Rent increases under the Renters' Rights Act
You can only raise the rent by a section 13 notice on Form 4A, once a year, with at least two months' notice. Use the calculator to find your earliest date.
The rules in short
| Method | Only by a section 13 notice on prescribed Form 4A. Rent review clauses and other mechanisms are not permitted. Source GUIDESource FORMS |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Once per year. Source |
| Notice | At least 2 months' notice before the new rent takes effect. Source |
| Amount | Up to market rent: what the property would achieve if newly advertised. Source |
| Challenge | The tenant can apply to the First-tier Tribunal. The Tribunal cannot set a rent higher than you proposed. There is no backdating: the new rent applies from the determination date. In undue hardship the Tribunal can defer by up to a further 2 months. The tenant pays the old rent until the final decision. Source GUIDESource NEWS |
| Rent in advance | At most one month's rent (28 days' if the rent period is under a month) may be required after signing and before the tenancy starts. Nothing may be required before the agreement is signed. Source |
| Bidding | You must advertise an asking rent and may not ask for or accept more. Source |
| Form | Form 4A is on the assured tenancy forms page. Source |
Do not raise rent by letter, email, text or a rent review clause. Those are not valid. Source GUIDESource FORMS
Official form: Form 4A (section 13 rent increase notice) on gov.uk Source. LetReady never reproduces the form. The completion sheet lists your answers, in order.
The government has announced that rent challenges will later move from the First-tier Tribunal to the HMRC Valuation Office. Until then, tenants apply to the Tribunal. Source
Want this prefilled from your property records, with your landlord details already on the sheet? That is part of the Compliance Pack.