Rent increases following the Renters Rights Act 2025

The Renters Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and a significant number of measures will come into force on 1 May 2026. One of the significant changes which will be brought about by the Act will be the prohibition for landlords to increase the rent during the life of the tenancy more than once each calendar year.

In this article, solicitor in our real estate dispute resolution team, Liam Musgrave, explains the new measures for increasing rent and the impact they’re expected to have on landlords.

Increasing rent

Even if the tenancy agreement states otherwise, or there are rent review clauses enabling automatic increases, these will be redundant and unenforceable. Any increase of rent will only be initiated by the landlord serving a notice in accordance with Section 13 of the Housing Act 1988.

There is a prescribed form available on the Government website known as ‘Form 4A – Landlord’s notice proposing a new rent for assured tenancies in the private sector’ and this is the form which should be used by a landlord to propose an increased rent for their tenant.

It is worth noting that the rent cannot be increased during the first year of the tenancy and whatever the annual rent is at the commencement date of the tenancy will be the annual rent until at least the expiry of the first year of the tenancy. Tenants can also challenge the initial rent within the first 6 months of the tenancy.

Providing sufficient notice

Form 4A must be given to the tenant at least 2 months prior to when the proposed rent is set to take effect and should be served on the tenant in accordance with the tenancy agreement, which often permits personal service, service by post or by email. If in doubt as to methods of service, we advise landlords to seek legal advice.

Any proposed increase of rent will need to be in line with what the landlord would expect to receive if the property was let on the open market and it will therefore be unreasonable for landlords to propose disproportionately high rents

The First-tier Tribunal

If a tenant believes that the proposed rent is not in line with rent on the open market, they can apply to the First-tier Tribunal to ask for a determination of what the rent should be. The tenant will need to pay an application fee of £47 to make the application and the First-tier Tribunal will only be able to award rent that is lower or equal to the proposed rent in the notice. If a tenant challenges the proposed rent with the First-tier Tribunal, the date upon which the new rent will take effect will be the date of the First-tier Tribunal’s decision, or a date not more than 2 months after the decision, in cases of undue hardship. The new rent will not be backdated to the date of the notice.

Typically, there are no cost consequences in the First-tier Tribunal so if a tenant challenges the rent increase and is unsuccessful, i.e. the First-tier Tribunal agree with the landlord’s proposed rent, there are no adverse costs consequences so a tenant will not necessarily have to pay the landlord’s legal costs in defending the claim and vice versa, unless the First-tier Tribunal consider there has been unreasonable conduct of the either party.

If the proposed rent is not challenged by the Tenant, then the proposed rent for the assured periodic tenancy will take effect following expiry of the 2-month notice period given in Form 4A.

Seeking specialist advice

It will be interesting to see whether the First-tier Tribunal are flooded with claims brought by tenants looking to challenge the rent proposed by their landlords.

As a final note, it is important that the notice is compliant and that the prescribed form is used to reduce any arguments regarding its validity. We would recommend that any landlords looking to increase the rent for an assured periodic tenancy seek legal advice before doing so.

For more information regarding rent increases for assured periodic tenancies, or the Renters Rights Act 2025 generally, please contact Liam Musgrave at [email protected] or 0191 211 7736.