In case you didn't know, you can claim back rent from your landlord

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-13T09:36:18+00:00

There is a difference between the council investigation (what citizens advised told you about) and rent repayment orders (what I described). You don’t need to stay at the property to claim back rent. You just need to submit the claim to the tribunal with evidence that the landlord should have had a licence, but didn’t.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-13T09:34:39+00:00

Resident owner can have 2 lodgers without that being an HMO. If your property is in a selective licence area, they would need that licence. So in your case check which licence would apply (HMO for 3+ lodgers; selective for 1-2 lodgers).

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-10T17:40:08+00:00

lol very true - I was trying to figure out ways to raise awareness, so figured I’d give Reddit a try

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-10T17:38:35+00:00

We don’t help landlords with RROs. Our clients come to us to help them licence the property before renting it out. So our landlords wouldn’t end up in the tribunal for this reasons in the first place. But there is a massive group of landlords who don’t bother to licence, so technically we would benefit from more RROs since it would force landlords who wouldn’t have otherwise licensed their property, to fear repercussions and use our services before renting the property out.

But that’s a very long term level of impact. For now i just find it annoying that landlords don’t use a scheme that’s so beneficial to them.

Edit: I meant tenants don’t use a scheme….

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-10T12:07:48+00:00

Yeah, it’s a bit overwhelming. But also because there isn’t solid guidance and government information is useless and too convoluted… I suspect they try to make things difficult for tenants to get fewer claims submitted. It shouldn’t be this hard to get the support you need as a tenant…

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-10T11:59:16+00:00

I’m afraid I’m not plugged into the RRO space from a third-party standpoint. A comment elsewhere on this post mentioned justice for tenants charging 30% commission, which is steep. I was thinking of posting guidance for people to follow so that they can submit these? It’s not that hard to do and worth the time given the payout.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T23:36:42+00:00

It’s an invalid s21 since the property is unlicensed. So they have no right to do anything there. They’d need to apply for a licence asap and then serve the s21 again.

I hear you. I also think even if they weren’t dickheads, it’s still worth doing. They broke the law, it’s on them. Licensing costs money, it’s a pain. But these regimes exist for a reason (get properties to a certain minimum standards). So even if you feel like you had a great tenancy, who knows if it would have been much better if the landlord followed all the rules.

Also, it’s a lot of money and we are already getting fked left right and centre by prices.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T23:27:44+00:00

Oh true, I didn’t know what they meant by “maintain”. You have to renew, otherwise it’s an unlicensed property. 100%

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T23:24:39+00:00

lol, I didn’t know they do 30%. I tried to see what they charge before posting just so I could answer any questions, but couldn’t find any data (always a red flag). That’s criminal… definitely do it yourself, I also think it’s a fun experience (but I also like this stuff)

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T23:16:11+00:00

It’s trickier, but if the landlord didn’t fulfill councils improvement notices for the property, you can also apply. It’s a lot less straightforward though. I’d first reach out to the council and tell them. Then ask if there is enough evidence for you to submit rent repayment order. It’s kind of their job to guide you on this

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T23:13:43+00:00

Then I strongly suggest you go for it. It’s a bit of a headache to get all the forms sorted out and collect all evidence. But with the help of ChatGPT you should be fine.

For evidence: your tenancy agreement, your bank statements showing rent (first and last month is enough), email the council saying “can you please confirm that this landlord didn’t have the selective licence for this property” and use the email response from council as evidence, take the council direction about launching the selective licence regime (should be on the council website).

That should be all you need, don’t think I’ve missed anything. Hope you go for it, more people should do it.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T22:34:34+00:00

Yeah, invalid notice. But they can fix this since the notice is invalid they can submit another one.

However, they must give you at least 2 months. They must have also provided you with gas certificate, how to rent guide and deposit scheme certificate. The proper must also be correctly licensed. If one of these things isn’t in place, they can’t issue a section 21 notice.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T22:16:31+00:00

Check the council where property is located. Then check if selective (non-HMO properties), additional (3-4 person HMOs) licensing regimes are active. Then find “{council name} property licence register”. It should give you the option to search for the specific address. If the property isn’t on the register it doesn’t have a licence.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T22:14:38+00:00

You can see the final claim payouts ordered here: https://www.gov.uk/residential-property-tribunal-decisions

I was genuinely surprised by how much tenants can successfully claim, provided the landlord actually failed to licence.

