Explaining an above-inflation rent increase to a long-term, well-liked tenant

"We Need to Talk About Your Rent" — A Guide for Tenants Facing an Above-Inflation Increase

There's a particular kind of dread that comes with opening a letter from your landlord and seeing the words "rent review." You've been a good tenant. You pay on time. You've looked after the place. And they like you — they've said as much. None of that stops the number in the letter from being higher than you expected.

This post is for you. It explains what's actually happening, what the rules are (and they changed significantly in May 2026), and what you can do about it.

First: what you're feeling is legitimate

Being a good tenant doesn't insulate you from rent increases. It should — it feels like it should — but the maths of the rental market don't work that way, and a landlord who genuinely values you can still serve you a notice that stings. If the number is large enough to feel like a threat to staying where you live, that's a reasonable thing to feel.

That said: liking you and wanting to keep you does give you something to work with. We'll come back to that.

The rules changed. Here's what they are now.

If your tenancy is in England, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 came into force on 1 May 2026, and it changed how rent increases work. Significantly.

The short version: there is now only one lawful way for a landlord to raise your rent. Everything else — including any rent review clause that might be sitting in your tenancy agreement — is no longer valid.

Here's what the law actually requires.

The only valid mechanism is Section 13 / Form 4A.

Since 1 May 2026, the only route a landlord can use to increase rent on a private residential tenancy in England is a formal Section 13 notice, served on the prescribed Form 4A. Not a letter. Not an email. Not a notice that contains all the right information but uses the wrong document. The prescribed form, correctly served.

This matters because a landlord who sends you an email saying "rent going up by £X from next month" has not — regardless of what the email says — served a valid rent increase notice. The existing rent continues until they do it properly.

Any term in your tenancy agreement that purports to allow a rent increase by any other route — a clause saying rent will increase by CPI each year, a stepped rent provision, a rent review to be agreed by addendum — is, in the words of the legislation, "of no effect." Gone. It doesn't matter what you signed in 2022.

The timing rules.

Three constraints apply at once, and all three have to be satisfied for the notice to be valid:

• The rent can only be increased once a year, and not until 52 weeks have passed since the tenancy began.
• The landlord must give at least two full months' notice — this doubled under the new Act, from one month to two.
• The new rent must start at the beginning of a rent period, on your usual payment date.

If any of these conditions aren't met, the notice is invalid and the existing rent continues. The landlord has to start again.

How Form 4A can be served.

First-class post, hand delivery, or a process server. Email is not valid service unless you've given written agreement that email service is acceptable. A WhatsApp message from your landlord saying "just a heads up, rent going up" is not a valid Section 13 notice.

So when a notice arrives: check it properly

Before you decide what to do, spend five minutes on the basics.

Is it actually Form 4A? Not a letter headed "Notice of Rent Increase." The actual prescribed form. If you're not sure, you can find Form 4A on GOV.UK.

Is the notice period right? Count from when you received it to the date the new rent is supposed to start. Two full months, landing on your rent payment date.

Has it been less than 12 months since your last increase? If so, this notice is invalid regardless of anything else.

If any of these checks fail, the increase can't take effect. Write to your landlord — calmly, factually — noting the specific issue. They'll need to re-serve correctly before anything changes.

If the notice is valid: you have options

A valid Form 4A doesn't mean you simply have to pay the new figure. You have a choice to make.

Option one: negotiate.

Your landlord has already told you, implicitly, that they want to keep you. Long-term tenants who pay reliably and look after a property are worth something. The cost and hassle of finding someone new — void period, referencing, potential redecoration, the uncertainty of a stranger — is real. You have more leverage than you might think.

This is also where the "above inflation" piece matters. If inflation is running at, say, 3% and the proposed increase is 10%, you have a reasonable basis for a conversation. You might not get the full increase reversed — but you might get it reduced, or phased, or agreed as a fixed ceiling for two years. None of that requires lawyers. It requires a calm, specific counter-proposal.

Option two: refer it to the First-tier Tribunal.

You have the right to refer the proposed rent to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) before the new rent takes effect. The tribunal will look at the open market rent for a comparable property in similar condition — and it will set the rent at that figure. That figure might be lower than what your landlord proposed, or equal to it. The tribunal cannot award a rent higher than the figure stated in the notice, but it can go lower.

This matters: if your current rent is already below the local market rate, a tribunal referral might result in a higher rent being set, not a lower one. It's worth checking what comparable properties are actually renting for in your area before you go this route. Rightmove and Zoopla give you a reasonable starting point.

While the tribunal is considering the case, the rent is frozen at the current level. The process is free for tenants.

Anyhoo — the tribunal route is most useful when you have reason to believe the proposed rent is genuinely above market. If the market supports the figure, negotiation is likely the more practical path.

A note on security of tenure

One thing worth knowing, if you don't already: since 1 May 2026, landlords in England can no longer serve a Section 21 "no-fault" notice. It's gone. To end a tenancy, a landlord now needs a legal ground for possession under Section 8.

This changes the dynamics of a rent increase conversation somewhat. A landlord who wants to keep you has fewer tools to pressure you than they used to. You can push back on a rent increase without the background anxiety that doing so might trigger a "no-fault" eviction. That's a meaningful shift.

What this situation usually actually is

Most above-inflation rent increases from landlords who like their tenants are not bad faith. They are usually a combination of: rising mortgage costs, rising insurance costs, fear of falling further behind market rate, or pressure from a letting agent who has benchmarked the property against current listings.

None of that makes the increase easy to absorb — and none of it changes the fact that you have a process to check, options to weigh, and leverage you may not have realised you had. In most cases, a landlord raising rent on a tenant they value is not trying to extract every possible pound — they're trying to manage their own position. That's something you can have a conversation with, and it's a conversation you're now better placed to have.

Know the process. Check the notice. Understand your options. Then have the conversation from a position of being informed rather than rattled.

That's the practical bit done.

Thanks for reading — hope it's useful.

Doug

Cheers, Doug