Rent tribunal decisions: how to find and use market rent decisions

Rent tribunal decisions for England are published free on GOV.UK, in a search called Residential property tribunal decisions. Tick the Rents category, type your town or postcode district and open the decisions marked "Market rent (assured shorthold tenancy)". Each one shows the rent the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) set, the date it starts and the reasons. This guide shows how to find them, how to read the figures without being caught out and how to use them as evidence. It also sets out what 77 decisions made under the 2026 rules show.

Where rent tribunal decisions are published

HM Courts and Tribunals Service publishes the decisions on GOV.UK. The search page says it holds decisions on residential property tribunal cases in England "from December 2018 onwards". For older decisions it points to BAILII, a free legal database. Older leasehold decisions are with Lease Advice.

The register covers many kinds of residential property case, from service charges to rent repayment orders. Rent cases sit in a category called Rents. Under each result GOV.UK shows a sub category, and two matter here:

• Market rent (assured shorthold tenancy). These are decisions on the open market rent of an assured tenancy under section 14 of the Housing Act 1988, such as a tenant's challenge to a rent increase notice like yours.
• Fair rent. These are for regulated tenancies, which follow a different set of rules. Skip them for a Form 4A challenge (see below).

Rent decisions are only part of the register, so searching the whole register for a town brings up a lot of leasehold cases. Always tick Rents first.

How to search for rent tribunal decisions near you

1. Open the search. Go to the residential property tribunal decisions page on GOV.UK.
2. Tick Rents under Category. This leaves out the leasehold, licensing and park homes cases.
3. Type a place in the search box. The title of each decision is the address of the home plus the case reference, so a town ("Leeds"), a postcode district ("M14") or a street name works. Start with your postcode district, then widen to the town if you find too few.
4. Narrow the dates. Use "Decision date after" to keep to recent decisions. Typing 01/05/2026 shows decisions made since the Renters' Rights Act rules started.
5. Check the sub category under each result. You want "Market rent (assured shorthold tenancy)", not "Fair rent".
6. Open the decision. The page links to the full decision as a PDF. Save a copy with the date you found it.
7. Get alerts if you like. The "Get emails" link sends you new decisions that match your search.

A tip from our own searches: typing MRA into the search box with Rents ticked brought up market rent decisions on 2026 applications, because that code appears in their case references. It is a quick way to see recent cases, but it is not an official filter, so also search by place.

Market rent or fair rent: which decisions count

A fair rent is a different measure for a different kind of tenancy. The Valuation Office Agency says that if a tenancy started before 15 January 1989, "this is likely to be a regulated or secure tenancy", and that "A fair rent may be lower than the market rent." If you have a private tenancy that started after that date, the tribunal will decide your open market rent instead.

GOV.UK's guidance on applying to the tribunal makes the same point about evidence: "Details from market rental agreements is usually stronger evidence than that from housing associations, previous fair rent decisions or local housing allowance rates." So a fair rent decision for the flat next door says little about the rent your home could fetch today.

How to read a rent tribunal decision

Most market rent decisions follow the same layout. The first page is a summary box:

• the case reference and the address of the property
• the tenant, the landlord and any representatives
• the date of the application and the type of application
• the tribunal members, often a judge or a valuer chair with a second member
• the date of the decision
• the rent determined and the date the new rent takes effect

Then come the reasons, usually under headings like these: background (when the notice was served, the old rent and the proposed rent), repairs, services and furniture, council tax, other tenancy terms, inspection and hearing, the property, each side's evidence, determination and valuation, undue hardship and the decision. The last part explains how to ask for permission to appeal.

The trap: "Rent determined" is not always the market rent

Since 1 May 2026, section 14ZB(5) of the Housing Act 1988 says the new rent is "the open-market rent, if lower than the proposed rent", and otherwise the proposed rent. So when the tribunal thinks a home is worth more than the landlord asked, the summary box shows the landlord's figure, not the tribunal's view of the market.

In a Hemsworth case (MAN/00DB/MRA/2026/0028), for example, the tribunal set the rent at the £800 a month the landlord proposed "as this is lower than the open-market rent determined by the Tribunal". If you used that £800 as evidence of the market, you would be using a figure the tribunal thought was too low.

