Rent Increase Laws by State: 2027 Caps and Notice Rules

Only three states limit rent increases across the whole state. In 2027, a landlord in Oregon or Washington can raise the rent by up to 10% in a year. In California, the limit is 5% plus local inflation, which comes to between 8.1% and 8.8% in its biggest metro areas until July 31, 2027.

In the other 47 states, rent increase laws control when the rent can go up and how much notice you get, but put no limit on the amount. Some cities add a limit of their own, usually on older buildings.

How much can a landlord raise rent?

In most states, by any amount, as long as the landlord gives the written notice your state requires and waits until your lease allows a change. Only Oregon, Washington and California cap increases, and no federal law limits rent on private rentals.

In most places without a cap, a single large increase is legal as long as you get proper notice. In the three states with a cap, the limit covers all the increases in a 12-month period, so splitting a big one into smaller ones doesn’t get around it.

Which states cap rent increases?

Oregon, Washington and California. All three tie the limit to inflation, cap it at 10% and exempt newer buildings. And in all three, the limit only covers a tenancy that continues. When a tenant moves out on their own, the landlord can charge the next one any rent.

*California’s limit changes every August 1 and differs by region. The range covers the Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Riverside areas from August 1, 2026, to July 31, 2027.

No other state has a statewide cap. A ballot question in Massachusetts would have held most increases there to inflation or 5%, whichever is lower, but in June the state’s Supreme Judicial Court kept it off the November 3, 2026, ballot (opens in a new tab).

Oregon

Oregon’s limit is 7% plus inflation, never more than 10%, and the state announces it each September for the following year. It’s 10% for 2027 (opens in a new tab), up from 9.5% in 2026 (opens in a new tab). In manufactured home parks and floating home facilities with more than 30 spaces, the limit is 6%.

A landlord can’t raise the rent (opens in a new tab) in the first year of a tenancy, and after that only once in any 12 months, with 90 days’ written notice. The notice has to give the amount of the increase, the new rent and the date it starts. Buildings whose first certificate of occupancy is less than 15 years old are exempt, and so is some government-regulated affordable housing.

Oregon also limits the next tenant’s rent in one case. If a landlord ends a tenancy without cause in its first year, the next tenant can’t be charged more than the previous one could have been.

Washington

Washington’s cap took effect on May 7, 2025 (opens in a new tab), with the same formula as Oregon’s. The Department of Commerce set it at 9.683% for 2026 and 10% for 2027 (opens in a new tab). A landlord can’t raise the rent in the first 12 months of a tenancy, and after that the limit covers all increases in any 12-month period. Lots in manufactured and mobile home communities have a separate 5% limit.

Notice is 90 days in writing. Buildings whose first certificate of occupancy is 12 years old or less are exempt. So are public, nonprofit and tax-credit housing, and a room or unit in a house or a building of up to four units where the owner lives, unless the owner is a corporation, a real estate investment trust or an LLC with a corporate member. Washington also bars its cities (opens in a new tab) from passing their own rent control.

California

California’s Tenant Protection Act (opens in a new tab) caps increases at 5% plus the change in regional inflation, never more than 10%, counted from the lowest rent you paid in the past 12 months. The regional figure resets every August 1. Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ price index for each area, the cap from August 1, 2026, to July 31, 2027, is 8.7% around Los Angeles (opens in a new tab), 8.8% around San Francisco (opens in a new tab), 8.2% around San Diego (opens in a new tab) and 8.1% in Riverside and San Bernardino (opens in a new tab).

A landlord can raise the rent at most twice in 12 months, and the two increases together have to stay under the cap. Notice is 30 days for an increase of 10% or less and 90 days for more (opens in a new tab). Only an exempt home can go up by more than 10%.

Exempt homes include buildings with a certificate of occupancy from the last 15 years, a duplex where the owner lives in the other half, and a house or condo whose owner isn’t a corporation, a real estate investment trust or an LLC with a corporate member, as long as your lease tells you it’s exempt. The law runs until January 1, 2030.

Rent increase laws in every state

More than 30 states have no cap and ban their cities from adopting one, so in most of the country, the lease and the notice period are the only limits. On a month-to-month tenancy, most states require 30 days or one rental period. Eight states and Washington, DC, require 60 days or more, and North Carolina requires just 7.

*No state law sets a notice period for a rent increase, so the figure is the notice needed to end a month-to-month tenancy, which a landlord generally has to give to change the rent.

Which cities have rent control?

