If your HMO needs a licence and your landlord doesn't have one, you may be able to claim back rent you paid while the property was unlicensed: up to 12 months for any part before 1 May 2026, and up to 2 years for offending from that date, a full 2 years of which cannot build up until May 2028. This is a right under the Housing and Planning Act 2016 (sections 40 to 52). Operating an unlicensed HMO is an offence under section 72(1) of the Housing Act 2004.
A rent repayment order, or RRO, is the mechanism tenants use to recover that money. The First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) hears these claims and can order your landlord to repay rent covering the period when the licensing offence was being committed. Where a whole household applies together, orders can run into tens of thousands of pounds.
What makes a property an HMO requiring a licence?
An HMO, or House in Multiple Occupation, is a property shared by three or more people from two or more separate households who share facilities like a kitchen or bathroom. The licensing rules split into two tiers.
Mandatory HMO licensing applies to HMOs occupied by five or more people from two or more households, with an exception for some flats in purpose-built blocks. Your landlord must hold a licence from the local council to operate it legally. Additional and selective licensing schemes go further. Individual councils like Hackney, Islington, and Westminster have introduced requirements covering smaller HMOs and even standard shared houses in their areas. You can read about Hackney's selective and HMO licensing rules for 2026 and Islington's selective licensing scheme for local detail.
If your landlord hasn't obtained or applied for the required licence, they are committing a criminal offence under section 72(1) of the Housing Act 2004 (HMO licensing), or section 95(1) if the property needs a selective licence. That offence is the trigger for an RRO claim. The licence doesn't need to have lapsed by years. Even a short gap in compliance counts. For offending from 1 May 2026, the tribunal can also make an order against a superior landlord who committed the offence, such as the owner who leased your home to a rent-to-rent company. This reverses Rakusen v Jepsen [2023] UKSC 9, which limited orders to your immediate landlord. Earlier offending is still covered by that ruling.
Check whether your property requires a licence by contacting your local council's housing enforcement team.
How much rent can you claim back for an unlicensed HMO?
For offences committed on or after 1 May 2026 the maximum award is 2 years' rent. For offences before that date it is 12 months. Because an unlicensed HMO is a continuing offence, a licence gap running across 1 May 2026 falls under the old rules for the part before that date and the new rules for the part on or after it. That is what regulation 11 of SI 2026/421 says. Do not add the two caps together to estimate a claim. Either way, the tribunal calculates the award from the rent you paid during the period of the offence, not your total tenancy.
So if you paid £1,200 per month and your landlord operated without a licence for eight months, the ceiling on your claim is £9,600, less any Universal Credit or Housing Benefit. For offending from 1 May 2026, the tribunal must order the maximum, unless there are exceptional circumstances, if the landlord has been convicted of the offence, has a final civil penalty for it, or has a previous conviction, penalty or RRO for an unlicensed HMO or unlicensed house offence. Otherwise it decides the amount, taking into account the conduct of the landlord and you, the landlord's financial circumstances, and any previous convictions, civil penalties or rent repayment orders.
Conduct matters. A landlord who ignored the council or has a history of non-compliance is in a weaker position than one who acted quickly once they found out about the licensing requirement.
The financial exposure is real for landlords. For unlicensed-HMO offending from 1 May 2026 the maximum civil penalty is £40,000 (£30,000 for earlier conduct), and a council can pursue that alongside an RRO, so a landlord can face heavy combined losses across penalties and repayments. From your side, if you paid 12 eligible months of rent at £1,000 per month yourself, the ceiling is £12,000.
Are you eligible to apply for a rent repayment order?
You qualify to apply if three conditions are met.
First, the property must require a licence that the landlord didn't hold. Mandatory HMO licensing is the most common route, but an additional or selective licensing requirement in your area counts too.
Second, you must have paid rent during the period when the offence was being committed. Only rent you paid yourself, or someone paid for you, counts. Any Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing element paid towards your rent in that period is deducted from your claim. The council can apply for an RRO to recover that part itself, whether the benefit went to you or to the landlord.
