Rent tribunal referrals have quadrupled since May, and a tribunal can only cut your notice, never raise it, which is why Huntingdonshire landlords can no longer afford a weak Section 13 rent review.

Why are so many more tenants challenging their rent?

Under the Renters' Rights Act, a landlord can only raise the rent once a year, using the statutory Form 4A notice under Section 13. Since 1 May 2026, a tenant who thinks the proposed rent is above the open market rate can refer the notice to the First-tier Tribunal for an open market rent determination for a flat 47 pound fee, with no hearing fee on top. Crucially, the Act also removed the old backdating risk: if a tenant's challenge fails, they no longer owe the landlord the difference for the months the case was pending. That one change has removed almost all of the tenant's downside to referring a notice, and the tribunal's own numbers show the result.

Our guide to the Form 4A rent review process covers how to serve a notice correctly. This piece is about what happens once a tenant pushes back on one.

Why is the tribunal cutting so many landlord notices?

Of the decisions LonRes reviewed that were made under the new rules, 73 percent ended with the tribunal setting a lower rent than the landlord had proposed, and 18 percent confirmed the figure as proposed. Weak evidence was cited in roughly half of the reductions. Tribunals look for evidence of rents actually achieved on genuinely comparable local properties, and give little weight to asking prices pulled from a property portal. An estate agent's own asking price for a similar home down the road is not, on its own, proof of what that home actually let for.

That distinction is the single most common reason a landlord loses at tribunal: the figure on the notice was reasonable, but nothing in the file proved it.

What should a Huntingdonshire landlord do before serving Form 4A?

• Get a proper rental valuation built on comparable lets, not a scan of portal asking prices, before you set the figure. That evidence is what a tribunal actually wants to see.
• Do not undervalue the notice out of caution. Because the tribunal can never award more than you asked for, pitching low to avoid a challenge simply locks in the shortfall if the tenant refers it anyway.
• Keep the comparable evidence on file when you serve the notice, not assembled afterwards. If a referral lands, cases are now moving in around 80 days rather than the 172 days seen in the spring.
• Review compliance alongside rent. A tribunal referral often prompts a tenant to raise repairs or certificate gaps at the same time, so it pays to know your paperwork is current before a notice goes out.

Our full management service builds the comparable-rent evidence into every Section 13 review we handle, before it is served rather than after a tribunal referral arrives.

What this means for landlords across Huntingdonshire.

The First-tier Tribunal is a national system, and there is nothing in the July figures that singles out Huntingdon, Brampton or the wider patch specifically. What has changed is the incentive facing every tenant in a private tenancy, here included, and our Huntingdon and Brampton letting teams are already fielding more questions from landlords about how to evidence a rent review properly, rather than how to fill in the form.

As of September 2026, the practical takeaway is straightforward. A Section 13 notice backed by real comparable evidence stands a good chance of holding up. One based on a portal search or a round-number guess increasingly does not, and now carries a real chance of being cut, referred, or both.