How to apply for a rent increase

1. Check which route applies. Fixed term with a rent review clause: follow the clause. Fixed term without one: you need the tenant's written agreement or you wait. Periodic assured tenancy: the statutory section 13 notice is the route.
2. Check the twelve-month rule. On the statutory route, twelve months must have passed since the tenancy started or since the last increase took effect. Serving early makes the notice invalid.
3. Evidence the new rent. Collect three or four genuinely comparable current local listings, adjusted for size, condition, furnishing and EPC band. This is the evidence the tribunal would weigh, and the reasoning the tenant will ask for.
4. Tell the tenant informally first. A short message explaining the figure and the reasoning, sent before the formal notice, prevents most disputes and most tribunal referrals.
5. Complete the prescribed Form 4. Name every tenant exactly as on the tenancy agreement, state the property address, the current rent, the proposed rent and the date it starts — which must be the first day of a rental period.
6. Give the full notice period. Serve with at least the minimum period for the tenancy, plus deemed postal service time. Never serve on the last possible day.
7. Serve it and prove it. Serve as the tenancy agreement permits. Keep a dated copy, a certificate of service or proof of posting, and note the date in the property file.
8. Update the ledger from the start date. Change the expected rent in your records from the date on the notice, so any later arrears calculation reconciles to the correct contractual rent.

For how much you can increase by and how the tribunal decides market rent, see the fuller rent increases guide.

• Use the current version of the form — old versions are refused.
• All tenants named, spelled as on the tenancy agreement, including any who have moved out on paper only.
• The full property address as it appears on the agreement.
• The existing rent, the proposed rent, and whether the figures include or exclude council tax and water.
• The start date: the first day of a rental period, after the notice period expires.
• Your name and address for service, signed and dated.

A defective notice does not raise the rent. If the tenant later pays only the old figure, the difference is not arrears — which is how possession claims built on a bad increase collapse.

A monthly periodic tenancy at £1,100, with rent due on the 5th. The last increase took effect on 5 October last year, so the twelve months are clear. Comparables support £1,175. You message the tenant on 1 September explaining the figure, then serve Form 4 on 3 September proposing £1,175 from 5 November — comfortably more than the minimum period, allowing for postal service.

The tenant does not refer it. From 5 November the expected rent in the ledger becomes £1,175, an extra £900 a year. Run it through the rental yield calculator against the cost of a one-month void — roughly £1,175 plus re-letting — and the case for a modest, well-evidenced increase over an aggressive one usually makes itself.

• Serving inside twelve months of the last increase.
• A start date that is not the first day of a rental period.
• Too little notice, or no allowance for deemed service.
• Using a letter or email instead of the prescribed form on the statutory route.
• Missing a joint tenant off the notice.
• Using Form 4 during a fixed term with no rent review clause.
• No proof of service, so the date the notice was given cannot be established.

The tenant can refer the proposed rent to the First-tier Tribunal before the start date. They cannot simply decline a valid notice, but a referral pauses the figure until the tribunal determines the open market rent. Bring comparables, photographs of condition, the EPC and any recent improvements.

For the practical response — deadlines, what to send, and when to negotiate instead — see what to do if a tenant disputes the notice.