The Regulatory Reform (Assured Periodic Tenancies) (Rent Increases) Order 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends section 13 of the Housing Act 1988 (“the 1988 Act”), which provides a procedure for landlords to increase the rent payable under tenancies of certain descriptions by serving notice on the tenant.

A notice under section 13 of the 1988 Act has to be in the prescribed form, and the start of the period during which the tenant has to pay the increased rent (which is specified in the notice) has to be ascertained by reference to the requirements of subsection (2) of that section. In particular, the date from which the increased rent is payable must not be earlier than the first anniversary of the commencement of the tenancy or, where the rent has already been increased under the notice procedure, the date on which it was last increased. (The amount of the increased rent may be that determined by a rent assessment committee under section 14 of the 1988 Act, rather than the amount specified in the notice.)

The general effect of the amendment is to enable the landlord of an assured periodic tenancy of less than one month to set a fixed day (such as the first Monday in April) on which a rent increase is to take effect. (A periodic tenancy is one that runs on from one period to the next until either the landlord or the tenant takes steps to bring the tenancy to an end. A periodic tenancy is “assured” if it began on or after 15th January 1989 (the date when the 1988 Act came into force) and has no fixed end date.)

Specifically, on the first occasion on which rent is increased after this Order comes into force, the increase may take effect not less than 52 weeks after the start of the tenancy or, if the rent had been increased before the date on which this Order comes into force, not less than 52 weeks after the date of the last increase. On the second and subsequent occasions, the increase may take effect not less than 52 weeks after the last increase, unless that would result in the increase taking effect on a date falling a week or more before the anniversary of the first increase after the date on which the Order comes into force. In such a case the increase may not take effect until 53 weeks after the date of the last increase.

The amendment does not affect rent increases under assured tenancies which are assured agricultural occupancies within the meaning of section 24 of the 1988 Act, or under assured agricultural occupancies to which, by virtue of subsection (3) of that section, section 13 applies. In these cases, the increase may take effect not earlier than the first anniversary of the start of the tenancy or, as the case may be, the first anniversary of the date on which the rent was last increased under the section 13 notice procedure.

The amendment does not affect section 13(4) of the 1988 Act which enables a landlord and tenant to agree a variation of the rent or that the rent should not be varied. Nor does it affect any provision relating to rent increases in the tenancy agreement, where that provision is binding on landlord and tenant.