Since 1 May 2026 you can raise the rent once in any twelve-month period, on a prescribed form, with two months’ notice — and the tenant can refer it to a tribunal that can lower your figure but never raise it. The old approach of nudging the rent whenever the market moved is gone.
Which makes everything else more important. Here are ten levers that improve what you actually keep, ordered roughly by return on effort.
1. Cut your voids before you touch the rent
Three weeks empty costs about £1,200 at Guildford’s average rent. That is more than most rent increases deliver in a year. Start marketing the day notice is given — you now get two months’ notice from a tenant, which is enough to relet with no gap at all if you move. Where voids actually come from.
2. Keep the tenant you have
Re-letting costs money every time. Marketing, referencing, check-out and check-in, cleaning, and the void itself. A tenant who stays four years instead of eighteen months is worth considerably more than a modest rent uplift. Fix things promptly, answer messages, and do not squeeze a good tenant to the last pound.
3. Fix the two rooms that decide viewings
Kitchens and bathrooms carry a letting. Tenants forgive tired decor elsewhere; they do not forgive a dated bathroom. These are also the improvements most likely to translate into achievable rent when you next let.
4. Present it properly
Professional photographs and a clean, empty, well-lit property. The portals are a photo competition before they are anything else. A property that looks good lets faster, which is a yield gain even at the same rent. What actually makes a difference.
5. Claim every allowable expense
Most self-managing landlords under-claim. Agent fees, repairs, insurance, safety certificates, service charges, accountancy for the property business. Keeping one folder per property as you go is worth more than any single improvement — and it matters more from April 2027, when property income moves to higher separate rates.
6. Do the cheap energy work now
Loft insulation, cavity fill, cylinder insulation, heating controls, low-energy lighting. A few hundred pounds, a better EPC, and lower bills — which is increasingly a factor in whether a tenant chooses your property. It also gets you moving towards EPC C at the cheap end rather than the expensive end.
7. Reconsider furnished versus unfurnished
Match the tenant, not your convenience. Furnished can carry a premium in the town centre and for corporate and student lets. In family areas it adds cost and inventory disputes for no gain. Which way round for your property.
8. Look at the corporate market
Relocation and company lets often pay more and are usually well managed. Guildford has genuine demand from the research park, the university and the hospital. If your property suits it, corporate lets work differently and are worth understanding.
9. Say yes to pets, deliberately
You now have to consider pet requests properly and can only refuse for a genuinely reasonable reason. Rather than treating that as a constraint, treat it as a market — pet owners are a large, underserved group who tend to stay longer precisely because moving is harder for them. How the rules work.
10. Protect the income you have
One serious arrears case can wipe out several years of rent increases. Reference thoroughly at the outset, act in the first fortnight if payment is missed, and consider rent guarantee cover. Referencing properly and the first two weeks of arrears are where this is won or lost. Note that most rent guarantee policies require referencing to a specified standard — a claim can fail on that alone. What landlord cover includes.
And when you do raise the rent
Do it properly, once a year, on the prescribed form, with evidence behind the figure. The tribunal can only lower your proposal, so an increase you cannot justify against local comparables is a downside with no upside. How to price one that survives scrutiny.
General information, not legal advice. Rent figures are borough-level ONS data; individual streets vary considerably. Property Lounge, Guildford.
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