A notice only helps you if you can show when and how it was served. Recording service keeps that with the notice.
Who this is for: letting agencies and landlords.
Service: method, date, who served it and the proof.
What you are deciding
How to serve the notice, and so which day it counts as served.
Your options
- Hand delivered or courier. Enter the day it was handed over. Abide.Rent counts it as served that day.
- Royal Mail Special Delivery (registered post). The form's note names registered post where the tenancy agreement names no method; Royal Mail Special Delivery is the service that replaced it. Enter the tracking number and the posting date. Abide.Rent counts it as served on the second working day after posting. Weekends and England and Wales bank holidays are not working days.
- First class post or Royal Mail Signed For. Use these only if the tenancy agreement provides for them: the form's note does not name them. Enter the posting date. Abide.Rent counts it as served on the second working day after posting.
- Email with acknowledgement. The tenant opens the notice in their portal. The times it was opened and acknowledged are stored.
How to do it
- Open the notice. It must be signed before service can be recorded.
- Choose how it was served.
- Enter the date it was posted or handed over, and the tracking or consignment reference if there is one.
- Select Record service and confirm.
What happens next
- The notice shows as served, and the tenants named on it can open it in their portal and respond.
- A certificate of service is added to the notice, with the method, the dates and who recorded it.
- If the notice was sent by email and the email could not be delivered, you are told on the notice so that you can serve it another way.
A worked example
A Form 4A is posted first class on Friday 18 December 2026. The second working day after posting is Tuesday 22 December 2026, because Saturday and Sunday are not counted. Posted on Thursday 24 December 2026 instead, the same notice would count as served on Wednesday 30 December 2026: Christmas Day, the weekend and the bank holiday on Monday 28 December are all skipped. A new rent on that notice could then start no earlier than two months after 30 December.
What Abide.Rent does for you
- Works out the day a posted notice counts as served and shows it before you confirm.
- Adds a certificate of service to the notice.
- Shows the notice to the tenant only once service is recorded.
If something goes wrong
- “Sign the prescribed form before recording service”
What to do: Sign the notice first. - “Service of this notice is already recorded. It cannot be recorded a second time.”
What to do: Service is fixed once recorded. If it was wrong, open a ticket. - “Enter … It is how posting can be shown if the tenant disputes it.”
What to do: Add the certificate of posting or tracking reference. - “Email service is only valid if the tenancy agreement allows it or each tenant has agreed in writing.”
What to do: Record the email service agreement on the tenancy, or serve by post or hand.
Common mistakes
- Entering the day you expect the post to arrive as the posting date.
- Recording service before the notice has actually left your hands.
- Forgetting that a posted notice counts as served two working days later when you chose the start date.
What to do next
Keep reading
All help articlesMore in Notices
Bring past notices and dates onto the recordRecord a notice you served before you used Abide.Rent, a safety record you gave the tenant on paper, or a request received long ago, each with the day it really happened.
Following a tribunal referralFrom the tenant's application to the decision: record the directions, prepare and send your statement, and keep track of an inspection or hearing.
A notice that never took effect can be served againA notice with a defect may never take effect. It does not use up the 52 weeks, so a corrected notice can be served.