Rent increase notices

A landlord in England cannot raise the rent on an assured tenancy with a letter or a text message. There is a prescribed form, and which one arrived tells you which rules apply to you.

Find the form you were sent

• Form 4A: your landlord’s notice proposing a new rent

  Form 4A is the notice a landlord must use to propose a new rent on most assured tenancies in England. Receiving one does not mean you have to pay the new figure.

• Form 4: a rent increase notice served before 1 May 2026

  Form 4 is the notice a landlord used to propose a new rent on an assured periodic tenancy in England before 1 May 2026. If that is what you were sent, one important protection works differently for you.

• Form 5A: a new rent or licence fee for an agricultural occupancy

  Form 5A is the notice used to propose a new rent or licence fee under an assured agricultural occupancy in the private rented sector. It is the agricultural equivalent of Form 4A.

• Form 5: an agricultural occupancy notice served before 1 May 2026

  Form 5 is the notice used to propose a new rent or licence fee under an assured agricultural occupancy of premises in England, for notices served before 1 May 2026.

The form number is usually printed at the top of the notice, or at the very bottom in small type. If there is no form number anywhere on it, that is itself worth knowing about.