The property was a one-bedroom flat with a bathroom and a kitchen/living area. It sat at the rear of the third floor of a purpose-built modern block in Slough, Berkshire, with no garden. The assured tenancy began in February 2024 at £1,250 a month. The rent before the notice was £1,350 a month. In January 2026 the landlord served a notice proposing £1,400 a month from 9 February 2026. The tenants referred the notice to the tribunal for a market rent determination.
The tribunal decided the case on the papers, without a hearing. The tenants supplied advertised one-bedroom flats at £1,250 and £1,200 and a third-floor two-bedroom flat at £1,425. The landlord's agent supplied one example at £1,350 with no floor or accommodation details, which the tribunal said was at the higher end and amounted to cherry picking. The tribunal found asking rents for similar flats above first floor were about £1,250 and allowed for the agreed rent being slightly lower. It set the rent at £1,225 a month, £125 below the existing rent.
Landlords should expect a tribunal to look only at market evidence for a comparable property, not at the current rent or their own costs. A single advertised figure with no detail of floor or accommodation carried little weight here, and the tribunal treated it as selective. Before proposing an increase, gather several recent comparables for the same type of flat in the same block or area, with full details, and allow for asking rents usually being higher than rents actually agreed.
What the tribunal relied on
- Asking rents for similar one-bedroom flats above first floor level were in the region of £1,250 a month.
- Because these were asking rents, the tribunal considered the agreed rent would be slightly lower.
- The landlord's single example of £1,350 gave no floor or accommodation details and was at the higher end of rents advertised in the development.
- There was no evidence to justify a rent close to that of a two-bedroom flat for a one-bedroom flat.