Comrades! Tenants! Landlords!
Since the glorious first of May 2026, the wise Panels of the First-tier Tribunal have set the people's rents. They do not use the chaos of supply and demand. They use careful judgement of carpets, drawers and gutters.
A month. The Panel's value of laminate flooring laid by the tenant's own hands. Cleethorpes.MAN/00FC/MRA/2026/0014, para 20
A month. The price of windows that will not open or lock. Bristol.HAV/00HB/MRA/2026/0031, para 19
Added for the landlord's winter heating, spread evenly across all twelve months. Folkestone.HAV/29UL/MRA/2026/0005, para 23
Beyond this distance, a comparable bungalow is set aside. Truth is local. Croydon.LON/00BF/MRA/2026/0038
Under the Renters' Rights Act, a landlord may propose a new rent once a year. If the tenant objects, the Panel steps in. It decides what the home would fetch on the open market: a figure the market itself is no longer trusted to supply.
First the Panel imagines the home in good order. Then it subtracts, line by line, every flaw it can see. A carpet, a drawer, a draught: each one has a price. The Panel may not set the rent above what the landlord asked for. It may set it below.
Below: 12 real determinations, read to the letter.
The Commissariat is pleased to report on every published determination under the new regime (98 decisions on notices served since 1 May 2026; in 90 the Panel set a rent, and 6 were struck out, withdrawn or not decided).
determinations in which the Panel overrode the landlord's figure.
a year taken off landlords' proposed rents, by determination.
decided on the papers. No hearing was needed. (86 of 90)
Determinations under the new regime. Red: the Panel overrode the landlord.
The figures show that the Panel's work to bear down on market rents, to bring them down to their true worth, is only just beginning. There is more to be done, comrades! As more cuts are determined, so the market price is lowered, and the rents across the country will approach their true worth.
When a landlord asks more than the Panel thinks fair, he is corrected. When he asks less, he is the market. In at least 10 determinations the Panel found the home worth more than the landlord asked (Manchester: £1,300 found, £1,200 asked), and the landlord’s figure stood.
Comrades should beware the landlord who asks too little. Such behaviour is inconsistent with dialectical materialism and should be treated with utmost caution. Do not be fooled by the kindly bourgeois landlord who offers you a below-market rent. Marx teaches that landlords are merely “personifications of economic categories”, and kindness is not an economic category.
By decision date. The latest month fills in as GOV.UK publishes.
By region, from the property's postcode.
A home in M1.
Tenant and landlord agreed £1,650. Thirteen months later the Panel found the true price was £1,450.
A home in OL16.
Sitting tenants agree rents “being fearful of losing their home”, the Panel explains. So their agreements cannot be trusted. The Panel's can.
“The Property is a first floor flat within a former House of Multiple Occupation which now contains a total of 13 self-contained flats.” The tribunal
Winter warmth, spread evenly across all twelve months. The Panel has abolished the seasons.
A home in BS5.
A window that will not lock: twenty pounds. A kitchen that disappoints: fifty. The Panel found £970, and the Act forbade it to set more than the landlord asked.
A home in PO12.
Dated kitchen, £25. Worn carpets, £25. Dated decorations, £25. Everything else, £125. The sum came, to the pound, to what the landlord asked.
A home in M18.
Four flaws at exactly £50 each, among them “Poor Management and attendance”. The Panel found £1,300; the landlord had asked only £1,200, so the landlord's figure stands.
“The Property is an end-terraced house comprising 3 bedrooms, living room, family bathroom, w/c, kitchen, utility room and pantry.” The tribunal
When the arithmetic says £1,020, the Panel does not hesitate. It rounds, downwards, for the people. (The decision paragraph records the new rent as “£100.00 per calendar month”. Regrettably, a typing error.)
A home in CB7.
Valued at £1,300 and delivered at £1,000, by the judgement of the Panel alone.
“The property is a maisonette, not a flat.” The tribunal
General wear and tear, such as a dated carpet: £25 a month. The Panel is never uncertain.
“The Property is a terraced house…” The tribunal
Cracks in the photographs: forty pounds. The photographs had spoken.
“The Property is a mid-terraced Victorian house arranged over three floors (approximately 115 sq m / 1,238 sq ft).” The tribunal
The attic is a bedroom, the Panel ruled, so the home is worth £2,000. Then £250 off for defects and an EPC rating of E. Agreed rent: £1,770. The Panel's rent: £1,750.
“The Property is a modern two-bedroom mid-terrace house arranged over two floors.” The tribunal
The drawer was not merely broken. The repair was of a poor standard. The Panel notices everything.
The bourgeois market settles these with a shrug and a vacancy sign. The Panel settles them on paper, in numbered paragraphs, for the good of all.
Tenants of all terraces, unite!
From each according to his comparables. To each according to his carpets.
Since May the Panels have published just 98 decisions on new rent notices. England has 4.7 million privately rented homes: one decision for every 48,000 households. The plan is under-fulfilled.
The fee is £47, but if £47 is beyond you the State may waive it, or the Panel may order the landlord to pay it. You need not attend a hearing, just make sure you tell the Panel about every broken drawer and draughty window.
That broken curtain hook might be worth £10 a month. A dated carpet was worth £25 a month in Chickerell.
Apply to the Panel