Form 4A is live and here is what the guidance notes actually say

Form 4A has been live for five weeks. In that time, at least two readers’ questions have appeared on Property118 from landlords who cannot work out what to put in Section 4 of the form. The comments underneath those threads show experienced landlords disagreeing with each other about the correct answers.

The frustrating thing is that the form itself contains guidance notes that answer most of these questions. They are printed on the right-hand side of each page and in the “Note A” section at the end. The problem is that the notes are easy to miss, the language is not always plain, and on one or two points, the form creates genuine ambiguity that the notes do not fully resolve.

This article works through the questions that are causing the most confusion, drawing on the Form 4A guidance notes and the GOV.UK rent increase guidance published in November 2025. Where the answer is clear, I will say so. Where it is not, I will say that too.

This article is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. The Form 4A guidance notes, which are part of the prescribed form itself, should be treated as the primary reference. Landlords should seek independent legal advice for their specific circumstances, particularly where tenancy histories are complex.

The basics: what Form 4A is and why it matters

Form 4A is the prescribed form for proposing a rent increase on a periodic assured tenancy in the private rented sector in England. It is published on GOV.UK under “Assured tenancy forms for privately rented properties from 1 May 2026.” It replaced the old Form 4 on 1 May 2026.

From that date, the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 rendered all contractual rent review clauses void for assured periodic tenancies. The Section 13 process using Form 4A is now the only lawful route to increase rent, even where the landlord and tenant have already agreed to the increase informally. GOV.UK guidance is explicit on this point: “You will need to follow the section 13 process every time you increase the rent, even if you have already agreed the increase with your tenants” (GOV.UK, Rent increases).

A notice served using any document other than Form 4A is not valid after 1 May 2026. An invalid notice has no legal effect, and the tenant is not obliged to pay the proposed rent. The landlord would need to start again, which resets the notice period.

Question 4.2: “The tenancy started on…”

This is the first question that trips people up, particularly where tenants have been in the property for years and have signed multiple tenancy agreements during that time.

The form itself does not include an explicit guidance note on this question, which is part of the problem. However, the general understanding among housing practitioners is that Q4.2 refers to the date the tenancy originally began, not the date of the most recent written agreement. Where the same tenant has remained in continuous occupation, signing a replacement tenancy agreement does not usually create a new tenancy for Section 13 purposes.

There is a legitimate debate about whether certain types of renewal can create a new tenancy in law. This has come up in the Property118 comments, and the answer is not always straightforward. If there is any doubt about the tenancy start date for a particular property, it would be worth taking legal advice rather than guessing.

Question 4.3: “The most recent rent increase (if applicable) was on…”

The guidance note for Q4.3 is short and clear: “If there has not been a rent increase since the start of the tenancy, leave blank.”

Where the rent has been increased, enter the date it last changed. If the rent went up when a new tenancy agreement was signed, that date is likely the relevant one, because the rent increased at that point regardless of the mechanism used.

This matters because the 52 week rule prevents a landlord from increasing rent more than once a year. The clock runs from the date the previous increase took effect, not from the date the notice was served.

Question 4.4: “Give the date of the first rent increase after 11 February 2003”

This is the question that has caused the most confusion, both on the old Form 4 and on the new Form 4A.

The guidance note for Q4.4 states: “This question is required to show whether 52 weeks or 53 weeks need to pass since the last increase. See Note A3. If there has not been an increase since 11 February 2003, leave blank.”

Note A3, at the end of the form, explains the purpose. In most cases, a rent increase must be at least 52 weeks after the previous one. However, the new rent date cannot fall more than 6 days before the anniversary of the date given in Q4.4. If it would, the landlord must wait 53 weeks instead. The note explains this is to prevent rent increase dates from drifting earlier each year, because 52 weeks is slightly less than a calendar year.

In practical terms: if you know the date of the first rent increase after 11 February 2003, enter it. If you do not have records going back that far, this is where it gets difficult. The form says to leave it blank if there has not been an increase since that date. It does not say what to do if there was one but you cannot remember the date. If your records are incomplete, the safest approach may be to use the best information available and keep a note of what you could and could not verify. If accuracy cannot be established, take legal advice.

