Your Tenancy Has a Rent Review Clause — It No Longer Works

If your tenancy agreement contains a rent review clause — an RPI or CPI uplift, a stepped increase, a review on each anniversary, or a right for the landlord to set a new rent on notice — it stopped working on 1 May 2026. Government guidance puts it in one sentence: "rent increases by any other means – such as rent review clauses – will not be permitted."

This page deals with that one situation. If you want the general procedure for raising rent, that is on our rent increases page; if you want the form itself, see Form 4A. What follows is what to do when the mechanism you were relying on has been removed from underneath you.

The direct answer

• Contractual rent review clauses no longer operate on assured tenancies in England.
• The only route is the statutory procedure: Form 4A, at least two months' notice, once in any twelve months, and not in the first year of the tenancy.
• An increase agreed before 1 May 2026 that takes effect after it does not apply — even though both parties agreed it.
• The clause sitting in your agreement is not unlawful to have. It is simply inert, and relying on it is where the problem starts.
• The tenant can refer a proposed increase to the First-tier Tribunal, which determines the open market rent.

The trap: increases agreed before the changeover

This is the part landlords miss, because it feels wrong. Government guidance for landlords states that where an increase was agreed before 1 May 2026 but takes effect after 1 May 2026, the increase will not apply.

The situations this catches are ordinary ones. A landlord and tenant settled a new rent in February 2026 to start on the tenancy anniversary in July. A renewal negotiated in April with a higher figure from June. A review clause that triggered automatically in March with the new rent payable from May. In each case the agreement predates the changeover and the money does not start flowing until after it — and in each case the increase does not take effect.

The consequence is that the rent lawfully due is the old rent, and any difference collected since is not rent that was properly payable. That matters beyond the arithmetic, because arrears calculations run off the lawfully due figure. A landlord counting arrears from an increase that never took effect can end up serving a rent-arrears notice for a sum the tenant does not actually owe — which is a good way to lose a possession claim.

What to do. Stop applying the increased figure. Serve a fresh Form 4A for the increase you want going forward, respecting the two-month notice period and the once-a-year rule. Deal with the overpayment openly — as a credit against future rent or a refund — and record what you have done. A tenant who discovers it themselves later is a tenant with a grievance and, potentially, a First-tier Tribunal application.

Why the clause was disabled

Under the old regime a landlord had two levers: the rent review clause in the agreement and, behind it, the fixed term and Section 21. A tenant who resisted an increase could be given notice. The rent review clause did not need to be reasonable because the alternative to accepting it was leaving.

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 removed the fixed term and Section 21 together. Leaving contractual review clauses intact would have preserved the old leverage in a world where the tenant can no longer be asked to leave without a ground — so the statutory procedure became the single route, with the First-tier Tribunal as the check on the figure. Understanding that logic explains why there is no workaround: an informal agreement, a side letter, or a "voluntary" increase all reproduce exactly what the reform was designed to remove.

What to do instead

Serve Form 4A. It is the landlord's notice proposing a new rent for assured tenancies in the private rented sector, listed in the government's assured tenancy forms. The proposed rent should be the open market rent for the property.

Give at least two months' notice. Government guidance requires the completed form to reach the tenant at least two months before the increase is to start.

Once a year, and not in the first year. Government guidance states you can only increase the rent once a year and cannot increase it in the first year of the tenancy. If you have already used the procedure, the clock runs from that increase.

Expect the market to be the ceiling. The tenant can ask the First-tier Tribunal to determine the open market rent if they think the proposal exceeds it. The tribunal decides the market figure. That cuts both ways — a proposal well under the market is not made safe by being modest, and a well-evidenced proposal at the market is not made vulnerable by being ambitious.

Fix the agreement, not just this increase

A rent review clause in a current agreement is a standing liability in three ways. It misleads the tenant about how their rent will change. It misleads whoever administers the tenancy — an agent, a bookkeeper, or you in eighteen months — into applying it again. And it sits awkwardly against the requirement to give tenants a written statement explaining how rent increases work, because the document says one thing and the law does another.

For a new letting, use an agreement drafted against the current position: no term, no review clause, the statutory procedure described accurately. See the assured periodic tenancy agreement and the written statement of terms.

For an existing tenancy, government guidance is that you do not need to re-issue the agreement — the review clause is inert whether or not you delete it. What is worth doing is writing to the tenant to explain that future increases will come by Form 4A, which removes the ambiguity and costs nothing.

Common mistakes

• Applying the review clause and calling the difference arrears. The arrears are calculated on the lawfully due rent, which is the un-increased figure.
• Treating tenant agreement as a substitute for the form. Government guidance describes increases by other means as not permitted; use the form even when the tenant is willing.
• Serving Form 4A with less than two months' notice, or a second time inside twelve months.
• Increasing in the first year of a new tenancy.
• Assuming a pre-1 May 2026 agreement rescues a post-1 May 2026 increase. It is the effective date that governs, not the date of agreement.

When to take advice

Two situations here are worth a call rather than a form. The first is where an increase has been running for months on a clause that no longer worked, and you need to unwind it while a tenancy continues — particularly if arrears or a possession notice are already in play, because the numbers underpinning both may be wrong.

The second is a First-tier Tribunal referral you intend to contest. The tribunal is deciding the open market rent on evidence, and the quality of the comparable evidence largely decides the outcome.

Both are fact-specific and neither is a template question. Take advice from a practising solicitor. This site is not a law firm and does not operate a telephone helpline. The Law Society’s Find a Solicitor service is the official starting point.

Related guides

• Rent increases: Section 13 and Form 4A rules
• Form 4A: landlord's notice proposing a new rent
• Section 13 notice template
• Assured periodic tenancy agreement
• Written statement of terms