Section 13 Rent Increase Notice 2026

Section 13 is now the only lawful way to raise the rent on a periodic tenancy in England. With Section 21 abolished and old rent-review clauses no longer reliable, every increase on an assured periodic tenancy runs through one route: the prescribed Form 4A, at least two months’ notice, and no more than once every 52 weeks. Get the form or the dates wrong and the increase is simply void, so it pays to pin the dates down before you serve. The free Section 13 rent increase calculator gives you the earliest valid start date and the tenant’s tribunal-referral deadline in one screen; the Section 13 notice hub has the rules, the void traps and the tribunal position on one page.

Why Section 13 matters in 2026

The Renters’ Rights Act reshapes rent increases for assured periodic tenancies in England. Once every 52 weeks you may propose a new rent using the Section 13 process in the Housing Act 1988. Old rent-review clauses (fixed %, RPI ladders, etc.) in pre-2026 agreements are not a reliable lawful mechanism anymore, you still need Section 13.

Use Renters' Rights Act 2025 hub for the big-picture checklist (Information Sheet, pets, possession). This guide is the rent-increase deep dive. Not legal advice, verify the prescribed form on GOV.UK before serving.

Step 1 : Confirm tenancy type and timing

If you are unsure whether the tenancy is still AST or has become statutory periodic, take solicitor advice, wrong assumptions produce void notices.

Step 2 : Choose the correct prescribed form

Download the current Section 13 notice from GOV.UK (see links on this page). Forms change; photocopying an old PDF from 2023 can invalidate the whole exercise.

Complete:

Once your dates check out, LetCompliance can draft the Section 13 notice as a ready-to-serve PDF from your inputs and store it against the tenancy with a timestamped record, always check it against the live prescribed form before service.

Step 3 : Serve the notice correctly

Use a method you can prove:

Store: copy of the signed/served notice, proof of sending, and a note of date of service.

Step 4 : Tenant response and tribunal risk

The tenant may refer the proposed rent to the First-tier Tribunal if they believe it exceeds market level. Reassuringly, under the RRA the Tribunal may determine a higher or lower open-market rent, but the tenant can never be required to pay more than you proposed, so a referral caps your downside, it does not raise it. That does not mean you cannot increase rent, it means you should document comparables (similar lets nearby) and be prepared to justify open market rent.

If the notice is defective, the increase does not take effect and you may lose months of higher rent while you re-serve. Precision beats optimism.

Common mistakes that invalidate Section 13

Pair this with UK landlord compliance 2026 so Gas Safety, EICR, deposit and Right to Rent→ stay current and evidenced if you ever need Section 8.

Related RRA topics

Check your dates with the free Section 13 calculator →

Generate, serve and track a Section 13 notice in LetCompliance → Free for your first property, no card.

What the tribunal can and cannot do now

This is the part of Section 13 that changed most, and getting it wrong in either direction costs money.

If the tenant refers the notice to the First-tier Tribunal before the proposed start date, the tribunal decides the open market rent for the property. Two limits now apply that did not before:

The practical consequence is that a challenge is now close to free for the tenant, and referrals are more common as a result. Your protection is not the fear of a higher figure, it is the evidence.

That means proposing a rent you can actually support. Three or four genuine comparables — same area, similar size and condition, listed or let recently — attached to your own file before you serve. If your figure is defensible, a referral confirms it. If you have added fifteen per cent because it has been three years, the tribunal will say so.

A worked example

Priya lets a two-bed flat in Bristol at £1,150 a month. Similar flats nearby are letting at £1,300 to £1,350. She has not increased the rent for two years.

She serves Form 4A on 3 March proposing £1,300 from 4 May, giving just over the required two months' notice and starting the new rent on the first day of a rental period. She keeps three comparables from the portals, dated, in the property file.

Two outcomes:

The tenant accepts. The rent is £1,300 from 4 May. Nothing else is required, though updating the standing order or Direct Debit mandate is what actually makes it happen — a surprising number of agreed increases quietly fail because nobody changed the payment.

The tenant refers it to the tribunal. Priya submits the comparables. The tribunal determines the market rent at £1,275. That becomes the rent, effective from the date the tribunal sets rather than backdated to 4 May. She has lost £25 a month against her proposal and gained a figure that is now independently justified.

Had she proposed £1,450 with no comparables, the same referral would likely have produced a similar £1,275, but two months later, with the increase not backdated, and with a tenant relationship worth less than it was.

The mechanics that invalidate a notice

Section 13 is unforgiving about detail because the notice is a statutory instrument, not a letter. The failures are almost always mechanical:

Wrong form. Private landlords use Form 4A. Social landlords use Form 4. Using the wrong one is not a technicality, it is a defective notice.

Too soon. The new rent cannot start until 52 weeks after the last increase took effect. Serving so that it starts eleven months later voids it.

Short notice. At least two months between service and the start date, and allow for the deemed service rules if you post it rather than deliver it.

Wrong start date. The new rent must begin at the start of a rental period. If rent is due on the 4th, the increase starts on a 4th.

Not actually served. Serve on every tenant named on the agreement, not just the one you deal with, and keep proof of how and when.

A side agreement instead. A texted "let's say £1,300 from May" is not a Section 13 notice→. If the tenant later disputes it you have no statutory increase to rely on.

If you would rather not hand-check the dates: LetCompliance generates Form 4A with the twelve-month limit, the notice period and the rental-period start already tested, records service, then updates the rent ledger and the Direct Debit mandate so the new figure is actually collected. £14.99/mo, first property free.