Tenants are being urged by the housing minister to challenge unfair rent increases.

Matthew Pennycook's comments were in response to a question to the Government about the impact of rent increases on the number of tenants being evicted.

He called on tenants to challenge any increases deemed above the market value.

He said: “The Government recognises that paying rent is likely to be a tenant’s biggest monthly expense.

“The Renters’ Rights Bill empowers private rented sector tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases, with all rent increases taking place via an existing statutory process.

“Tenants who receive a rent increase that they feel is not representative of the market value will be able to challenge the increase at the First-tier Tribunal.”

Unscrupulous landlords

He continued: “This will prevent unscrupulous landlords using rent increases as a backdoor means of eviction, while ensuring rents can be increased to reflect market rates.”

The Renters’ Rights Bill will see the abolition of Section 21, the end of so-called no-fault evictions.

Landlords may decide to lean towards using unaffordable rent increases as a backdoor way of evicting tenants instead.

It follows research by letting platform FCC Paragon that found rental disputes are on the increase.

Tenants lodged an estimated 47,405 disputes across the PRS in 2024, a 13% increase on the previous year and the highest number in the past five years.

The analysis suggested that some 9,784 of these disputes involved rental arrears, again the highest figure in the last five years, while also marking a huge 80% year-on-year increase.

Disputes involving rental arrears now account for more than one in five of all rental market disputes, which is by far the highest proportion seen since 2019/20.

Even during the pandemic - 2019/20 and 2020/21 -, the number of rental disputes involving arrears accounted for just 14% of total disputes lodged. While this figure fell to 12% in 2021/22, it has increased consistently during the past two years.

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