Blog
Expert guides on tenant rights, rent increases, and the Section 13 process in England.
Do I pay the old or the new rent while my challenge is at the tribunal?
You have referred your rent increase to the tribunal, and now the most practical question of all hits you: which rent do I actually pay each month while I wait? The old figure or the new one the landlord asked for? Get this wrong and you can drift into technical arrears, or hand over money you may never see again. The answer depends on whether your notice was served before or after 1 May 2026, and the safe method is simpler than most tenants fear. This walkthrough explains exactly which figure to pay, how to protect yourself from arrears, and what to do if you have already paid the new amount by mistake. England only, periodic assured tenancies.
Your landlord has died and a rent increase has arrived: what now?
When a landlord dies, the tenancy does not die with them. It carries on, and so does the rent. But a rent increase that arrives after a death raises questions an ordinary Section 13 notice does not: who has the authority to serve it, who you should actually be paying, and whether the notice is even valid if the estate has not been sorted out yet. Get this wrong and you could pay the wrong person or accept an increase served by someone with no power to serve it. This walkthrough explains who can validly raise the rent after a landlord dies, who to pay in the meantime, how to check the notice, and what to write. England only, periodic assured tenancies.
Your landlord put the service charge up in the Section 13 notice: can they do that?
Plenty of Section 13 rent increase notices quietly do two jobs at once: they put the rent up, and they put the service charge up. Tenants assume both stand or fall together. They do not. A variable service charge, the kind that changes year to year to reflect actual costs, cannot legally be increased through a Section 13 notice at all. If your landlord has rolled a service charge rise into the rent increase, part of that notice may be unenforceable, and spotting it can change what you actually owe. This walkthrough explains how to tell which kind of service charge you have, what Section 13 can and cannot touch, how to challenge the part that does not belong, and what to write to your landlord. England only, periodic assured tenancies.
Reasonable adjustments and interpreters at a rent tribunal hearing: how to ask and what you can get
If a disability, a health condition, or a language barrier would make a rent tribunal hearing harder for you, the tribunal can adjust how it runs. You have to ask, and ask early, but the support is there: interpreters, documents in larger print or other formats, extra breaks, more time, a different hearing format, or help for a hearing or sight impairment. This walkthrough explains what reasonable adjustments the First-tier Tribunal can make for a rent challenge, how to request them, and how to ask for an interpreter, with a request template. England only, Section 13 rent challenges.
Can the tribunal set my rent higher than the landlord asked? The rule that changed on 1 May 2026
The single biggest reason tenants never challenge a rent increase is the fear it could backfire and leave them paying more than the landlord asked for. Under the old rules that was a real risk. Since 1 May 2026 it is not: the First-tier Tribunal can no longer set your rent above the figure your landlord proposed. This walkthrough explains exactly what changed, why the old deterrent existed, what the worst case is now, and how to check which rule applies to your notice. England only, Section 13 rent challenges.
The landlord served a fresh Section 13 after the first one was defective: what now?
Spotting a defect in a Section 13 rent increase notice is a win, but landlords often respond by simply serving a corrected one. This walkthrough explains whether a landlord can re-serve, what happens to the once-a-year limit and the notice period when they do, how a withdrawn notice differs from a defective one, and what a tenant should check on the second notice. England only, Section 13 rent challenges.
Your rent tribunal hearing is by video: how to join and prepare for a remote CVP hearing
More rent tribunal hearings now happen by video rather than in a hearing room, and the notice you get can be light on detail. This walkthrough explains how a remote First-tier Tribunal hearing works, how to join a CVP or Teams hearing, what to have ready on screen, how to ask for a reasonable adjustment or an in-person hearing, and what to do if your connection drops on the day. England only, Section 13 rent challenges.
Who can validly serve a Section 13 notice: letting agents and notices after a sale
A Section 13 rent increase notice can be wrong before you even read the figures, if the person who served it had no authority to. A letting agent can serve a notice, but only with the landlord's authority, and a notice served by the old landlord after the property has been sold may not be valid at all. This walkthrough explains who can validly serve a Section 13, how to test whether the server had authority, and what to ask for if you think they did not. England only, Section 13 rent challenges.
Index-linked or CPI rent review clause after 1 May 2026: the tenant refusal walkthrough
Plenty of older tenancy agreements contain a clause that lets the landlord raise the rent automatically each year by inflation, often pegged to CPI or RPI. Since 1 May 2026 those clauses can no longer be used: every rent increase on a tenancy now has to go through the statutory Section 13 process, and a contractual review clause cannot override it. This walkthrough explains why an index-linked uplift is no longer enforceable, how to spot when a landlord is trying to apply one anyway, and gives you a template letter to refuse it calmly and correctly.
Form 4A served on 1 May 2026: the tenant validity-check playbook for the new prescribed rent increase notice
From 1 May 2026, every Section 13 rent increase notice must be on Form 4A — the new prescribed form. The old Form 4 is invalid. Form 4A has 9 mandatory fields, prescribed wording on tenant rights, and a fixed 2-month minimum notice period regardless of payment frequency. Any defect = the notice is invalid and the rent doesn't increase. This is the tenant playbook with a 9-field validity check, three response templates, and the tribunal route.