- Published date:
- 05 May 2026
With the Renters’ Rights Act now in force, data obtained by Real Estate:UK continues to cast doubts on the ability of the First-tier Tribunal to effectively deal with its additional burdens, and highlight a severe lack of preparedness and little or no assessment being made on the capacity of the Tribunal system to deal with the envisaged workload.
Through the Freedom of Information Act, we received data from three of the Tribunal’s Property Chambers, which recorded the number of cases brought over the last three years as being 2,944 – an average of 998 per Chamber. Concerningly, only one Chamber confirmed that it held any data on how long it took to conclude these appeals. That confirmed that only 21% of appeals were currently being decided within 10 weeks prior to the implementation of the Act.
Further, ministers have admitted through Written Questions that they don’t hold centralised data on appeal volumes or processing times, making it impossible to determine a baseline to measure ‘overwhelm’ and introduce backdating of rent increases for unsuccessful appeals. They have also been unable to confirm further details on the new filtering body for the Tribunal, or when it will become operational.
This data shows an urgent need for the Government to invest in Tribunal capacity and establish a centralised monitoring system of appeals – things RE:UK has been calling for since the introduction of the Bill. Without an effective Tribunal system in place, with backdating of rents, the PRS will continue to see an exodus of landlords
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