How the rule works
From 1 May 2026 almost every private tenancy in England is an assured periodic tenancy, and a Section 13 notice is the route to put the rent up. A rent review clause in the tenancy agreement can no longer do it. The notice names a new rent and the date it starts. That date has to pass three tests.
- Two months’ notice. The start date must be at least two months after the notice is served. Service is the date the tenant is treated as receiving it, not the date you wrote it.
- 52 weeks since the last change. The start date must be at least 52 weeks after the last Section 13 increase or tribunal-set rent took effect. For the first increase, count from the start of the tenancy.
- The start of a period. The new rent must begin on the first day of a rent period. On a monthly tenancy that is the rent day, for example the 1st of each month.
The earliest valid date is the later of the first two dates, moved forward to the next rent day. You can choose a later date, but never an earlier one. A date that is too early is the most common reason a notice fails. A notice that never took effect can be served again. You lose the two months’ notice — and longer if nobody spots the defect until the tribunal.
A worked example
A tenancy started on Thu 1 January 2026 at £1,500 a month, with rent due on the 1st. The landlord wants £1,650, an increase of 10%.
| Posted first class | Thu 24 December 2026 |
|---|---|
| Treated as served | Wed 30 December 2026 (Christmas, the weekend and the Boxing Day substitute holiday are skipped) |
| Two months later | Sun 28 February 2027 |
| 52 weeks after the start | Thu 31 December 2026 |
| Earliest new rent | Mon 1 March 2027, the next rent day after Sun 28 February 2027 |
| Tenant can apply to the tribunal until | Sun 28 February 2027 |
Here the notice period sets the date. Had the same notice been handed to the tenant on Mon 12 October 2026, two months would have run out on Sat 12 December 2026, before the 52-week line on Thu 31 December 2026. The 52-week rule would then set the date, and the earliest new rent would be Fri 1 January 2027.
Common mistakes
- Counting from the day you post it. Allow for deemed service. Posting on a Friday before a bank holiday weekend can cost several days, and sometimes a whole month if it pushes the date past a rent day.
- Starting mid-period. A date that is not a rent day fails the third test even if it is more than two months away.
- Reading 52 weeks as “a year”. 52 weeks is 364 days. The rule runs from when the last increase took effect, not from when its notice was served.
- Emailing without written consent. Email is only good service if the tenant agreed to it in writing. Otherwise serve by hand or post, and keep proof.
- Using an old form. Secondary sources say Form 4A replaced the earlier form from 1 May 2026. Check gov.uk before you serve.
- Proposing a figure you cannot support. The tenant can ask the tribunal to decide the market rent. In Abide.Rent’s analysis of the first 77 tribunal decisions under the new rules, 60% set the rent below the landlord’s proposal, 40% confirmed it, and the median cut was 5%. In 18%, the rent did not go up at all. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Check the figure first with the tribunal risk checker.
What changed under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025
The tenancy reforms took effect on 1 May 2026. Section 21 “no-fault” possession ended. Fixed terms became assured periodic tenancies. Section 13 became the way to increase the rent, at most once every 52 weeks, with two months’ notice.
The tenant can apply to the First-tier Tribunal at any time before the new rent takes effect. The tribunal decides what the home would let for on the open market. It cannot set a rent higher than the one you proposed, so asking for more than the market will bear does not protect you. If it decides after the date on your notice, the new rent starts from the first rent day on or after the decision. There is no backdating, and for hardship it can set a later start, within two months of the decision.
Serving the notice and keeping proof
The date only works if you can show when the tenant was served. Write down who served it, how, where and when. For hand delivery, note the time and whether it was handed to the tenant or put through the door, and take a photo. For post, get a free certificate of posting at the counter. For email, keep the tenant’s written agreement to email service and the sent message with its attachment.
Serve every tenant named on the tenancy. Keep a copy of exactly what was served, not a later edit. If a joint tenant moved out without the tenancy changing, take advice before you serve.
What Abide.Rent does automatically
Abide.Rent keeps the 52-week clock for every tenancy, so the next lawful date is always on the property record. When you start a rent review it works out the earliest date from the service method and the rent day, prepares the notice, and records how and when you served it, with a copy each party keeps. It checks the proposed rent against local evidence before you commit to it. You still serve the notice yourself.
Form 4A and Form 3A follow the prescribed forms in SI 2026/354, checked against the GOV.UK versions. Not legal advice.