Following a tribunal referral

When a tenant applies to the tribunal about a rent increase, the referral opens on the notice's page as soon as you record the application. It closes when the tribunal decides or the tenant withdraws.

Who this is for: letting agencies and landlords.

What you are deciding

What the tribunal has asked of you, by when, and what you need to show that you did it.

Your options

Awaiting directions. The tribunal has the application but has not yet said what it wants. Nothing is due from you yet.
Statement due. The directions have arrived with the date your statement is due. This is the deadline that matters.
Statement sent. You have sent your statement and recorded how and when. Wait for the decision, or for an inspection or hearing date.
Decided or withdrawn. The referral closes and the determined rent goes on the notice's record.

How to do it

On the notice, record the tenant's application. The referral opens.
When the tribunal's directions arrive, select Record directions: the date received, the date your statement is due and the case reference. Attach the directions.
Select Draft statement. Abide.Rent drafts a plain-text statement from the review, the comparable lettings, the condition record and the notice, and lists any gaps. Edit it as you need: it is a draft, not advice.
Send the statement to the tribunal yourself, then select Record what you sent: the date, how you sent it (email, post, the tribunal's portal or by hand) and a copy of what you sent.
Record any inspection or hearing date the tribunal gives. Each one appears in your deadlines.

When the Valuation Office takes over

The government intends rent referrals to move from the First-tier Tribunal to a rent service run by the Valuation Office Agency. No date has been set. When it is, Abide.Rent will show the new body on new referrals; referrals already open stay where they are.

A worked example

A tenant applies on Wednesday 18 November 2026 and the agent records it the same day. Directions arrive on Monday 4 January 2027: the landlord's statement is due by Monday 1 February 2027, the tenant's by Monday 15 February 2027, and the tribunal will decide on paper. The agent drafts the statement on Tuesday 19 January 2027; the draft flags that the condition record has no date for the new boiler, which she adds. She emails the statement on Wednesday 27 January 2027 and records it with the PDF she sent. The median wait suggests a decision in the spring; the referral shows the expected date.

What Abide.Rent does for you

Opens the referral when the application is recorded and closes it on the decision or a withdrawal.
Puts the statement deadline, inspection and hearing in your deadlines and on Today.
Drafts a statement from what the review already holds, and says what is missing.
Keeps the directions, what you sent and when, and each file with who uploaded it. Everything attached to a referral stays available on any plan.

If something goes wrong

No referral appears after the tenant applied
What to do: The referral opens when you record the outcome “Tenant applied to the tribunal” on the Form 4A. Record it with the acknowledgement.
“Enter the date the landlord's statement is due, from the directions.”
What to do: The directions letter gives the date. Enter it; it becomes a deadline on Today and the calendar.
“The statement cannot be due before the directions arrived.”
What to do: Check the two dates against the directions letter and correct whichever is wrong.
“Attach the statement as it was sent, so the record shows what the tribunal received.”
What to do: Attach the signed statement you sent, then record how it went.

Common mistakes

Recording directions without the statement due date. It is the one date you cannot miss.
Sending the draft unread. It is a starting point built from your records.
Sending the statement without recording it. Your record of what you sent, and when, is your proof.