Question 4.6: the date the new rent starts

The guidance note for Q4.6 directs the reader to “Note A” at the end of the form, which sets out three requirements. All three must be met at the same time.

First, the notice must be served at least two months before the new rent is to take effect. Second, the new rent cannot start until 52 weeks (or in some cases 53 weeks) have passed since the last increase, or since the tenancy began if there has been no increase. Third, the new rent must start at the beginning of a tenancy period. If the tenancy runs monthly from the 15th, for example, the effective date must be the 15th of the relevant month.

Getting any one of these three conditions wrong makes the notice invalid. The landlord would need to serve a new Form 4A and wait out the full notice period again.

You must serve the complete form

One Property118 comment asked whether a landlord could print pages 2 to 5 of Form 4A and leave out Section 5, which tells the tenant how to challenge the proposed rent at the First Tier Tribunal.

The answer is no. Form 4A is a prescribed form under Housing Act 1988, section 13(2), as amended. It must be served as published. Removing pages, altering the form, or omitting the tenant information sections risks rendering the notice invalid. The form includes the tribunal information for a reason, and that information is referenced on the first page of the notice itself.

Page 9: the extra sheet

Several landlords have been confused by page 9 of the form, which contains a signature line and blank space. The page itself states: “Include the number of the section and question which is being continued.”

It is a continuation sheet. If a landlord needs more space to complete any section of the form, page 9 provides it. It does not require the tenant to sign anything. There is no requirement anywhere in the form for the tenant to sign, whether to accept or to challenge the proposed rent.

Service and evidence

The note on page 1 of Form 4A states: “You need to be able to evidence that you served the notice on your tenant. If your written tenancy agreement specifies agreed methods of service, use one of those. If it does not you can serve it by handing it over to your tenant in person, leaving it at the tenant’s address or sending it by registered post.”

GOV.UK guidance adds that email is an acceptable method of service if the tenancy agreement permits it (GOV.UK, Rent increases).

Whatever method you use, keep evidence. If you serve by email, keep the sent item showing the attachment and date. If you serve by post, keep a certificate of posting or tracked delivery receipt. If a council or tribunal later queries whether the notice was served, the burden falls on the landlord to demonstrate it was.

The penalty context

Errors on Form 4A do not carry a direct civil penalty in the same way that, say, failing to provide the Written Statement of Terms does. An incorrectly completed form is simply invalid: the proposed rent does not take effect, and the landlord must start again.

The risk is indirect but real. A landlord who continues to collect a higher rent on the basis of an invalid notice has no legal basis for that increase. If the tenant later disputes it, the landlord may need to refund the difference. And where a broader pattern of non-compliance is identified during a council investigation, even administrative errors feed into the picture.

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At LLCR, we built the Rent Increase Notice Builder to walk landlords through the Form 4A fields step by step and flag timing errors before the notice is served. Once served, upload your proof of service and LLCR keeps a cryptographic record using SHA-256 hashing anchored to a public ledger. Every file is timestamped at upload in a way that is independently verifiable and tamper evident. If the service is ever questioned, the hash proves the document existed in that form at that time and has not been altered since.

Not sure where your gaps are? LLCR’s free compliance checker runs through every legal requirement for your tenancy in under two minutes.

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The form is not complicated once you read the guidance notes alongside it. The problem is that most landlords do not, because the notes are crammed into a narrow column on the right hand side of a nine page government PDF. If you are serving your first Form 4A, take ten minutes to read Note A at the end of the form before you fill anything in. Most of the timing questions answer themselves from there.

Have you served a Form 4A yet? Which fields did you find unclear? For those with long-term tenants and patchy records, how did you handle Q4.4?

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Tauhid Islam is a property law paralegal qualifying as a solicitor. He works on tenancy, possession, and compliance matters daily, and founded LLCR, Landlord Compliance Register, to give self-managing landlords in England a single place to track every deadline, certificate, and document the law requires of them.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Always seek independent legal advice for your specific situation.