How much can a landlord increase rent? There's no rent cap. But there is a number the tribunal would back.
Under the Renters' Rights Act a private landlord in England can raise the rent once a year, on Form 4A, with the notice period the Act sets. The tenant can refer it to the First-tier Tribunal for a £47 fee, and the tribunal then decides what your property is worth.
Get your defensible number · £89
Secure Stripe checkout · three quick questions · no account. Checked, signed and emailed by the end of the next working day, or it's free.
Compliance specialists, not solicitors. England only.
Free data gets it wrong in both directions
Most landlords price a rise off Rightmove and Zoopla. Those are asking rents: what landlords hoped for, not what tribunals award. Two districts, asking rents from the listings set against what the tribunal actually determined:
Price it off Rightmove and you leave £1,380 to £1,860 a year on the table.
Propose off Zoopla and the tribunal would knock it back.
Three layers of evidence, one verdict
Tribunal determinations
What the First-tier Tribunal actually decided for properties like yours, nearby, recently. The strongest of the three layers.
VOA rent distributions
The Valuation Office Agency's published rent bands for your area and size, used where tribunal cases are thin.
Asking rents, labelled as asking
What is listed right now, shown for context and labelled as asking, not as what a tribunal awards.
Your pack ends in one line: your proposed rent is inside, above or below the range the evidence supports.
Check the record yourself: gov.uk tribunal decisions · VOA List of Rents
How it works
1. Order
Three fields at checkout: postcode, property type and bedrooms, current and proposed rent.
2. We generate
The pack is built from the tribunal record, the VOA bands and current asking rents for your postcode.
3. A person checks and signs it
It is read before it leaves, then emailed by the end of the next working day at the latest.
Who signs it
Martin Kind. Former quantity surveyor. Portfolio landlord.
The data does the heavy lifting; a person decides whether it holds. Every pack is read and signed before it leaves, so the number you serve has someone's name on it besides your own.
One property, one fixed fee
Delivered by the end of the next working day, or your money back.
Get your defensible number · £89
Compliance specialists, not solicitors.
What this is, and isn't
An evidence pack: the tribunal decisions, VOA bands and asking rents for your postcode, triangulated into one range, read and signed by a named person. The tribunal reaches its own view on each case; the pack shows you where your figure sits against what it has decided before. It is not a valuation and it is not a promise of what the tribunal will do.
Can my tenant challenge the increase?
Yes, at the First-tier Tribunal, for a £47 fee. The tribunal then sets the rent, and it cannot set one higher than you proposed. That is exactly why the figure you propose should already sit inside what the tribunal has backed.
What if there are few cases near me?
The VOA layer covers every area in England with published rent bands, so the pack still gives a range. The notes in the pack tell you which layer carried the verdict.
Can I see what I'm buying?
Yes. The sample pack above is a real one for a real postcode, with the addresses of the tribunal cases it relied on.
What happens after I pay?
Your pack is generated, read and signed, then emailed to the address you gave at checkout by the end of the next working day at the latest. Late means free.