Landlords raise rents after Renters’ Rights Act implementation

For anyone in the 36% planning an increase: since 1 May every increase on an assured periodic tenancy has to go through the Section 13 process, even if the tenant agrees. That means Form 4A, at least two months’ notice, no more than once a year, and not in the first year of the tenancy (GOV.UK, “Rent increases”). Rent review clauses no longer work for increases agreed before 1 May that take effect after it. The tenant can ask the First-tier Tribunal to decide the rent if they think it’s above open market rent, so keep the comparables you relied on (similar nearby properties, with dates and sources) alongside the notice and proof of service.

Landlords, be aware that if you seek an increase and the tenant challenges it, the tribunal may reduce the rent. Unless you have good evidence that the market rent is higher, it is risky to “try it on”. Leave things as they are and the rent stays the same.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 09:14
Yes but this is rent freeze. Unless the tribunal case load goes exponential we LLs should not fear ‘potential’ tribunal. 70% of us have good relationships with tenants so they also see it as reasonable that rents increase year on year. I will continue to raise rents at a reasonable rate for simple reason supply is down and demand is up. It will simply just be more of a negotiation with my tenants. My form 4A will say £w,xyz per month rent and I will informally offer them £w,xyz-£50 per month rent “as they have been great tenants and I dont want to lose them” but will still be a rent increase.

We should not accept rent freezes unless Burham decides it law due (via Covid emergency powers ) to cost of living crisis ( which has been here for years as we are all over taxed)

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 09:14
For landlords who are not incorporated and who use buy-to-let mortgages, with interest rates going up and no option to offset the costs against rents leaving things as they are is not a sustainable option, unless you are already at the top end of market rent for every property in your portfolio. But market rent is not necessarily rent based on an historical average…it also takes account of recently advertised rents and current portal rents.
Both Rachel Reeves and John Healey have also increased the tax on rents from property held outside a limited company as the Labour Renters Rights Act has come in, which means that even if you are a small, non-incorporated landlord who owning rental property outright with no external finance you are being penalised over and over again, unless you raise rents in response. If you have not increased your rent on any property to market rent already you may have difficulty doing it later if further restrictions on rent increases come in.
So nobody should be surprised at all if a 1/3 of landlords have increased rents in response to the Labour Renters Rights Act: The Renters Rights Act is inflationary and both Rachel Reeves and John Healeys recent tax changes to rental income are also inflationary. Agents should have a very accurate steer on what local rents are for any property: For anybody using an agent (I use an agent) if the agent is now NOT advising you to increase rents year-on-year you need to be questioning whether you are using the right agent.

If you need to maintain a minimum yield Ian in order for the property to be worth while keeping ( a basic principle), together with a recent suite of small additional compulsory costs, then an annual increase at least a bit above inflation is surely necessary, and that should in theory match market rent, certainly if you’re running it as a business.
Every other business has additional costs which aren’t questioned, so landlords should be confident that they’re doing the right thing.
Tenants need to start valuing the properties we are providing as a starting point.

Reply to the comment left by Accommod8 at 12:03
A landlord may well decide to sell because he cannot make a profit but the market rent for a property is not directly correlated with additional costs that the landlord has to bear. I disagree that “an annual increase at least a bit above inflation is surely necessary” and the tribunals will not accept that. Annual increases may be desirable but for a long time, many landlords did not increase rents for existing tenants for years.
As I have said, it is now risky to try for annual increases as it gives the tenant the opportunity to have a one-way bet and possibly to obtain a rent reduction.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 02/11/2026 – 12:18
If everyone sits on their hands this is equivalent to a rent freeze.

Landlords need to raise rents annually by additional costs imposed by government (including time spent administering government edicts) PLUS an annual inflation index amount. We are running businesses (despite tax laws that fail to recognise this), not charities.

If we do not do this market rents will go down, not up. If we do this the market rent figures the tribunals see will go up.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 02/11/2026 – 12:18
This is true, but ten years ago my agent used to advice me (as a small portfolio landlord) to hold rents down to reduce the risk of a void period: Now the same agent advises me to put rents up year-on-year because of a raft of government changes putting up costs, taxes and risks.

Mark Alexander has published research elsewhere on this website indicating that at least as demonstrated by a sample of Property 118 landlords the small landlords have been less likely to raise rents historically than the large landlords and it may well be that other agents gave the same advice to their clients historically as I received; it is also likely that small landlords did not want to “rock the boat” if they had no current problems.

If larger numbers of small landlords either experience significant rate increases on their BTL mortgages (which they cannot now offset against revenues as they used to do historically) and if they also start to notice the impact of both Rachel Reeves and John Healeys tax penalties on their rental income then they are more likely to review their rents against current advertised market rents and see if they can now increase them even if they didn’t previously. Because small portfolio landlords are the bulk of the market this will have the effect of increasing average market rents.

However, what we call market rent is not based on historical average rents and it takes account of current asking rents, current advertised rents and current portal rents. Because Labour’s Renters Rights Act prohibits landlords from taking more than the advertised rent it is very likely that landlords and their agents will now be pushing up advertised rents, and this feeds into market rents.

It is the government that is rocking the boat and creating waves in the Private Rental Sector and nobody should be surprised if that puts rents up: The Office of Government Responsibility has already told John Healey that his and Rachel Reeves’ recent fiscal changes will put rents up; he’s doing it anyway and in doing so he is using tenants as tax collectors.

Reply to the comment left by Crouchender at 02/11/2026 – 10:38
Yup, exactly my policy..done three so far this way. Agree on phone in exactly the same way as before but tell them the form will say more and they just need to come back by email to counter offer the figure we agreed on the phone. I do object to having to piss around like this though and for an hmo the form is lunacy. I have to tell them if any bills included in the rent have changed. Yeah my water bill reduced massively because thames water were ripping me off by over charging massively for the years before! What a load of useless info a tenant doesn’t want and doesn’t need and what a complete waste of my time! Lunatics and asylums!

Reply to the comment left by Accommod8 at 02/11/2026 – 12:03
For anybody currently wrestling with this, try this. Choose your current favourite AI tool…that might be whatever your iPad gives you as a default, it might be Copilot if you are using Microsoft Software, it could be Claud. But choose an AI bot rather than choosing the search engine that you used to use in the past. Type this question into the AI chatbot:

“What is current market rent for a [Type of property e.g. 3-bed semi or 2-bed flat] property for the postcode [your chosen postcode] based on recently advertised rents and any publicly available data on current market rents in this postcode.”

Having got that answer, save it and try the same question for the adjacent postcodes. And if you think that this area is an area that for some reason would attract renters of this type of property from a comparable postcode somewhere else, use that postcode as well. If the AI model you are using is a good one it will give you both the answer, and the sources.

AI will give you an answer to all those questions in seconds. You can dump your findings into a word document in seconds, but AI will do that for you as well. Having got your document with the sources you can review that against what you are charging as rent for your current property. And if you are using an agent you can send it to your agent and say “…why aren’t we charging market rent for my property.”