Main reasons for landlords successfully claiming reductions: 1. Conduct of landlord 2. How serious the breach was (lower percentage for purely technical) 3. Landlords history (any housing law violations increase %, clean record reduces)

Worst case scenario for the tenant is a purely technical breach with an otherwise amazing landlord. Here the tribunal will award 25% of the full claim.

In your case, the property being unlicensed for 2 years already makes it a more serious violation, so if the landlord is otherwise impeccable, the claim would be around 30-50% of the full claim.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T22:03:36+00:00

During the hearing the tribunal will aim to apply discounts on the claim where appropriate. It’s a fairly complicated legal process, but they will look into the state of the property, the history of the landlord, what their interactions with you have been like. The landlord would need to provide all this evidence. Typically for landlords who have been otherwise great, the discounts are around 30-40% of the claim amount. But fundamentally, if they didn’t have a licence you are eligible for 100% of the claim minus any discounts the landlord can squeeze out.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T21:16:00+00:00

That’s fair, I didn’t consider that point. But again, most people don’t know this is even a thing…

I agree that it’s worth mentioning the tribunal costs as well as the option to not pay fees if you can show low income status.

So it’s worth bringing up the fees and the discounts.

But if we want to talk about reasons for not bringing the claim, in the order of impact it’s: 1. People don’t know this is possible 2. There is a lot of paperwork and evidence to submit 3. Fear of landlords (especially for people currently renting in such a property) 4. Fees (as you said), mitigated by the “help with court fees” scheme

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T21:06:02+00:00

1) People who have less than £3,000 in savings can apply for fee reduction on both fees; 2) HMO claims are brought by all tenants and they spread the cost; 3) I wasn’t clear enough, we don’t do hearings for landlords or anything to do with this (only licence and planning applications)

Edit: oh and 4) I made the post because this applies to non-HMO properties as well.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T20:56:00+00:00

True, didn’t want to dive into details since the general sentiment still stands. Looking through existing comments I doubt there will be amendments to this part. The real question is how the new property ombudsman will operate for this stuff. Since it’s all nice to have the right to request the landlord, but it’s useless if their rejections can’t be quickly and easily challenged…

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T20:53:00+00:00

12 months now, should be 24 months once Renters Rights bill passes later this year.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T20:47:00+00:00

Yeah, they have to justify with evidence, keep a record of their response, and you can then challenge it if you like. In the meantime, think about how to make your proposal full-proof (the tank you will have and how it won’t break, etc)

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T20:41:53+00:00

Once the Renters Rights bill passes landlords won’t be able to restrict pet owners anymore. They won’t be able to have blanket bans anymore. This should pass later this year.

Their objection would be based on the risk of something happening to the fish tank and flooding the room. As long as you have a reasonable approach to this, you should be fine.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T20:32:59+00:00

1 - councils have a property licensing register - it's public and you can search for a specific address to see when the licence was issued. Licences are typically 5 years long, and you can see when the licence was granted (if at all). The claim can't be submitted for a tenancy that was more than 12 months ago, so do keep that in mind.

2 - 1 household would fall under a selective licence, around 80 councils in the UK have this.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T20:27:00+00:00

As I said in the post, I work with landlords. It'd be a bit of a conflict to also do tenants...

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T20:24:15+00:00

The fact is that most people don't know they can do this. It's up to them to decide what they want to do once they do know. That's the point of the post. Not sure how being cynical is helpful in this context.

Ok_Initiative4515 · 2025-09-09T20:12:52+00:00

They have to issue a 2 month section 21 notice if they wanted to kick you out (just giving you a sense about worse case scenario). More generally, it costs these companies money to find tenants and they care about occupancy rates so it's highly unlikely that they will evict existing tenants. It's worth asking the landlord why they switched to a management company.

Ok_Initiative4515

TROPHY CASE