So always read the section headed "Determination and valuation". That is where the tribunal says what it thinks the home would let for. Check the dates in the background section too: decisions on notices served before 1 May 2026 may have followed the old rules.

Check what the rent includes

Two homes with the same rent can be very different deals. Before you compare a decision with your own home, note:

• Furniture. Decisions list what the landlord provides, so you can tell whether a furnished home is being compared with an unfurnished one.
• Services and bills. Some rents include heating, water or a service charge. One London decision we read included district heating in the rent.
• Council tax. Most decisions say the rent is exclusive of council tax.
• Condition adjustments. About a third of the 2026 decisions we read (26 of 79) start from the rent for a home in good condition and then take off an amount for problems.

Here is how one of those adjustments looked in a Basingstoke decision (HAV/24UB/MRA/2026/0013), where the common parts of the block were run down:

Step in the valuation	Rent per month
Market rent if the home were in good repair and condition	£1,350
Less: lack of maintenance to the common parts	£50
Market rent determined	£1,300

The landlord had proposed £1,350. A decision laid out like this tells you two useful things: what a similar home in good condition lets for and how much the tribunal took off for a particular problem.

What 77 market rent decisions from 2026 show

On 15 October 2026 we read every decision in the Rents category of the GOV.UK register with MRA in its case reference. There were 79, made between 24 June and 24 September 2026 for homes across England, from Kent to Northumberland and 20 of them in London. All but three were on notices served from 1 May 2026.

Two were struck out because the landlord's notice was invalid, so the tribunal had no rent to decide. In a Sheffield case (MAN/00CG/MRA/2026/0063) the tenant's postmarked envelope helped show the notice was served less than two months before the start date. In a Stockport case (MAN/00BS/MRA/2026/0001) the start date was not the first day of a rent period and fell inside the first 52 weeks of the tenancy. Our notice validity guide explains both rules.

The other 77 decided a rent:

Outcome	Decisions	Share
Rent set at the landlord's proposed figure	31	40%
Rent set between the old rent and the proposed rent	32	42%
Rent kept at the old rent	10	13%
Rent set below the old rent	4	5%

So in 46 of the 77 decisions (60%) the tribunal set a rent below the landlord's proposal. Across all 77, the median increase landlords proposed was £130 a month, about 10%, and the median increase after the decision was £75 a month. Where the tribunal cut the proposed rent, the median cut was £95 a month.

The four decisions below the old rent show that the tenant's current rent is not a floor. In a Manchester city centre case (MAN/00BN/MRA/2026/0043) the tenant was paying £1,650 a month, the landlord proposed £1,700 and the tribunal decided £1,450. Section 14ZB(5) allows this, because the new rent is the open market rent whenever that is lower than the proposed rent.

Please read these figures with care. They cover only decisions published on the register with that code by mid October 2026. Cases that settled, were withdrawn or are still waiting are not in them, and every home is different. They show what has happened in other cases, not what will happen in yours.

Patterns in the reasons

• The tribunal uses its own knowledge. 75 of the 79 decisions mention the tribunal's own knowledge or expertise, which GOV.UK says it uses. In 77 at least one member was a chartered surveyor (FRICS or MRICS). In a London case (LON/00BJ/MRA/2026/0014) where neither side sent comparable rents, the tribunal said it "must rely on its own broad knowledge and experience" and set the £2,200 the landlord proposed, up from £1,575.
• Close comparables count most. In the Manchester case above, the tribunal accepted the tenant's point that the most useful comparables were in the same building or nearby developments of a similar age and specification. It also questioned one of the adverts because that flat looked smaller and it was not clear how many bathrooms it had.
• Hardship needs proof. In a Leeds case (MAN/00DA/MRA/2026/0019) the rent went from £950.50 to £1,200 and the tribunal put back the start date by a month after seeing bank statements, a council tax bill and confirmation of Universal Credit. In a Milton Keynes case (CAM/00MG/MDR/2026/0002) it found no undue hardship because the tenant had not supplied evidence.
• Nearly all were decided on paper. We found only two that followed a hearing, both held by video. In at least three the tribunal turned down a tenant's request for an inspection, in one case because there was enough photographic evidence. Clear, dated photos of your home matter.

How to use decisions as evidence

Tribunal decisions are one of the few places where you can see what an independent tribunal decided a real home would let for. Used well, they sit alongside adverts and any agreed rents you know about. Our guide to market rent evidence covers the rest.

