In a further development today, the government has announced that HMRC’s Valuation Office will become responsible for decisions on challenges to rent increases in England, rather than the First-Tier Tribunal.  This is clearly a desperate measure – the government has woken up to the fact that it is in all tenants’ interests to challenge rent increases and the usual route will be overwhelmed.

Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has a slightly different take on the announcement: “By transferring responsibility for making initial rent determinations to HMRC’s Valuation Office, we will ensure that challenges to proposed rent increases are determined faster and pressure on the tribunal system is reduced, giving tenants and landlords confidence that rent disputes will continue to be resolved efficiently and effectively.”

Landlords might take issue with the claim that “rent disputes will continue (!) to be resolved efficiently and effectively”, particularly as under the new streamlined system, tenants will still need to apply in the first instance to the First-Tier Tribunal.  Well, that will work then, if the Minister says so…….

The only possible silver lining is that Valuation Office staff might have a better idea as to where market rents sit in a particular locality, although that knowledge will take some time to be built up.