**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | 01-11-2026

Landlords secured their full proposed rent rise in just 28.4% of September tribunal cases

Cyborg Finance analysis of 74 decisions in England finds that 71.6% did not result in landlords receiving the full increase requested, even as assessed rents rose by 6.7% overall.

Only 21 of 74 rent tribunal cases (28.4%) decided in England in September 2026 resulted in landlords receiving their proposed rent increase in full, according to research by Cyborg Finance, mortgage advisers specialising in landlord finance.

That means 53 cases (71.6%) ended with a smaller increase than requested, no change, a rent reduction or a struck-out case. The analysis draws on publicly available First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) decisions.

What September's decisions show

Of the 74 cases:

In total, 24 cases (32.4%) ended without a recorded rent increase, although strike-outs are not determinations of a new rent. A higher rent was awarded in 50 cases (67.6%), either in full or in part.

Across the 68 cases with comparable original and determined rent figures, the combined monthly rent rose from £93,285 to £99,509, a net increase of 6.7%. This calculation includes cases where rents were reduced or unchanged.

Average monthly rent moved from £1,372 to £1,464 — approximately £92 more per month, or £1,104 annually.

The aggregate increase edged up from 6.3% in August to 6.7% in September, a rise of 0.4 percentage points. These figures describe the analysed tribunal decisions, rather than rent increases across the private rented sector as a whole.

What this means for landlords and tenants

“The rent a landlord proposes and the rent a tribunal determines are not always the same. Landlords should be ready to support proposed rents with comparable local evidence, while tenants should remember that challenging an increase does not guarantee their rent will stay unchanged.”

Mark Hosker, Mortgage Adviser at Cyborg Finance

“Tenants shouldn’t assume challenging a rent increase means their rent will stay the same. More than two-thirds of September cases still resulted in an increase, with rents rising 6.7% overall. However, with a challenge potentially delaying higher rent payments by around four months, and nearly three-quarters of landlords failing to secure their full proposed increase, the £47 tribunal fee could prove money well spent.”

Mark Hosker, Mortgage Adviser at Cyborg Finance

Time between notice and decision

Cyborg Finance's wider tracker also shows an average of around 91 days between service of a landlord's rent notice and a tribunal decision, across cases with both dates recorded since May 2026.

The actual date on which any new rent becomes payable depends on the rules and circumstances of the case.

Read the full research and underlying decisions: Cyborg Finance Rent Tribunal Decisions Research

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Notes to editors

You can view our Live Feed of Rent-Tribunal Decisions. We would not recommend using October figures; September is the latest full month of decisions.

Key figures at a glance

Methodology

Cyborg Finance reviewed 74 published decisions concerning challenged private assured-tenancy rent increases in England, dated 1–30 September 2026.

The dataset is based on published tribunal decisions and may not capture all decisions made during the month. Publication delays, data-extraction limitations and later corrections may affect the totals. The figures do not represent all rent increases in England.

The 91-day average uses the wider tracked dataset from May 2026 onwards, not September decisions alone.

Cyborg Finance uses multi-step AI to extract rents, dates and outcomes from published First-tier Tribunal decisions. Automated checks match supporting quotations to source documents and verify extracted rent amounts, payment periods and dates against those quotations. Unsupported fields are retried for correction or removed. Duplicate-case and privacy checks can block publication.

Source: Cyborg Finance — Rent Tribunal Decisions, drawing on published First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) decisions.

About Cyborg Finance

Cyborg Finance is a UK mortgage broker whose advisers specialise in buy-to-let and landlord finance. The firm publishes research using public housing and mortgage data to help explain developments affecting the property and rental sectors.

• Website: cyborg.finance

Media enquiries

• Email: [email protected]
• Telephone: 01133203240

For further comment: Mark Hosker, Mortgage Adviser at Cyborg Finance.