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

What it is

Form 4A is the prescribed form for a notice under section 13 of the Housing Act 1988 — a landlord’s proposal to raise the rent on an assured tenancy in the private rented sector. It is the current form, used for notices served on or after 1 May 2026.

A proposal is not an agreement. The rent on the notice is what your landlord is asking for, and until either you accept it or the date passes without you doing anything, it is not the rent.

Which form you should have been sent

The form number tells you which rules apply to you, so it is worth checking before anything else.

• Form 4A — most assured tenancies, for notices served on or after 1 May 2026.
• Form 4 — the same kind of tenancy, for notices served before that date.
• Form 5A — an assured agricultural occupancy, on or after 1 May 2026.
• Form 5 — an assured agricultural occupancy, before that date.
• A letter, an email or a text message is none of these, and does not bind you.

What has to be on it

A notice that gets one of these wrong may be invalid, and an invalid notice fails without the tribunal ever reaching the question of what the rent should be. Check each of them against the piece of paper in front of you.

• It names every tenant on the tenancy, spelled correctly, including joint tenants.
• It names the landlord — the actual landlord, not only the agent.
• It gives the address of the property, including the flat number where there is one.
• It states the new rent and the date it is to start.
• It gives you at least the minimum notice before that date.

The date is the thing that matters most

You can ask the First-tier Tribunal to decide the rent instead of your landlord — but you have to apply before the date the new rent is due to start. Miss it and the increase takes effect however strong your case was, and there is no way back.

That date is on the notice. Find it now, before you read anything else.

What the tribunal can do

It decides what the property would let for on the open market, using comparable local properties. It does not consider what you can afford, and it is not a negotiation with your landlord.

Under the Renters’ Rights Act it cannot set a rent higher than the one your landlord proposed. So the outcome sits between what you pay now and what has been proposed: it can come down, or it can be confirmed, but it cannot land above the figure already on your notice.