Landlord Forced to Cut Rent by £210 After Demanding £17 Increase

A corporate landlord’s attempt to raise rent by £17.92 a month has backfired spectacularly after a tribunal forced the firm to instead charge its tenant £210 less.

London-based buy-to-rent firm Get Living was ordered to cut the monthly charge from £2,560 to £2,350 in August after tenant Davide Martinelli took his case to a first-tier tribunal.

Martinelli’s contract had a “rent review clause” under which rent could be increased with inflation, but such clauses were abolished under the Renters’ Rights Act, the tribunal noted. It then went further and ruled that the amount he was already being charged was above market rates. 

It is the eighth time a landlord has been made to reduce rent after trying to increase it since the act came into force in May. On average, tribunals have ordered a reduction of £58 a month, according to industry advisory firm LonRes.  

In one case in September, a landlord in Manchester was ordered to reduce the rent on a two-bedroom flat by £200 after trying to raise it by £50. 

Landlord Qi Cao requested an oral hearing and a property inspection ahead of the decision but a legal officer refused on the grounds it would be disproportionate.  

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook highlighted the Manchester case last month. “We’re standing up for renters and our reforms are working,” he wrote on X.

The new rights have prompted the National Residential Landlords Association to issue a “warning” to its members about raising people’s rents.

“We are now reminding you how vital it is to do your due diligence before proposing increased rents,” the association said. ”Tenants can and will challenge proposals at tribunal, even for relatively small amounts.”

As well as making it easier to challenge rent increases, the new law bans no-fault evictions and fixed-term contracts, while also making it harder for landlords to start bidding wars between prospective tenants.

In August, London Centric revealed that landlords had been artificially increasing advertised rents in order to get around the new rules on bidding wars.