Rent repayment orders: who a claim can be made against

What a rent repayment order is

A rent repayment order is an order from the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) that can require a landlord to repay rent that has already been paid. It is not a general power to order rent back whenever something has gone wrong with a tenancy. It is available only where one of a defined list of offences has been committed, and even then the tribunal decides whether to make an order at all and, if it does, how much of the rent should be repaid.

The offences on that list are set out in law and have been added to over time. Examples that come up often include renting out a property that should have been licensed without the licence being in place, and unlawful eviction or harassment. Because the list is specific, it is worth checking the current position on GOV.UK, or asking Shelter or Citizens Advice, rather than assuming that a particular problem qualifies.

There is also a time limit for applying to the tribunal, and applications can fail on timing alone even when the underlying complaint is a real one. Many renters in this situation get free advice early rather than waiting to see whether things resolve on their own.

Rent-to-rent, and why more than one landlord may be involved

In a rent-to-rent arrangement, the person who owns the property lets the whole of it to a company or to another individual, and that company or individual then lets it out, often room by room, to renters. The party you pay rent to and hold your agreement with is your immediate landlord. Anyone further up that chain, including the owner, is a superior landlord.

Renters usually cannot tell from the outside that this is the arrangement, and there is nothing unlawful about the arrangement in itself. Things that many renters notice only in hindsight include:

• Paying rent to a company whose name does not appear on any paperwork about the building itself.
• An agreement for a single room in a shared house, granted by someone who does not live there.
• A landlord or manager who says they need to check with the owner before agreeing to anything.
• Repairs that stall because it is unclear who is actually responsible for the building.
• A gas safety record, licence or insurance document naming someone you have never dealt with.

What changed on 1 May 2026

Until recently a rent repayment order could generally be made only against the immediate landlord. The Supreme Court decided that point in 2023 in Rakusen v Jepsen, and the practical effect was that where the immediate landlord was a rent-to-rent company, the owner above it was generally out of reach even if that company had nothing in it.

Section 103 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed that position and came into force on 1 May 2026. In broad terms it allows a rent repayment order to be made against any superior landlord rather than the immediate landlord alone, extends the period of rent that can be looked back over from 12 months to 2 years, and provides for joint and several liability where an order is made against more than one landlord, which generally means each of them can be pursued for the whole amount rather than only for a share. It also adds a rule aimed at stopping the same rent being recovered twice over from different landlords. A further section extends liability to officers of a company landlord in some circumstances.

The position on this page was checked against the commencement regulations on 31 August 2026. The rollout of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is staged and dates can change, so please check the current position on GOV.UK rather than relying on any date here.

The date limit that catches people out

The change is not backdated. The commencement regulations provide that it has no effect for offences committed before 1 May 2026. Where an offence is a continuing one, such as managing a property that should have been licensed over a period of months, the regulations provide for the position to be apportioned, so broadly the part of the conduct falling before 1 May 2026 is treated under the old rules and the part falling on or after it under the new ones.

In practice that means the window of conduct capable of reaching a superior landlord is still a short one, and it grows day by day rather than stretching back across a whole tenancy. Whether any part of your own situation falls on the right side of that line depends on when things happened and on facts a tribunal would need to weigh, so it is one to check with Shelter, Citizens Advice or a housing solicitor rather than to settle from a web page.

None of this changes what your immediate landlord may be responsible for. The longer-standing route against the person you actually pay is not affected by that date limit.

Finding out who the landlord above yours is

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 provides for a Private Rented Sector Database that is expected to make landlord and property details easier to look up. It was deliberately left out of the changes that took effect on 1 May 2026 and is not available yet, so it is not a route anyone can use today.

What renters more commonly do is ask in writing for the landlord's full name and address and keep the reply, because there are rules requiring those details to be provided on a written request. Since 1 May 2026 renters in England should also be given a written statement of the terms of their tenancy, which names the landlord.

If no reply comes, HM Land Registry sells a copy of the title register for a registered property for a small fee, and the register names the registered owner. Bear in mind that the registered owner is not necessarily any landlord in your own chain, so it is a corroborating official record rather than an answer on its own. Shelter and Citizens Advice can help you work out which of these is worth doing in your situation.

The record that tends to help

Whichever route ends up applying, the same underlying facts tend to matter: who you paid, how much, on which dates, what you were told at the time, and what state the property was in. Rent repayment orders look at rent actually paid over a defined period, so bank records, your agreement, receipts, and dated messages are usually the backbone of anything an adviser or a tribunal is asked to consider.

That is far easier to put together when it has been kept as you went along rather than reconstructed months later. Keeping dated photos, a repair log showing when you reported and chased each issue, and copies of correspondence in one place means that if you do take advice, you can show an adviser the timeline instead of describing it from memory. None of this guarantees a particular result, a tribunal decides each case on its own facts.

Common questions

Where to get free, qualified help

• Shelter, Free housing advice and a helpline. Good first stop for serious or urgent housing problems.
• Citizens Advice, Free, independent advice on renting, deposits, repairs and complaints.
• GOV.UK: Private renting, The official guide to your rights and responsibilities as a private renter in England.
• Your deposit scheme's free dispute (ADR) service, Deposit Protection Service (DPS), mydeposits, Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS).