Weekly and four-weekly rent under the Renters' Rights Act: arrears, rent increases and rent in advance

Plenty of private tenancies don't run on calendar months. HMO rooms are often let weekly, and rent is often set every four weeks to match how a tenant is paid. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed the rules on arrears, rent increases and rent in advance for private assured tenancies in England from 1 May 2026, and most of what has been written since assumes monthly rent.

This guide works through the same rules for weekly, fortnightly and four-weekly rent. Every figure comes from the Housing Act 1988 as amended, or from the prescribed Form 4A. Where the law is unclear, it says so.

Which rent periods are allowed now?

Since 1 May 2026, section 4A of the Housing Act 1988 says the terms of an assured tenancy that set its rent periods have no effect unless each period is:

• 28 days or shorter (weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly), or
• monthly (successive calendar months; the first period may be different, up to 30 days).

The periods of the tenancy are the same as the rent periods, and fixed terms no longer have effect. If a tenancy provided for quarterly or six-monthly rent, it now takes effect as a monthly tenancy starting on the first day of the tenancy, with the rent recalculated under a formula in section 4A(6) and due on the first day of each month.

The change applied on 1 May 2026 to private assured tenancies, including those that already existed (S.I. 2026/421, regulation 2). Social housing assured tenancies were not included in that commencement.

Why does four-weekly rent need its own arithmetic?

Because a year is not 12 four-week periods. It is 13, with a day left over (two in a leap year).

Rent	Periods a year	Annual rent	Monthly equivalent
£240 a week	52	£12,480	£1,040
£480 a fortnight	26	£12,480	£1,040
£960 every four weeks	13	£12,480	£1,040
£1,040 a month	12	£12,480	£1,040

To convert four-weekly rent to a monthly figure, multiply by 13 and divide by 12. Most years one calendar month contains two four-weekly rent days, so a statement that reads "March rent" will not match what is due. Record rent by period: "rent for 1 March to 28 March", not "March".

How much arrears does Ground 8 need?

Ground 8 is the mandatory rent arrears ground: if it is proved, the court must order possession. After the Act it reads, in full:

"Both at the date of the service of the notice under section 8 of this Act relating to the proceedings for possession and at the date of the hearing— (a) if rent is payable weekly or fortnightly, at least thirteen weeks' rent is unpaid; (b) if rent is payable monthly, at least three months' rent is unpaid; and for the purpose of this ground "rent" means rent lawfully due from the tenant."

The old thresholds were eight weeks and two months. The Act also removed the quarterly and yearly paragraphs, and added a rule for Universal Credit (below).

Two things follow for non-monthly rent.

Weekly and fortnightly rent: count weeks. Thirteen weeks' rent is 13 weekly instalments, or 6.5 fortnightly ones. On £480 a fortnight, that is £3,120. Six missed fortnightly payments (£2,880) are not enough.

Four-weekly rent: the ground does not name it. Four-weekly rent is neither "weekly or fortnightly" nor "monthly". The old Ground 8 had the same gap, and at least one housing barrister has argued in print that a literal reading leaves four-weekly tenancies outside the mandatory ground altogether. We could not find a reported court decision settling the point, before or after the Act. It is now sharper than before, because section 4A expressly allows 28-day periods while Ground 8 still doesn't mention them.

The arithmetic, at least, is the same either way. Thirteen weeks' rent on £960 every four weeks is £3,120. Three months' rent (a quarter of the annual £12,480) is also £3,120. Both are 3.25 instalments:

Rent	Ground 8 threshold	In instalments
£240 weekly	£3,120	13
£480 fortnightly	£3,120	6.5
£960 four-weekly	£3,120 (if the ground applies)	3.25
£1,040 monthly	£3,120	3

So on a four-weekly tenancy, three missed payments are never enough. The arrears must reach the threshold on the day the notice is served and again on the day of the hearing; a part-payment just before the hearing can take them back under.

If you let on four-weekly terms, take advice before relying on Ground 8, and specify Grounds 10 and 11 as well. They work for any rent period:

• Ground 10: some rent lawfully due is unpaid when proceedings begin, and was in arrears when the notice was served.
• Ground 11: the tenant has persistently delayed paying rent, whether or not any is owed when proceedings begin.

Both are discretionary: the court decides whether it is reasonable to order possession.

What notice is needed for the arrears grounds?

Section 8(4AA) sets the notice periods by ground. For Grounds 8, 10 and 11 it is four weeks beginning with the date of service. If a notice relies on more than one ground, the longest period applies. The court cannot dispense with the notice where the landlord relies on Ground 8 (section 8(5)).

How does Universal Credit affect the count?

