Rent Repayment Orders

In Salford, all HMOs require a licence if the property is occupied as a main home by three or more people who are not related, and they all share one or more basic amenities (for example kitchen, bathroom, WC). Examples include:

• Bedsits or rooms rented separately with individual tenancies
• Shared houses or shared flats in multiple occupation
• Resident landlord with more than two lodgers 

There are some exceptions, so it is worth checking with us first. Further information can be found our How will licensing work page or contact teamhmo@Salford.gov.uk  

You should only apply for an RRO if you can prove that your landlord has failed to comply with law including Housing Act 2004 and Housing and Planning Act 2016 this is outlined below:

• Your landlord has rented an HMO without a licence or a family home within one the areas designated for Selective licensing
• Your landlord has failed to control or manage an unlicensed HMO
• Your landlord has failed to comply with enforcement action:
  • Improvement notice
  • Prohibition notice 
  • Civil penalty notice
  • Breach of a banning order
• You have been evicted illegally or been harassed by your landlord
• Your landlord has used violence to secure entry to a property

You will be informed by the team if you are eligible to apply for an RRO. If you have been evicted illegally or been harassed by your landlord, you can contact the Salford Housing Options Point team who will be able to provide information about your rights as a tenant or licensee.

The tenant should apply for an RRO as soon as possible as the amount you can claim decreases over time. The application must be made within 12 months of the date of the offence committed by the landlord. The rent cannot be reclaimed for any period after:

• the final period of rental payment if the tenant has left
• the landlord has sold the house or flat
• if the landlord has applied to the council for a licence (this could happen at any time)

The housing officer in charge of the case will inform you if you are able to apply for an RRO. If you decide to apply for an RRO the officer will be able to support your application to the FTT by providing evidence i.e. witness statement to support your application.

If one tenant is willing to act for all the tenants in applying for the RRO the other tenants would need to sign a declaration stating the name of the person appointed to act on their behalf. Alternatively, the person who acts for the tenant could be a person from the organisations mentioned below or a relative or friend of a tenant. The tenant must be able to trust the person they nominate to act on their behalf. 

There are many organisations which can help you with the process of applying for an RRO including:

• Shelter
• Citizen’s Advice Bureau 
• A Law centre
• Salford Council’s Private sector housing team 
• Tenants and Residents Associations or Tenants Federations
• Flat Justice
• Justice for Tenants

Tenants can apply to reclaim the rent paid for a period of up to a maximum of twelve months ending on the date of the application to the First-Tier Tribunal (FTT).

You can ask to reclaim the rent for the full twelve months if you lived in the HMO and paid rent to the same landlord throughout this period. However, the period for reclaim of the rent will end earlier if you have moved away, if the landlord has changed, or if the landlord has applied to the local council for a licence. You cannot claim any rent paid by housing benefit/universal credit.

You will need to be able to prove that you paid the amount of rent you are claiming and who you paid it to. When you apply for the RRO you will need to:

• send a copy of your rent book, or if you do not have one, make a list of all payments made by each tenant
• any tenants who go to the hearing should take proof of payment i.e. bank statements or cheque stubs, in case there is a dispute about the rent. You should include any receipt of rent payments acknowledged by the landlord or managing agent i.e. email or text. If tenants have paid in cash and have no receipt take proof of cash withdrawal.

The RRO is likely to require the landlord to repay less rent than the amount of rent that you are asking to reclaim. Unless the landlord has been subject to previous conviction or a civil penalty notice has been served and is made at a time when there is no prospect of appeal against the civil penalty notice. 

NB: The FTT may award less than the total amount particularly if the landlord has already had a large fine or there are other mitigating factors.

Before applying for the RRO, you should make sure that you will be able to produce all the documents needed. 

You should make an application for a Rent Repayment Order to the First-Tier (property) Tribunal.

You may be subject to a £100 fee for the application unless you are eligible for ‘help with fees’. (Refer to section 10 of the application form). 

You will need the following documents to support your application:

1. Evidence that the landlord has committed an offence or convicted of an offence or RRO for housing benefits provide by your local council
2. Evidence of the rent paid during the period of up to twelve months. If the landlord did not give you a rent book or receipts for the rent and you have no other proof, make a list of all the rent payments you made and who they were paid to. Provide bank statements if available which can show the same amount of money withdrawn for rent.
3. If you and/or any of the other tenants in the house have appointed someone to represent them include all the agreements to appoint that person to act on their behalf.
4. Evidence of three or more tenants living in the house during the period of the claim, unless stated in (b) above.

The FTT will send your application to the landlord. They will ask for copies of the papers you wish to present at the hearing by a certain date. The papers for the hearing need to be in a bundle which is easy for the tribunal to refer to. 

