Clarent › Renters' Rights Act › Form 4A rent increase
Form 4A: what the dates actually mean
Most of a Section 13 rent increase is settled and simple. One part of Form 4A — the date boxes asking when the tenancy started and when rent was last increased — is genuinely argued over by people who know the Act well. This page separates the two, because everywhere else runs them together.
What is settled
| The form | Form 4A for a privately rented assured tenancy. Form 4 still exists but covers social housing only SI 2026/354. |
| Notice | Two months before the new rent takes effect. The old variable "minimum period" in s.13(3) was omitted on 1 May 2026 and replaced with a flat two months. |
| Frequency | Once every 52 weeks. See the exact wording below. |
| Rent review clauses | No longer have any effect. Section 13 is the only route to increase rent. |
| Tribunal | The First-tier Tribunal cannot set a rent higher than you proposed. It may match it or go lower. Where it determines a rent, that rent applies from the date of determination. |
The Tribunal point is worth dwelling on, because it reverses the pre-2026 position and a lot of landlords still believe the old rule. A tenant challenging your figure can no longer end up paying more than you asked. If your paperwork says otherwise, it is out of date.
What section 13 actually says about timing
The date questions on Form 4A exist to satisfy this. It is worth reading the statute rather than a summary of it, because the exact words are what the disagreement turns on.
s.13(2) — the new rent may take effect at the beginning of a new period beginning not earlier than: (a) the minimum period after service; (b)(ii) "the date that falls 52 weeks after the date on which the first period of the tenancy began"; and (c)(ii) if rent "has previously been increased by virtue of a notice under this subsection or a determination under section 14", the appropriate date.
s.13(3A) — the appropriate date is 53 weeks after the last increase in the case covered by s.13(3B), and 52 weeks after the last increase in any other case.
s.13(3B) — applies where rent "has been increased by virtue of a notice under this section or a determination under section 14" at least once after the Regulatory Reform (Assured Periodic Tenancies) (Rent Increases) Order 2003 came into force, and the fifty-third week after the last such increase begins more than six days before the anniversary of the first such increase. Housing Act 1988, s.13, as amended
Where the argument is
Form 4A asks for the date the tenancy started, the date of the most recent rent increase "if applicable", and the date of the first rent increase after 11 February 2003 — the day the 2003 Order came into force. On a tenancy that has run for years through a series of renewal agreements, none of those questions has an obvious answer, and experienced people answer them differently.
The narrow reading
Only increases made through the section 13 process count. On this view the date boxes are blank where rent has only ever been raised by agreement or by signing a new tenancy at a higher figure, and "if applicable" is doing real work in the wording.
The broad reading
Any increase in the rent counts, whatever mechanism produced it, so you enter the date the current rent first became payable. This is the more cautious answer and the one more commonly given.
What the statute's own words point at
We are not going to tell you the argument is resolved, because it isn't. But it is worth noticing that s.13(3B)(a) does not say "increased". It says increased "by virtue of a notice under this section or a determination under section 14". That phrase is narrower than any rise in rent, and it is the statute's own language rather than a gloss on it. Nobody appears to quote it in the discussions we have seen.
The three limbs of s.13(2) are joined by "and", so they all apply at once — limb (b), the 52 weeks from when the first period of the tenancy began, is not switched off by anything. It is a floor that is always there.
But on any tenancy that has been running for more than a year, that floor is already long past, so it is satisfied whichever date you would have entered. Where rent has previously been increased by a section 13 notice or a section 14 determination, limb (c) — 52 weeks from that increase — is the later date and therefore the one that actually binds. So the argument about what "the tenancy started on" means, while real, changes the answer far less often than the discussion around it suggests.
What to do in practice
- If you have never served a section 13 notice, the operative date is 52 weeks from when the first period of the tenancy began. If a chain of renewal agreements makes that ambiguous, the earliest plausible date is the conservative choice — it can only make your notice later, not invalid.
- If you have served one before, work from the date that increase took effect and add 52 weeks — or 53 in the narrow s.13(3B) case, which is about weekly-paid rents and the fact that 52 weeks is 364 days.
- Give two months' notice and make sure the new rent starts at the beginning of a period of the tenancy.
- Download Form 4A fresh from GOV.UK each time. Like Form 3A, the regulations point at whichever version the Secretary of State has published at the time, so a stored copy can go out of date without any announcement.
- If the dates in your history are genuinely unclear, this is a sensible thing to take to a housing solicitor or the NRLA helpline before serving. A wrong date costs you the increase for a year, not the tenancy.
Common questions
Can I still use a rent review clause in the tenancy agreement?
No. Section 13 is now the only mechanism for increasing rent on an assured tenancy. A review clause in the agreement has no effect, whatever it says.
What happens if the tenant challenges the increase?
They apply to the First-tier Tribunal before the new rent is due to start. The Tribunal cannot set a rent above what you proposed — it can match it or reduce it — and the rent it determines applies from the date of the determination.
Form 4 or Form 4A?
Form 4A for privately rented assured tenancies since 1 May 2026. Form 4 is now social housing only. Serving the wrong prescribed form is a common way to lose the increase.
Is this legal advice?
No. It is a plain-English reading of section 13 with the statute quoted so you can check it yourself, and it says openly where the position is unsettled rather than pretending otherwise. For a specific tenancy history, take advice.
Serving one yourself?
The UK Renters' Rights Pack includes a Section 13 serve-guide — the timing rules, the Tribunal position, and a service record to complete and keep. It does not reproduce Form 4A itself, because the regulations define that as whichever version GOV.UK is publishing when you serve.
£24 once, no subscription, 30-day refund. Or read the full Renters' Rights Act guide free — and see Section 8 and Form 3A if you are ending a tenancy rather than repricing one.