The Act added this to Ground 8: if the tenant is entitled to the housing element of Universal Credit, any amount unpaid "only because the tenant had not yet received the payment of that award" is ignored when working out the arrears. Universal Credit is paid monthly, so a four-weekly or weekly rent will rarely line up with it. Keep a note, per period, of what was due from the tenant and when any Universal Credit payment actually arrived.

When can the rent go up?

Since 1 May 2026, the only way to raise the rent on a private assured tenancy is a Section 13 notice on Form 4A (or a tribunal determination). Rent review clauses have no effect (section 13(4A)). The new rent must start at the beginning of a new rent period, and that period must begin no earlier than:

1. two months after the notice is served;
2. 52 weeks after the first period of the tenancy began; and
3. if the rent has been increased before by a Section 13 notice or a tribunal determination, 52 weeks after that increase took effect, or 53 weeks where the date would otherwise drift more than six days before the anniversary of the first increase since 11 February 2003 (Form 4A, question 4.4).

GOV.UK's guidance puts this as "once a year". The Act counts weeks, and so does Form 4A.

Note A4 of Form 4A spells out the last rule: "the new rent must start at the beginning of a tenancy period ... if a weekly tenancy started on a Monday, the new rent must begin on a Monday." This is not a technicality. In Mooney v Whiteland [2023] EWCA Civ 67, a weekly tenancy began on a Monday and the tenant usually paid on the Friday before. The landlord's notice gave a Friday as the start of the new rent. The Court of Appeal held the notice invalid. That case concerned a home in Wales under the pre-2026 wording, but the requirement it turned on, a new rent starting at the beginning of a new period of the tenancy, is unchanged in the English text.

A worked example: four-weekly rent increase

A tenancy starts on Monday 7 September 2026, at £960 every four weeks. Rent periods start every 28 days: 5 October, 2 November, and so on.

Step	Date
Tenancy (first period) begins	Monday 7 September 2026
52 weeks later: the 14th period begins	Monday 6 September 2027
Latest date to serve Form 4A for that start	Tuesday 6 July 2027 (allow extra days for the service method)
Next increase, 52 weeks later	Monday 4 September 2028

Because 52 weeks is exactly 13 four-week periods, every 52-week anniversary falls on a period start. That is the convenient part. The less convenient part is drift: each 52-week step is about a day short of a year. If you increase every 52 weeks, around the fifth or sixth year the date falls more than six days before the anniversary of the first increase, and you must wait 53 weeks. Fifty-three weeks is not a period start on a four-weekly tenancy, so the earliest the new rent can then begin is the next period start, 56 weeks after the last increase. Form 4A's question 4.4 exists for exactly this check.

The same approach works for weekly and fortnightly tenancies: find the day of the week the first period began, count forward in whole periods, and pick a period start that clears all three tests.

What if the tenant disagrees?

The tenant can apply to the First-tier Tribunal before the new rent's start date. The tribunal decides the open-market rent, and since 1 May 2026 it can also decide whether the notice was valid (section 13B). Form 4A tells tenants they will not have to pay more than the rent the landlord proposed, and need not pay the new amount until the tribunal decides. Its notes add that the landlord must be able to evidence service.

How much rent can be taken in advance?

Section 4B, also in force from 1 May 2026, makes terms requiring rent to be paid before the rent period it covers of no effect. Rent due on the first day of the period is fine; rent due a week before it is not, and the law moves the due date to the regular rent day within the period.

The one exception is initial rent, which may be taken between signing and the start date. Initial rent means rent for the first rent period, and for any later period that ends within 28 days of the first period starting.

Rent period	Initial rent you may take before the start date
Weekly	up to four weeks (the periods ending within the first 28 days)
Fortnightly	up to two fortnights
Four-weekly	one period (28 days)
Monthly	one month

A holding deposit can be put towards initial rent (Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 2). Section 4B does not apply to a tenancy entered into before the commencement date, which for private tenancies was 1 May 2026, so existing payment terms on those tenancies are not affected by it.

What should you do now?

1. Check each tenancy's rent period and first-period start date. Write down the weekday or date every period starts. Everything else counts from it.
2. Keep the rent account by period, not calendar month, with the period dates on every line and every statement.
3. Work out the Ground 8 threshold in pounds for each tenancy, and on four-weekly tenancies get advice before relying on Ground 8. Specify Grounds 10 and 11 as well.
4. Record Universal Credit dates against each period, so you can show which arrears were and weren't waiting on an award.
5. Before serving Form 4A, check all three dates: two months after service, 52 (or 53) weeks since the start or last increase, and a period start. Keep proof of service.
6. Check what you collect before move-in against the initial rent rule, especially on weekly lets.

This guide is general information for England, not legal advice. Where your own facts decide the answer, particularly Ground 8 on four-weekly tenancies, check with a solicitor.