Blog
Expert guides on tenant rights, rent increases, and the Section 13 process in England.
I already started paying the higher rent: can I still challenge it or get it back?
Paying the new rent for a few months does not automatically lock you into it. Whether you can still challenge or reclaim depends on two separate questions, and this walkthrough explains both.
Your landlord put the rent up without a Section 13 notice: do you have to pay?
A message lands: the rent is going up next month. No formal notice, no Form 4A, just a text, an email, or a line on your rent statement. Do you have to pay the new figure? On a periodic assured tenancy in England, the answer is usually no. A rent increase you have not agreed to can only be imposed through a valid Section 13 notice on the prescribed form, and an informal demand is not that. This walkthrough explains when an informal increase is unenforceable, the one situation where it does count, what to do the moment the message arrives, and the two-line reply that protects your position. England only, periodic assured tenancies.
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whether a landlord can re-serve, what happens to the once-a-year limit and the notice period when they do, how a withdrawn notice differs from a defective one, and what a tenant should check on the second notice.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.
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.