[2024] UKUT 314 (LC)

The rent payable under an assured periodic tenancy is first agreed between the landlord and tenant at the commencement of the letting. If the landlord later wishes to secure an increase in the rent section 13(2), 1988 Act provides that it must serve a notice on the tenant in the prescribed form proposing a new rent and specifying the date from which it should take effect. That date must be the beginning of a new period of the tenancy.

Where a notice under section 13(2) is given to an assured tenant, the tenant has the right to refer the notice to the FTT. If she does so, the FTT is required to determine the new rent in the manner provided for by section 14, 1988 Act. The rent determined by the FTT then becomes payable from the date specified in the landlord’s notice or a later date which the FTT may direct (section 14(7)).

The tenant’s right to refer a notice proposing a rent increase to the FTT is provided for by section 13(4), 1988 Act, which is in these terms:

“(4)

Where a notice is served under subsection (2) above, a new rent specified in the notice shall take effect as mentioned in the notice unless, before the beginning of the new period specified in the notice, —

(a)

the tenant by an application in the prescribed form refers the notice to the appropriate tribunal; or

(b)

the landlord and the tenant agree on a variation of the rent which is different from that proposed in the notice or agree that the rent should not be varied.”

The effect of section 13(4) is that the increase proposed by the landlord under section 13(2) takes effect unless the tenant refers it to the FTT or the parties agree a different increase (or that there should be no increase). The subsection specifies that the tenant must refer the notice to the FTT “before the beginning of the new period specified in the notice” and that she must do so “by an application in the prescribed form”.

Where the 1988 Act refers to something being “prescribed”, it means prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State by statutory instrument (section 45(1), 1988 Act). The relevant regulations are the Assured Tenancies and Agricultural Occupancies (Forms) (England) Regulations 2015 (as amended). For an application under section 13(4) referring a notice under section 13(2) to the FTT, the prescribed form is Form No. 6 in the Schedule to the Regulations (regulation 3(f)).

The information required by Form No. 6 includes the address of the premises, the name and address of the landlord or its agent, details of the premises and other particulars relevant to the assessment of a rent. The prescribed form ends with a statement, to be signed by the tenant, that a copy of the notice proposing a new rent is attached and that the tenant applies for it to be considered by the tribunal.

Although section 13(4), 1988 Act requires that a tenant’s application referring a proposed new rent to the FTT must be “in the prescribed form”, regulation 2 of the 2015 Regulations introduces a degree of flexibility by providing that any reference to a numbered form is a reference to the form bearing that number in the Schedule to the Regulations, “or to a form substantially to the same effect.”