Rent increase challenges are moving to the Valuation Office: what landlords need to know

Alongside the confirmation of the landlord registration service, the government announced on 9 September 2026 that responsibility for deciding challenges to rent increases in England will transfer from the First-tier Tribunal to HMRC’s Valuation Office.

According to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the aim is for challenges to be determined faster and for pressure on the tribunal system to be reduced. This article sets out what has been announced, how the current process works, what the published data shows about how challenges are being decided, and the practical steps landlords may wish to take when preparing a rent increase.

How the current Section 13 process works

Since 1 May 2026, Section 13 of the Housing Act 1988, as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, has been the only lawful route to increase rent on an assured periodic tenancy.

Rent review clauses in tenancy agreements became void from that date, renewal agreements are no longer available, and GOV.UK guidance confirms that increases agreed informally outside the statutory process are not enforceable, although a tenant can agree to pay less than the figure in a served notice.

The notice must be served on Form 4A, giving at least two months’ notice, and rent can be increased no more than once in any twelve month period.

A tenant who receives a Section 13 notice can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) for an open market rent determination, using Form MR1. The application fee, set by the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) Fees (Amendment) Order 2026, is £47, with no hearing fee. Fee remission through the Help with Fees scheme is available for eligible applicants.

The Renters’ Rights Act also created a separate route allowing a tenant to challenge the starting rent of a new tenancy within its first six months, where they consider it above open market level, and a route to challenge the validity of a rent increase notice itself.

Three features of the framework are worth stating precisely. First, the tribunal cannot determine a rent higher than the figure the landlord proposed in the notice. Second, the increase cannot be backdated: the determined rent takes effect from the rent period following the decision. Third, the government confirmed in the 9 September announcement that a tenant who applies does not have to pay the higher rent until the final decision is made.

What the published figures show

Referral volumes have risen sharply since the new framework commenced. According to analysis by Hamptons reported in The Times and the trade press, tribunals averaged 42 market rent decisions a month in the year before the Act came into force. That rose to 109 decisions in May, 129 in June, and 166 in July, almost four times the 44 decisions made in July last year.

Around 60 per cent of the cases decided in July were brought after the new framework took effect, with the remainder lodged before May.

The same data suggests the tribunal has so far kept pace. The average period between application and decision fell to 80 days in July, compared with 113 days in May and 172 days in April, and the Ministry of Justice has said it aims to recruit over a thousand judges and tribunal members a year, with property tribunals identified as a priority area.

Separately, Ministry of Justice statistics for the second quarter of 2026 record a 56 per cent rise in property tribunal cases following the reforms. Whether decision times hold as volumes grow will only become clear as further quarterly data is published.

What the Valuation Office announcement changes, and what it does not

The government has not yet published a timetable for the transfer, and the Housing Minister has indicated that the change may require further legislation when parliamentary time allows. Until it takes effect, challenges continue to go to the First-tier Tribunal exactly as now, and nothing changes for a notice served today.

The Housing Minister said the transfer of initial rent determinations to the Valuation Office is intended to ensure challenges are determined faster and to reduce pressure on the tribunal system. The Financial Secretary to the Treasury described the goal as a modern, digital-first service, building on the Valuation Office’s existing role supporting the rental sector.

Several details remain to be confirmed, including the procedure the Valuation Office will follow, the evidence it will accept, and the appeal route from its initial determinations. The announcement indicates that initial determinations will sit with the Valuation Office, which suggests a further stage will exist beyond them, but the structure has not yet been published.

Until those details appear, any description of how the new process will operate in practice would be speculation, and landlords should rely on the current tribunal procedure when planning rent increases.

What published decisions reveal about evidence

Data on how challenges are being decided is now available. LonRes analysed 200 market rent determinations from the GOV.UK residential property tribunal decisions register in July 2026, drawn from cases decided under the previous rules. Of the 169 decisions that set out reasons, 47 per cent disclosed missing or limited evidence, a party submitting nothing, or the panel falling back on its own knowledge of the local market.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service guidance is explicit that, under the new framework, the determined rent will be lower than or the same as the figure in the landlord’s notice.

LonRes has since reviewed the first 47 determinations decided under the new regime and published by 2 September. None exceeded the landlord’s notice figure, and in around one case in five the tribunal actually valued the property above the notice, with the law requiring the lower figure to apply. Read together, the position for landlords is clear.

Where the evidence before the tribunal is thin, the determination rests on the panel’s own assessment of the market. And because the determined figure cannot exceed the notice figure, and takes effect only after the decision, the outcome of a challenge turns substantially on the quality of the material each party puts before the decision maker, and on pricing the notice correctly in the first place.

Preparing a rent increase that can withstand a referral

Nothing in the legislation requires a landlord to hold evidence before serving a Section 13 notice. However, given the tribunal’s approach in published decisions, landlords are generally advised to prepare a supporting file at the point the figure is set rather than after a referral arrives.

Based on the factors tribunals cite in their published reasons, that file would typically contain: three or more genuinely comparable lettings, meaning the same area and a similar size, bedroom count and condition, with dates and sources recorded; a short note explaining how the proposed figure was reached from those comparables; and evidence of the property’s condition and any recent improvements.

Procedural accuracy carries equal weight, because the Act gives tenants a route to challenge the validity of the notice as well as the amount. That means checking that Form 4A is the correct form for the tenancy, that the two-month notice period is met, that the proposed date aligns with a rent period, and that no increase has taken effect within the previous twelve months.

For readers who want the date arithmetic handled automatically, I built a free Form 4A generator that produces the notice with the statutory dates calculated, which may assist in avoiding the drafting errors that render notices invalid.

What to watch next

Three developments will shape this area over the coming months. The first is the legislation for the Valuation Office transfer, which will set out the procedure, the evidence requirements and the appeal structure. The second is the next release of tribunal volume data, which will show whether decision times hold as application numbers grow.

The third is the body of published determinations itself, which is steadily building into a record of how panels weigh different types of evidence, and which any landlord can search on GOV.UK before setting a figure.

I would be interested to hear from readers who have been through a referral since May. How long did the process take, what evidence did the tribunal engage with, and where did the determined figure land relative to the notice? Shared experience from real cases is the most useful preparation this community can give itself while the new arrangements take shape.

A partnership with Property118

Property118 and LLCR, the Landlord Compliance Register, have agreed a partnership for this community. LLCR gives self managing landlords in England one place to hold every certificate, deadline and document for each property, so that registration, rent increases and possession claims are met with a prepared file rather than a scramble.

Property118 readers receive a 10 per cent lifetime reduction on the Starter and Pro plans, on either monthly or annual billing, using the code PROPERTY118 by clicking here.

Tauhid Islam is a property law paralegal qualifying as a solicitor. He works on tenancy, possession, and compliance matters daily, and founded LLCR, Landlord Compliance Register to give self-managing landlords in England a single place to track every deadline, certificate, and document the law requires of them.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It describes the position in England. Always seek independent legal advice for your specific situation.