The law changed on 1 May 2026. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 raised the maximum Rent Repayment Order from 12 months’ rent to 2 years’ rent, and extended the deadline for applying from 12 months to 2 years from the date of the offence.
These new limits apply to offences committed on or after 1 May 2026. If your landlord’s offence was committed before that date, the previous rules still apply to you: a cap of 12 months’ rent, and 12 months to apply. Not sure which applies? Tell us the dates and we will work it out for you.
Most Rent Repayment Order claims take somewhere between six months and a year from application to payment. Here is where the time actually goes, and what makes a case faster or slower.
The timeline, stage by stage
| Stage | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Checking the licensing position | Days |
| Gathering evidence and preparing the application | 1–4 weeks |
| Tribunal issues the application and sends directions | 2–6 weeks |
| Both sides file evidence under the directions | 6–12 weeks |
| Waiting for a hearing date | 2–5 months |
| Hearing | Usually half a day |
| Written decision | 2–6 weeks after the hearing |
| Payment | Normally within 28 days of the decision |
Two real examples
From the decisions we have written up in full:
- London State Ltd — application 16 December 2021, hearing 5 April 2022, decision 12 April 2022. Just under four months from application to decision, with the decision issued a week after the hearing.
- Rothberg — application 23 October 2020, hearing 2 June 2021, decision 13 July 2021. Just under nine months, with six weeks between hearing and decision.
Both were remote video hearings. The gap between them is a fair illustration of the range: same tribunal, same type of claim, more than double the time.
What makes it slower
- A contested licensing position. If the landlord disputes that a licence was needed, or says one was applied for, the tribunal may need evidence from the council — and councils take their own time.
- Missing evidence. Chasing bank statements from a closed account, or reassembling who lived where, adds weeks before you even apply.
- Multiple applicants or respondents. More people means more statements and more scope for one party to miss a direction.
- Adjournments. A landlord who instructs representatives late, or produces new material at the last minute, can push a hearing back months.
- Tribunal listing pressure. This varies by region and is the part nobody controls.
- An appeal. Permission to appeal must be sought within 28 days of the written reasons, and an appeal to the Upper Tribunal adds many months.
What makes it faster
- A clean documentary case. Register entry, tenancy agreement, bank statements. Claims that are obvious on paper attract fewer directions and shorter hearings.
- Getting the respondent right first time. Naming the wrong party can mean starting again.
- Meeting every direction on time. The most common self-inflicted delay.
- A landlord who accepts the offence and argues only about the amount. In the Rothberg case the respondents accepted an offence had been committed and contested only quantum — which narrows what the tribunal has to decide.
- Settlement. Some landlords settle once they see a properly prepared claim. Nothing obliges them to, but it happens, and it can end matters in weeks rather than months.
The clock you should worry about is the other one. How long the case takes matters much less than whether you start it in time. You have 2 years from the offence (12 months if it was before 1 May 2026), and the amount you can claim shrinks as the relevant period recedes. More on time limits →
Getting paid
The tribunal sets a date for payment in the order, commonly 28 days. It can allow payment by instalments if the landlord’s financial circumstances justify it.
If the landlord simply does not pay, the order is a debt that can be enforced through the County Court — by warrant of control, an attachment of earnings order, or a charging order against property. Enforcement adds time, but the debt does not go away.
What you should do while you wait
- Keep everything. Do not delete messages or close the bank account the rent went from.
- Reply to tribunal correspondence promptly — it usually arrives by email.
- Tell the tribunal at once if your contact details change.
- Keep a note of anything new that happens with the landlord; conduct during proceedings is relevant to the amount.
The first stage is the quick one. Checking whether your landlord needed a licence takes us a couple of minutes, costs nothing, and tells you whether the rest of this timeline is worth starting. Check your claim →
This article is general information about the law in England and is not legal advice about your own circumstances. Timescales vary considerably between regions and cases. The rules differ in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Think this applies to you? Checking whether your landlord needed a licence is free and takes about two minutes. Check your claim — free, no obligation.