First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber fees change on 1 May 2026

Sometimes a legal update looks dry until you ask the practical question: who now has to pay to use the tribunal? From 1 May 2026, the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) fees rules changed to add new charges linked to rights and penalties created by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. The order applies to proceedings in the Property Chamber and replaces Schedule 1 of the 2013 fees order with a new version that builds those new case types into the system. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) **What this means:** the tribunal itself has not disappeared and the new rights still exist, but some of them now come with a stated fee from the moment you file the case. That is the part most readers will actually feel. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)

The easiest way to read the new rules is to think in price bands. Some tenant-facing rent cases now cost £47 to start and carry no hearing fee. Appeals against new financial penalties cost £200 to lodge and £300 if the case reaches a hearing. Some existing routes, including the relevant rent repayment order applications, stay on the older £114 application fee and £227 hearing fee track. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) The new £47 fee applies to applications under sections 14(A1) and 14(A3) of the Housing Act 1988. In plain English, those are the routes for challenging the rent in the first six months of a tenancy and for challenging a proposed new rent, including the validity of the notice used to raise it. The same £47, no-hearing-fee model also applies to a narrower succession-related application about the terms of an assured tenancy under section 39(9)(b)(i). (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)

Who pays depends on who starts the case. In practice, tenants are the people most likely to meet the new £47 fee because rent challenges are tenant applications. By contrast, landlords or other people appealing a council-imposed financial penalty are the ones likely to face the £200 application fee and the £300 hearing fee. The order also says that where one application is made under more than one provision, only the highest relevant fee is payable. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) **What this means:** because the order charges the fee on filing the appeal, the person challenging the penalty is the one who pays, not the council that issued it. Ministers told Parliament the average Property Chamber case costs the taxpayer more than £900, so even these new charges still cover only part of the real cost of running the tribunal. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)

The Renters’ Rights Act changes more than the fee sheet. The government’s explanatory notes say the amended law lets assured tenants challenge a section 13 rent increase in the tribunal and lets tenants ask the tribunal to check the starting rent in the first six months of the tenancy. The same notes also say these cases no longer need a special form prescribed by the Secretary of State, because applicants will instead use tribunal forms. (legislation.gov.uk) There is also an important protection tucked into the legal wording. When a tenant challenges a section 13 rent increase, the new rent set after the tribunal’s decision is the lower of the tribunal’s open-market figure and the rent the landlord proposed in the notice. So, on the face of the new system, challenging the increase should not leave you with a tribunal-set rent above the figure the landlord asked for. The notes say the increase will usually take effect from the next rent period after the decision, not be backdated, and the tribunal can delay it for up to two months if earlier payment would cause undue hardship. (legislation.gov.uk)

For landlord penalty appeals, the process is structured before anyone reaches the tribunal. A local housing authority must first issue a notice of intent. The person affected then gets 28 days to make written representations. If the authority still decides to impose a penalty, it must issue a final notice. An appeal to the First-tier Tribunal must then be brought within 28 days beginning with the day after that final notice was given. If there is an appeal, the final notice is suspended while the appeal is decided, withdrawn or abandoned. The Act says the appeal is a re-hearing, and the tribunal may confirm, vary or cancel the notice. (legislation.gov.uk) The new £200 appeal fee covers a broad set of penalty cases created by the Act. These include appeals against penalties for unlawful eviction or harassment, failures to give written tenancy terms, breaches linked to sham fixed terms or misuse of possession grounds, discrimination against tenants with children or tenants receiving benefits, and breaches of the new rules requiring landlords and agents to state rent clearly and stop bidding wars. A separate £200 appeal fee also exists for serious Category 1 hazard penalties under section 6A of the Housing Act 2004, but the order says that part will only bite later, when section 6A is fully in force. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)

There is a clear policy choice behind these figures. The Ministry of Justice says rent cases were put on a lower £47 fee because affordability and access to justice matter especially strongly there, while landlord appeals against financial penalties were placed on the standard £200 application and £300 hearing pattern. The Explanatory Memorandum also says the Help with Fees remission scheme remains available for people on lower incomes. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) **What this means:** tenants are no longer using a completely free route for these new rent cases, but the fee has been kept well below the standard tribunal charge and there is no hearing fee on top. Landlords weighing up an appeal against a council penalty now have a much clearer cost warning from the start: £200 to appeal, and another £300 if the case is listed for a hearing. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)

It is also worth noticing what has not changed. This order does not sweep every Property Chamber case into one price. Some older fees are simply carried over, and ministers described this as only the first phase of a broader reform of Property Chamber fees. In Parliament, the government said the wider plan is a tiered structure: a standard £200 and £300 route, a lower £114 and £227 route for some cases, a £47 route for rent appeals, and targeted exemptions where charging a fee could shut people out of urgent or low-value claims. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) For readers trying to turn legislative language into real life, the headline point is simple. From 1 May 2026, the Property Chamber still offers renters new ways to challenge rent and still lets landlords appeal some council penalties, but the price now depends on the exact legal route. If you are challenging rent, think £47 and no hearing fee. If you are appealing a financial penalty, think £200 up front and potentially £300 more. That is the practical map hidden inside the statutory wording. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)