Raise the rent with a section 13 notice

The rent can go up only by a section 13 notice on Form 4A, a lower rent or no change agreed after one, or a tribunal’s decision. The app fills in Form 4A for you.

1. Open the property from Properties, then open Notices and letters.
2. Under Rent increases, tap Prepare Rent Increase Notice.
3. Enter The day the tenant will get it and the Proposed rent per month (£).
4. Answer the questions under When this tenancy began, Rental periods and Earlier increases. They decide the earliest start.
5. Check The date the new rent starts (question 4.6). The app fills in the earliest the rules allow, and you can choose a later one.
6. Check Names and addresses on the notice, answer Bills and charges in the rent (question 4.7), and under Signing (page 5) choose How will you sign it?.
7. Tap Prepare Notice. The app makes it only if the rules hold for the day the tenant will get it.

The app then opens Serve a document with the notice chosen. For each tenant, it says whether the email serves it or is only a copy, and a copy still has to be given on paper. Serving it records the notice, and how and when it was served, in the evidence file.

What the law says

• The new rent starts at the beginning of a rental period, at least two calendar months after the notice is served.
• A notice whose new rent doesn’t start on the first day of a rental period is invalid. Which day each period starts comes from the tenancy agreement, and it isn’t always the rent day.
• A first increase can start no earlier than 52 weeks after the tenancy’s first rental period began. After an increase by notice or tribunal decision, the next can start no earlier than 52 weeks after it took effect, or in some cases 53.
• The Act doesn’t say when a posted notice counts as served, so the app uses the day it was received.

Keep comparable rents with it

1. On the open notice, tap Add Comparable Rents.
2. Check the Title, add a Note if you like, and under Files or photos tap Choose Files.
3. Tap Save to Evidence File.

They are kept, dated, in the tenancy’s evidence file: your record of what you based the new rent on.

Record a notice you served another way

1. Under Rent increases, tap Record Rent Increase Notice.
2. Enter Date the tenant received it, and choose How it was served.
3. Enter the Proposed rent per month (£) and answer the same questions.
4. Enter The date the new rent starts, as written in the notice, and tap Record Notice.

A tenancy from before 1 May 2026 may get one more question first, under Before 1 May 2026. Then see After a rent increase notice.

Try it in the sample account