Third, you must apply in time: within 2 years of the offence ending for offences on or after 1 May 2026, or 12 months for earlier offences. If the licence gap started before 1 May 2026, the pre-May months may keep the old 12-month limit, so apply well before 30 April 2027 to protect that rent. This is the one that catches people out. The offence usually ends on the date your landlord made a valid licence application, not the date the licence was granted, and it can end earlier if the landlord had a reasonable excuse. Ask the council when a complete application was received. The offence's last day is the day before, so count your deadline from there and leave yourself a margin. Miss the window and the tribunal cannot hear your claim, regardless of how strong the case is.
You do not need to still be living in the property. Former tenants can apply. You also don't need to have reported the landlord to the council before applying, though doing so strengthens your evidence considerably, because council enforcement notices and correspondence are some of the clearest proof that an offence occurred. The rent repayment order route described here applies in England. Wales has its own separate scheme.
What evidence proves an HMO was unlicensed?
The standard of proof for an RRO claim is the criminal standard, beyond reasonable doubt. The tribunal needs to be satisfied that a licensing offence was committed. That sounds daunting, but in practice, licensing breaches are often easy to prove because the council keeps records.
Build your evidence bundle around these documents:
- Tenancy agreement, to confirm you were a tenant at the property and the address
- Rent payment records, such as bank statements, payment receipts or rent book entries
- Evidence that the property required a licence, council correspondence, the property's listing on a selective or mandatory licensing register, or a letter confirming no licence was held
- Evidence the landlord didn't hold a licence, a council enforcement notice, a written confirmation from the housing team, or a search of the public licensing register for your area
- Any relevant communications, emails or texts where the landlord acknowledged issues, or where they were warned about licensing
Photos of the property showing the number of occupants' bedrooms can also support establishing it as an HMO. If the council has already taken enforcement action, check the council's public licence register and ask the enforcement team directly for copies of those notices.
Reporting the property to your local council before filing your tribunal application is worth doing. It creates a formal record of the offence, triggers enforcement activity that generates documents, and shows the tribunal you followed the correct procedure. Our guide on how to report a landlord to the council walks through that process step by step.
How to apply for a rent repayment order at the tribunal
The application goes to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in England. You'll complete and submit form RRO1, available on GOV.UK, along with your evidence bundle and the application fee.
The form asks for your contact details, the landlord's details, the property address, the offence you're claiming for, the period of the offence, and the rent paid during that period. Attach your evidence. The tribunal will send the application to your landlord, who can respond.
Most cases proceed to a hearing, though some straightforward cases are decided on the papers alone. Hearings are often conducted virtually. You'll present your evidence, the landlord may challenge it, and the tribunal decides both whether the offence occurred and what amount to award.
How long it takes varies by region and tribunal workload, and GOV.UK gives no standard timescale. You don't need a solicitor. Plenty of tenants represent themselves successfully, particularly where the evidence of the licensing breach is clear.
For a full walkthrough of the application form, see our step-by-step guide to completing the RRO1 form. For broader context on what RRO grounds cover beyond licensing, the guide to rent repayment order grounds in the UK is worth reading before you file.
Common mistakes that get RRO claims dismissed
Missing the application deadline is the most common and most avoidable error. Write down when the offence ended, or when you believe it ended, and count forward from there. That deadline is 2 years for offences on or after 1 May 2026, or 12 months for earlier ones. If you're unsure when your landlord applied for a licence, ask the council.
The second most common mistake is thin evidence. Saying 'I believe my landlord didn't have a licence' is not enough. The tribunal needs documentary proof. A council letter confirming no licence was registered to the property during a specific period is worth more than a stack of emails.
A third issue is applying for the wrong period. Only rent paid during the offence period is recoverable. If the landlord applied for a licence in month three of your tenancy, the maximum recoverable covers months one and two, not the full tenancy. Getting the dates wrong in the form can undermine the credibility of your whole application.
Finally, some tenants make the mistake of threatening an RRO application to their landlord before they've gathered evidence. Landlords who know an application is coming can move quickly to obtain backdated documentation or take steps to muddy the timeline. Gather your evidence first, file the application, then let the tribunal process inform the landlord.
An unlicensed HMO is one of the clearest-cut rent repayment order claims available to tenants. The offence is usually well-documented, the licensing registers are public, and the tribunal is used to hearing these cases.
If you think your HMO had no licence, Remedy can check the council's register for your address and work out which months of rent fall inside the offence period.
