How to fill in the MR1 form

What it is

The MR1 is the form used to apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a determination of an open market rent. It is what turns a disagreement with your landlord into a decision that binds them.

It runs to twenty-one pages, but most of it asks you to describe your home and your tenancy. Only one section asks you to make your case.

The sections that decide the outcome

Everything else is description. These are the ones worth time.

• Section 4.2 — whether you accept the notice is valid, and why not. An invalid notice fails without the rent ever being weighed.
• Section 12.1 — what you say the rent should be. A figure, not a range.
• Section 12.2 — your evidence for it. This is the heart of the application and the part the tribunal actually weighs.
• Section 12.3 — anything else about the property that affects what it would let for.
• Section 15 — hardship, which can delay when the new rent becomes payable.

What people get wrong

• Leaving a section blank. The tribunal returns incomplete applications, and by the time it comes back the deadline has usually passed.
• Putting affordability in 12.2. It belongs in the hardship section; in 12.2 it weakens the evidence around it.
• Sending it without the tenancy agreement and the notice. The checklist on the last page lists what has to be enclosed.
• Signing the statement of truth for answers that are not finished.

You do not have to do it alone

We can complete the MR1 from your answers, attach your evidence and send it — or you can download the blank form from GOV.UK and do it yourself for nothing beyond the tribunal’s own fee.