All the evidence for your case should be prepared into a bundle. To prepare your bundle:

• put the papers in date order
• each page should be numbered
• a list of contents with page numbers should be at the front
• once copied the papers need to be placed in a binding which will keep them in order. You may wish to get advice on preparing the bundle from one of the local organisations mentioned above.

There is a Case Management Conference a few weeks after the application which the applicant and respondent need to attend. It takes about half an hour and briefly looks at the case and clarifies the methods and protocol of communications.

The FTT panel members may visit the house or flat before the hearing. If you are at home when they visit, it is okay to talk to them, but do bear in mind that they will not take what you say into account when making their decision. They can only make their decision on the written evidence and what is said at any hearing. You will normally get 21 days’ notice of any hearing. In some cases, the FTT will make a decision without an oral hearing, but this would be unusual in the case of an RRO. In any case you would be sent a written record of the FTT’s panel’s decision.

The hearing at the First Tier (property) Tribunal is similar to a court hearing, but less formal. The case is heard by two or three panel members. The panel chairman introduces the case and explains what will happen; you can ask the chairman questions at any time if you need to. The panel members can ask the landlord and the tenants’ representative questions throughout the case and take notes.

FTT panels generally hear cases without lawyers, but everyone does have the right to be represented by a solicitor or barrister or by another appointed person. Do not let formal representation put you off, many landlords represent themselves. If you require help during the hearing the Chairman of the panel will help you if needed.  

All tenants who are making the claim need to be present unless they have appointed a person to represent them. We recommend that two or more tenants are at the hearing, in case they need to answer questions about the rent, the accommodation, or any issues the landlord may raise about the behaviour of the tenants. 

If a number of tenants have applied for the RRO themselves, it is easier if they appoint a spokesperson to lead their case at the tribunal. Other tenants will still get the opportunity to speak if they want to.

The hearing starts with the tenants’ representative (rep) saying why they have applied for the RRO he/she can simply read out the Grounds of the Application from the application form and introduce the evidence in the bundle. The landlord or his/her lawyer will ask questions of the tenant rep and then put their own case to say why the panel should not make an RRO or why it should be for less money than is claimed. The tenants’ rep will then be able to question the landlord, or comment on what has been said. Other tenants will be able to have their say too. 
The panel will not make their decision at the hearing. A written decision will be sent in the post maximum six weeks.

The landlord and the tenants can appeal to the Lands Tribunal against an RRO, including the amount of money to be repaid, but must apply within 28 days. If the appeal to the Lands Tribunal involves a hearing the same tenants who were at the FTT hearing, will need to be there, the procedures are similar to those for the FTT. 

The FTT must order the maximum amount of rent (up to 12 months) is repaid where the landlord has been convicted of the offence to which the RRO applies. 

If the landlord has not been convicted but committed an offence the FTT will determine the amount of rent to be repaid in accordance to the following:

• If you have been evicted illegally or been harassed by your landlord the FTT will take into account the 12-month period before the offence (12 months must end with the date of the offence).
• If the landlord has committed one of the following offences the RRO must relate to rent paid by the tenant in respect of a period not exceeding 12 months where the landlord has committed an offence:
  • Failed to comply with a formal enforcement notice
  • Improvement notice 
  • Prohibition notice 
  • Civil penalty notice 
  • Breach of a banning order 
  • Failed to control or manage an unlicensed HMO 

The Tribunal must decide on an amount they consider to be reasonable for the RRO, this decision will be based on the:

• Conduct of the landlord (i.e. how well he/she manages the accommodation and its condition)
• Conduct of the tenant
• The financial circumstances of the landlord 
• If the landlord has at any time been convicted of any of the offences in section 2 of this guidance 

If a landlord has been convicted in respect of the same offence which the RRO is being made the FTT must award the maximum amount of rent possible (capped at 12 months). 

The FTT will set a date by which the RRO money must be paid to the tenants. The FTT may agree to the landlord paying the money in instalments.

If the RRO payment is not received by the agreed date the tenants can apply to the County Court for permission to reclaim the money as a civil debt (see The Residential Property Tribunal Procedure (England) Regulations 2006, regulation 34). Refer to the ‘I have a tribunal decision, but the respondent has not paid leaflet (EX328)’.

Your landlord has no right to make you leave your home because you are applying for an RRO. If your landlord does try to evict you, you should seek legal advice, there are extra restrictions on landlords’ powers to evict, where the accommodation is not licensed. You can contact one of the above-mentioned organisations who will advise you on such a matter or Salford Housing Options Point (SHOP).