How To Claim Money Back From Your Landlord: 5 Routes
Most renters assume the only money they can get back from a landlord is their deposit. There are at least five separate routes, and one of them is worth up to two years' rent.
Here they are, roughly in order of how much they're worth.
The short version
- Rent Repayment Orders can now be worth up to 24 months' rent, doubled from 12 by the Renters' Rights Act.
- An unprotected deposit is worth the deposit back plus one to three times its value.
- Banned fees must be refunded, however long ago you paid them.
- Disrepair can be claimed as a rent reduction for the period you didn't get what you paid for.
1. Rent Repayment Orders
The most valuable and the least known. A Rent Repayment Order requires a landlord to repay rent you have already paid, and it's decided by a tribunal rather than a court.
What changed on 1 May 2026: the maximum doubled from 12 months' rent to 24 months' rent, and the window to apply extended from 12 months to two years for offences committed on or after that date.
On a £950 a month property, the ceiling is now £22,800.
When you can apply
An RRO is available where the landlord has committed certain offences, including:
- Letting an unlicensed HMO, or an unlicensed property in a selective licensing area
- Illegal eviction or harassment
- Failure to comply with an improvement notice or a prohibition order
- Using violence to secure entry
- Breaching a banning order
The Act also extends RROs to new offences it creates, so the ground is broader than it was.
The unlicensed HMO route is the one that catches most landlords, because plenty of properties need a licence and don't have one. Mandatory licensing applies to HMOs with five or more people from two or more households, and many councils run additional or selective schemes covering smaller properties. You can ask your council whether your address is licensed, free.
You don't need a conviction. The tribunal decides on the evidence whether the offence was committed.
How to apply
Application is to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). You'll need your tenancy agreement, proof of rent paid for the period claimed, and evidence of the offence, such as confirmation from the council that the property was unlicensed.
Get advice before applying. Shelter's guidance on rent repayment orders and the government's guidance for tenants both set out the process. Your council's private housing team can often confirm the licensing position in a phone call.
If you shared with others, each tenant can apply for their own rent.
2. A deposit that wasn't protected
Your deposit must be registered with a government approved scheme, and you must be given the prescribed information, both within 30 days of them receiving it.
If either didn't happen, you can claim through the county court for the deposit back plus a penalty of one to three times its value. On a £1,096 deposit that's up to £3,288 on top.
Check all three schemes by property address. It takes five minutes and people are frequently surprised. Your deposit rights covers it, and what to do when they won't return it covers ordinary disputes.
3. Fees you should never have paid
The Tenant Fees Act banned almost every charge landlords and agents used to make. Admin fees, referencing fees, inventory fees, renewal fees, charges for a tenancy agreement, and "professional cleaning" as a condition.
A prohibited payment must be refunded. If they won't, you can complain to trading standards and apply to the tribunal.
Worth checking old paperwork. People paid these routinely and often still have the receipt. The Tenant Fees Act in plain English lists what's still permitted.
4. Disrepair
If your home had serious problems the landlord failed to fix after being told, you may be able to claim compensation for the period you lived with it.
The principle is that you paid for a property in a certain condition and didn't receive it, so the claim is usually expressed as a percentage reduction in rent for the affected period. Serious damp affecting a bedroom, no heating through a winter, a bathroom out of use.
You can also claim for damaged belongings and, in some cases, ill health.
What you need: written reports showing you told them and when, dated photographs, and ideally an environmental health report. That last one is free and carries real weight.
When a landlord won't repair and if your home is unfit set out the routes, including the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act, which lets you go to court directly.
5. Illegal eviction and harassment
Evicting someone without a court order, or harassing them out, is a criminal offence under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. It's also a civil wrong you can claim damages for.
Awards are frequently substantial, particularly where someone lost their home. And an illegal eviction is also a ground for a Rent Repayment Order, so the two can run together.
Landlord harassment covers what counts and what to do first.
How to actually claim
- Gather evidence first. Tenancy agreement, rent payment records, all correspondence, dated photographs, council reports.
- Write to the landlord setting out what you say went wrong and what you want. Many claims settle here, because the alternative is worse for them.
- Use free routes where they exist. The agent's redress scheme, the deposit scheme's adjudication, environmental health. All free, and all create records.
- Get advice. Shelter and Citizens Advice are free. Many housing solicitors offer a free assessment, and some take disrepair on a no-win-no-fee basis.
- Then apply. Tribunal for rent repayment orders and banned fees, county court for deposit penalties and disrepair.
Time limits, which are the thing people lose on
- Rent repayment orders: two years from the offence, for offences on or after 1 May 2026. Twelve months for earlier ones.
- Deposit penalty: generally within six years, but act sooner.
- Disrepair: usually six years for the breach, three for personal injury.
You can claim after you've moved out. A great many people don't realise that, and let a genuine claim expire because they assumed leaving ended it.
A note on proportion
Not every grievance is a claim, and pursuing a small one through a tribunal can cost more in time and stress than it returns.
But the two at the top of this page are different in scale. An unprotected deposit and an unlicensed HMO are both common, both straightforward to evidence, and both worth thousands. If either applies to you, it's worth a free advice appointment before you assume otherwise.
The honest summary
Check whether your deposit was protected within 30 days. Ask your council whether the property was licensed. Look through old paperwork for banned fees. Keep every report of disrepair you ever sent.
Those four checks cost you an hour and occasionally return five figures.
And whatever the outcome, put it on the record. A landlord operating an unlicensed HMO or pocketing deposits is exactly what the next tenant needs to know before they sign.
This guide covers England and reflects the position at August 2026, including the Renters' Rights Act in force from 1 May 2026. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. This is general information, not legal advice: get advice on your own circumstances before making a claim. Sources: GOV.UK, rent repayment orders for tenants, Shelter, rent repayment orders from 1 May 2026, GOV.UK, Guide to the Renters' Rights Act.