1. Pick market rent decisions only, made since 1 May 2026 if you can find them, for homes near yours.
2. Match the home. The same type, a similar number of bedrooms and bathrooms, a similar condition and the same furnished or unfurnished status.
3. Take the market rent figure from the "Determination and valuation" section, not just the summary box.
4. Note the differences. Say in a sentence why your home should let for more or less: parking, a garden, damp, an old kitchen, a floor with no lift.
5. Cite it properly. Give the case reference, the date of the decision and the figure. Add it to your comparables table with the label "decided by the tribunal". The free checklist has a blank table.
6. Do not rely on one decision. GOV.UK says evidence from actual agreed lettings is stronger than adverts, and a single decision can be an outlier. Two or three decisions plus some adverts make a clearer picture.

On the MR1 form, your view of the open market rent goes in section 12. Our MR1 step-by-step guide shows where each piece of evidence goes, and the MR1 example answers show how a comparable can be described in a few lines.

Your own decision

GOV.UK says the tribunal will send you and your landlord "a written decision by post or email that explains the determined rent and the date when the new rent will start". If you think the tribunal got the law wrong, you can ask it for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber). The decisions we read all say the appeal is on a point of law, and rule 52 of the Property Chamber rules says the tribunal must receive your written application within 28 days after it sends its reasons. A different view of the figure is not enough on its own. Get advice from Shelter, Citizens Advice or a law centre before you start.

Before any of that, check whether a challenge makes sense for you. Should I challenge my rent increase? weighs up the £47 fee, the time and the possible outcomes. The free Form 4A checker tests your notice against the legal rules first.

Questions people ask

Where can I find rent tribunal decisions?

On GOV.UK, in the free search called "Residential property tribunal decisions". It covers First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) cases in England from December 2018 onwards. Tick the Rents category, type your town or postcode district and open the decisions marked "Market rent (assured shorthold tenancy)". Older decisions are on BAILII.

Can the tribunal set a rent lower than I pay now?

Yes. Under section 14ZB(5) of the Housing Act 1988 the new rent is the open market rent if that is lower than the rent your landlord proposed. There is no floor at your current rent. In 4 of the 77 decisions we counted, the tribunal set a rent below what the tenant was already paying.

Why does a decision show the landlord's figure when the market rent was higher?

Because the tribunal cannot set more than the landlord proposed. If it finds an open market rent above the proposed rent, the rent payable is the proposed rent. So the "Rent determined" box is not always the market rent. Read the part headed "Determination and valuation" for the figure the tribunal actually put on the home.

How often does the tribunal lower the proposed rent?

In our count of 77 market rent decisions published between 24 June and 24 September 2026, the tribunal set a rent below the landlord's proposal in 46 and kept the proposed rent in 31. Each home is different, so these figures cannot tell you what will happen in your case.

Can I use a fair rent decision as evidence?

It is weak evidence for a Form 4A challenge. Fair rents apply to regulated tenancies, which usually started before 15 January 1989, and GOV.UK says a fair rent may be lower than the market rent. GOV.UK also says market rental agreements are usually stronger evidence than previous fair rent decisions. Use market rent decisions instead.

Will my own decision be published?

Many are. The decisions on the GOV.UK register show the address of the home and, in the ones we read, the names of the tenant and the landlord. Write your application on the basis that a decision with your reasons may become public.

Can I appeal if I disagree with a decision?

Only on a point of law, not because you think the figure is wrong. You first ask the First-tier Tribunal in writing for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber). Rule 52 of the Property Chamber rules says the tribunal must receive your application within 28 days after it sends you its written reasons. Get advice from Shelter, Citizens Advice or a law centre first.

Sources

1. GOV.UK: Residential property tribunal decisions (search, checked 15 October 2026)
2. GOV.UK: Rents category decisions with MRA in the case reference (the decisions we counted)
3. Housing Act 1988, section 14 (the open market rent)
4. Housing Act 1988, section 14ZB (rent after a decision, the cap and hardship)
5. GOV.UK: Apply for an open market rent determination (evidence and the decision)
6. GOV.UK (Valuation Office Agency): Fair rents
7. Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013, rule 52 (permission to appeal)