Question 1

Will my landlord find out I checked any of this?

Accepted Answer

No. Checking your deposit, reading a notice or working out what a rent increase would mean does not contact your landlord or your agent. If you later decide to send a letter or make an application, that is a separate, deliberate step, and you see the document before it goes.

Question 2

My deposit was never protected. What happens now?

Accepted Answer

Two separate things, and they don’t depend on each other. The deposit itself should still be protected or returned. On top of that, a court can order your landlord to pay you a penalty of one to three times the deposit, to you, within 14 days of the order (Housing Act 2004 s.214(4)). Protecting it late does not avoid that penalty — it only removes a possible bar on your landlord getting a possession order later, which is a different thing (HA 2004 s.215(2)). You generally have up to 6 years to apply, though exactly when that clock starts running is untested in the courts, so it’s safest to assume it started when the 30-day protection window ran out.

Question 3

Can I challenge a rent increase without risking my home?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Referring a proposed rent to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) is a separate process from possession — the tribunal is deciding what the rent should be, not whether you stay. For a notice served on or after 1 May 2026, the tribunal cannot set the new rent above what your landlord proposed (Housing Act 1988 s.14ZB(5)). That protection does not apply to a notice served before 1 May 2026 — under the old rules that were kept running for those notices, the tribunal could set a higher rent than proposed. A Rent Increase Challenge is £89 flat.

Question 4

What is a Rent Repayment Order, and how much could it be worth?

Accepted Answer

An order that your landlord repays rent you’ve already paid, where they’ve committed a qualifying offence — an unlicensed property, illegal eviction, breaching an improvement or prohibition notice, among others. The application window and the maximum award both depend on when the offence happened: before 1 May 2026, you have 12 months to apply for up to 12 months’ rent, from your immediate landlord only. On or after 1 May 2026, that rises to 2 years to apply for up to 2 years’ rent, and superior landlords and company directors can be liable too. An offence that straddles the date is split across both. Ours is £269 flat if you decide to go ahead.

Question 5

Do I need a solicitor for any of this?

Accepted Answer

No. The First-tier Tribunal is designed to be used by people without one, and possession defences go through the county court, which is used to litigants in person. We produce the documents, work out the dates and keep the file in order; you stay in charge of every decision and keep everything you recover.