No matter what your tenancy agreement may say (here I am assuming you may use an old AST) you can only increase the rent on the property using Form 4A (Section 13). Any rent review clause in a tenancy agreement is void.
The form requires that you give the notice to the tenants at least two months before you intend the new rent to start, using an anniversary of the tenancy agreement as your starting date.
The landlord must serve EVERY page on the tenant, even any blank pages (ideally get a receipt showing how many pages served). Failure to do so will cause the notice to fail at Tribunal.
Completion
Read all notes on the form
Question 4.2: “The tenancy started on…”
The form itself does not include an explicit guidance note on this question, which is part of the problem.
If there is any doubt about the tenancy start date for a particular property, it would be worth taking legal advice rather than guessing.
Question 4.3: “The most recent rent increase (if applicable) was on…”
The guidance note for Q4.3:
“If there has not been a rent increase since the start of the tenancy, leave blank.”
Where the rent has been increased, enter the date it last changed.
If the rent went up when a new tenancy agreement was signed, that date is likely the relevant one, because the rent increased at that point regardless of the mechanism used.
This matters because the 52 week rule prevents a landlord from increasing rent more than once a year.
The clock runs from the date the increase takes effect, not from the date the notice was served
Question 4.4: “Give the date of the first rent increase after 11 February 2003”
The guidance note for Q4.4 states: “This question is required to show whether 52 weeks or 53 weeks need to pass since the last increase.
See Note A3. If there has not been an increase since 11 February 2003, leave blank.”
See Note A3, at the end of the form,
In most cases, a rent increase must be at least 52 weeks after the previous one. However, the new rent date cannot fall more than 6 days before the anniversary of the date given in Q4.4. If it would, the landlord must wait 53 weeks instead. This is to prevent rent increase dates from drifting earlier each year, because 52 weeks is slightly less than a calendar year.
In practical terms: if you know the date of the first rent increase after 11 February 2003, enter it.
If your records are incomplete, the safest approach may be to use the best information available and keep a note of what you could and could not verify.
If accuracy cannot be established, take legal advice.
Question 4.6: the date the new rent starts
The guidance note for Q4.6 directs the reader to “Note A” at the end of the form, which sets out three requirements.
All three must be met at the same time.
The notice must be served at least two months before the new rent is to take effect.
The new rent cannot start until 52 weeks (or in some cases 53 weeks) have passed since the last increase, or since the tenancy began if there has been no increase.
The new rent must start at the beginning of a tenancy period.
If the tenancy runs monthly from the 15th, for example, the effective date must be the 15th of the relevant month.
Getting any one of these three conditions wrong makes the notice invalid.
The landlord would need to serve a new Form 4A and wait out the full notice period again.
Page 9 of the form contains a signature line and blank space.
The page states: “Include the number of the section and question which is being continued.”
It is a continuation sheet.
If a landlord needs more space to complete any section of the form, page 9 provides it.
It does not require the tenant to sign anything.
There is no requirement anywhere in the form for the tenant to sign, whether to accept or to challenge the proposed rent.
Service and evidence
The note on page 1:
“You need to be able to evidence that you served the notice on your tenant. If your written tenancy agreement specifies agreed methods of service, use one of those. If it does not you can serve it by handing it over to your tenant in person, leaving it at the tenant’s address or sending it by registered post.”
GOV.UK guidance adds that email is an acceptable method of service if the tenancy agreement permits it (GOV.UK, Rent increases).
Whatever method you use, keep evidence.
If you serve by email, keep the sent item showing the attachment and date.
If you serve by post, keep a certificate of posting or tracked delivery receipt.
If a council or tribunal later queries whether the notice was served, the burden falls on the landlord to demonstrate it was.
After you have served the Section 13 form take the opportunity to talk to your tenant to discuss the increased rent and give your tenant the chance to open negotiations. If your tenant opens negotiations and you come to an agreement on the rent this could negate the chances of your tenant succeeding at the Rent Tribunal.
Tenants unhappy with the proposed rent are able to challenge the new rent through the First Tier Tribunal for a fee of £47.
The tribunal determines what the property would reasonably let for on the open market in its actual condition deducting value for damp, disrepair, or lack of modern facilities (such as cold bathrooms or poor heating).
Achieved rents (actual agreed rents for similar local properties) carry much more weight than asking prices on portals like Rightmove.
Larger landlords are likely to be able to provide such evidence, smaller landlords may decide to use the services of an agent, making sure that evidence as above are provided.
The Tribunal decision can be to agree the requested rent or impose a lower rent. The new rent will be from the date of the Tribunal decision and cannot be backdated. The Tribunal can delay the start date of a rent increase by up to two months if an immediate increase would cause undue hardship to the tenant
Rent increases may only be made once a year (52 weeks). If the tenant goes to Tribunal the next rent increase cannot be less than 52 weeks after the new rent is agreed and, if appropriate, after the period allowed for hardship.