Rent increase checker: is the notice right, and how does the new rent compare?

What changed on 1 May 2026

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 changed how rent goes up for private tenants in England from 1 May 2026. Every rise now goes through section 13 of the Housing Act 1988: your landlord serves Form 4A, gives at least two months’ notice, and can’t raise the rent more than once every 52 weeks — or at all in a tenancy’s first 52 weeks. Rent review clauses no longer put the rent up. If you challenge a rise, the First-tier Tribunal can no longer set a rent above your landlord’s figure, and applying costs £47.

Tenants are using it: in the six weeks after the new application went live, the tribunal received 10.8 a day, up from 6.9 in the three months before (HMCTS figures obtained by Landlord Studio).

How a section 13 rent increase works

Form 4A gives your current rent, the new rent and the date it starts. It takes effect on that date unless, before then, you apply to the tribunal or agree something lower with your landlord in writing. The date has to pass three tests, which the checker above runs: two months’ notice, a rent day, and 52 weeks since the tenancy began and since the last rise. It never says a notice is valid — it can’t see how the form was filled in or how it reached you.

How much notice must my landlord give?

At least two months, ending on a rent day. Two months runs to the same date two months on, so a notice given on 2 March allows a start on 2 May at the earliest — and if your rent is due on the 1st, the first date that works is 1 June. Form 4A can be handed to you, left at your home or posted, or emailed if your tenancy agreement allows email. A Form 4 served before 1 May 2026 runs on the old rules, which needed one month for a monthly or weekly tenancy.

Can my landlord increase the rent in the first year?

No. The new rent can’t start until 52 weeks after your tenancy began. After that, each rise has to come at least 52 weeks after the last one took effect — counted from the day the higher rent started, not the notice date, and including rises made before 1 May 2026 under a rent review clause.

Weekly rents have one wrinkle. Fifty-two weeks is a day short of a year, so a rise every 52 weeks creeps earlier. Once the date would fall more than six days before the anniversary of the first rise, the gap becomes 53 weeks. Form 4A asks your landlord for that first date at question 4.4.

A worked example

Is my rent increase fair?

The law doesn’t ask whether a rise is fair — a “fair rent” is a separate system for tenancies that began before 1989. It asks for the open-market rent: what a willing landlord could expect for your home, let on your tenancy’s terms. Asking rents are a guide to that, not the answer. Tribunals give most weight to what similar homes actually let for, and to your home’s condition, which is why the checker shows where the new rent sits among homes on the market now, next to the ONS figure for rents being paid, rather than calling it fair.

Challenges often succeed. Of 108 tribunal decisions published since January 2025 that gave both figures, LonRes found 73% set the rent below the landlord’s, by a median of 7.5% where it was cut. Most came under the old rules, when 9% went the other way — which can’t happen to a notice served from 1 May 2026.

How to challenge a rent increase

1. Talk to your landlord. Explain why the figure looks high — the comparison above helps — and ask whether they’ll accept less. Get any agreement in writing.
2. Check the notice. If it isn’t on Form 4A or the dates don’t meet the rules, say so. The tribunal can decide whether a notice is valid (paper form MR1).
3. Gather evidence. Photos of every room and the outside, room sizes, what’s included, repairs needed, and rents for similar homes nearby — agreed rents count for more than adverts.
4. Apply before the start date. Apply online, or send Form MR1 to your regional tribunal office; it must arrive before the new rent starts. It costs £47, with help with fees available. Tell your landlord you’ve applied. Apply on GOV.UK
5. Wait for the decision. Your landlord has 28 days to respond, and many cases are decided on the papers. You keep paying your current rent until then.

What tribunals look at

The tribunal decides what your home would let for on the open market, on your tenancy’s terms. It ignores the effect of you being a sitting tenant, value you added with improvements you didn’t have to make, and value lost because you broke the tenancy terms. It often decides on the papers but can inspect or hold a hearing. You then pay the lower of its figure and your landlord’s (Housing Act 1988, s.14ZB(5)), from the notice’s date or, if that has passed, the first rent day after the decision. It can put the start back by up to two months for undue hardship (s.14ZB(3)–(4)).

Questions renters ask

Sources

Rules last checked 18 October 2026. We re-read every source before changing a rule; where GOV.UK and the legislation differ we follow the legislation — GOV.UK says “once a year”, the Act says 52 weeks.

• GOV.UK — Assured periodic tenancies: a guide for tenants — Rent increases
• GOV.UK — Renters’ Rights Act overview for tenants — Rent increases
• GOV.UK — Assured tenancy forms — Form 4A: Landlord’s notice proposing a new rent for assured tenancies in the private rented sector — questions 4.2–4.6 and Note A, “When the proposed new rent can start”
• GOV.UK — Apply for an open market rent determination — Before you apply, Application fee, When any new rent could start, The tribunal’s decision
• Housing Act 1988, section 13 (as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025) — Section 13(2)(a)–(c), (3A), (3B), (4) and (4A)
• Housing Act 1988, section 14 — Section 14(A3), (1) and (2): applying to the tribunal and what it decides
• Housing Act 1988, section 14ZB — Section 14ZB(3)–(5): when the decided rent starts, hardship, and the cap at the proposed rent
• Renters’ Rights Act 2025 — Sections 6 and 7: rent increases and the tribunal
• SI 2026/421 (Renters’ Rights Act 2025 commencement regulations), regulation 7 — Regulation 7: 52 weeks from a rent review clause increase made before 1 May 2026
• SI 2026/421 (Renters’ Rights Act 2025 commencement regulations), regulation 8 — Regulation 8: notices served before 1 May 2026 keep the old sections 13(4) and 14

Context, cited rather than ours:

• LonRes — Section 13 rent increases: what 200 tribunal decisions reveal (3 August 2026)
• Landlord Studio — rent increase challenges: tribunal data from an HMCTS Freedom of Information request (updated 21 September 2026)
• Shelter England — Challenge a rent increase

Data: Dwellio’s live listings from six property sites (homes seen in the last 14 days, each counted once even when it’s on several sites) and the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, under the Open Government Licence. For asking rents city by city, see the UK rental index.