and reduced rents included in the calculation.
Cyborg Finance found that the aggregate rent increase for tribunal cases in September was 6.7%, compared with 6.3% in August.
The firm‘s wider tracker recorded an average of around 91 days between service of a landlord’s rent notice and a tribunal decision.