Six states have local rent control: California, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York. Washington, DC, has it too, and in Connecticut, a town’s fair rent commission can cut an increase it finds excessive. Most programs cover only older buildings, and the current yearly limits in the table run from 0% to 5.2%.

New York City and the rest of New York

In June 2026, New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board (opens in a new tab) froze the rent on rent-stabilized apartments: 0% for one- and two-year leases that start between October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2027. For leases that started in the 12 months before that, it had allowed 3% on a one-year lease and 4.5% on a two-year lease (opens in a new tab).

Many other rentals in the city fall under the state’s Good Cause Eviction law (opens in a new tab), and so do rentals in 19 cities, towns and villages that opted in, including Albany, Rochester, Ithaca, Kingston, Poughkeepsie and White Plains. It doesn’t set a hard cap. Instead, an increase above the “local rent standard” counts as unreasonable unless the landlord can show a court why it’s needed, for example because property taxes or repair costs went up. And you can’t be evicted (opens in a new tab) for not paying an unreasonable increase. Since August 2026, the standard is 8.38% in New York City and the counties around it, and 8.15% elsewhere. Small landlords, buildings first occupied in 2009 or later, and high-rent apartments are exempt.

Wherever you rent in New York State, an increase of 5% or more needs written notice (opens in a new tab): 30 days if you’ve lived there less than a year, 60 days after one year, and 90 days after two.

California cities

About a quarter of Californians live in a city or county with its own rent control, the Legislative Analyst’s Office says (opens in a new tab). Local limits like the ones in the table are often well below the state cap, but they cover fewer homes. Los Angeles’s applies only to rentals built on or before October 1, 1978 (opens in a new tab). A state law, the Costa-Hawkins Act, keeps local rent control off single-family homes and housing built since February 1995, and lets a landlord set any rent for a new tenant.

Other places with local limits

In Washington, DC, rent control covers most buildings that got their building permit before 1976, unless the owner is a small landlord with four or fewer units. Elderly and disabled tenants get a lower limit, 2.1% from May 1, 2026 (opens in a new tab).

In Maryland, Montgomery County caps increases at inflation plus 3%, never more than 6%, which allows 5.2% from July 1, 2026. Prince George’s County (opens in a new tab) has a similar cap, with a lower limit for senior housing.

New Jersey has no statewide limit, but 120 of its 564 municipalities have rent control, according to the state’s 2026 rent control survey (opens in a new tab). Jersey City, for one, caps increases at 4% or the change in inflation, whichever is lower. New buildings are exempt from local rent control for up to 30 years (opens in a new tab). And in most New Jersey rentals, a landlord can’t evict you (opens in a new tab) for refusing a rent increase that’s unconscionable.

Connecticut has no cap, but every town of 25,000 or more people has to have a fair rent commission (opens in a new tab), which decides whether an increase is so excessive that it’s “harsh and unconscionable.”

St. Paul, Minnesota, caps increases at 3% in any 12 months and exempts buildings first occupied after 2004.

What does a rent increase cost in dollars?

On a $2,000 apartment, Oregon’s and Washington’s 10% limit for 2027 comes to $200 a month, or $2,400 over a year. California’s 8.7% in the Los Angeles area is $174 a month. In a rent-stabilized Los Angeles apartment, 3% is $60, and Washington, DC’s 4.1% is $82.

Each figure is the most the rent can go up per month. In the 47 states without a cap, there’s no top figure to show.

Ask for less before the new rent starts

A landlord can always charge less than the cap. The rent Americans pay rose 2.8% in the 12 months to September 2026 (opens in a new tab), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so an increase near 10% is more than three times the national rise. If similar apartments nearby are listed for less than your new rent, show your landlord the listings and ask for a smaller increase. An apartment brings in no rent while it sits empty, so keeping a tenant who pays on time can be worth a smaller increase to a landlord.

When can’t your landlord raise the rent?

During a fixed-term lease, unless the lease allows it, or before the notice period your state requires has passed. A landlord also can’t raise the rent to punish you for a complaint or to discriminate against you.

• During a fixed-term lease. The rent in a lease for a set term, usually a year, stays the same until the lease ends, unless the lease provides for an increase or you agree to one (opens in a new tab).
• In retaliation. Many states bar a landlord from raising the rent because you complained to a housing inspector or to the landlord about the home’s condition, or joined a tenant group. Rhode Island’s law, for example, says a landlord may not retaliate by increasing rent (opens in a new tab).
• As discrimination. The federal Fair Housing Act (opens in a new tab) makes it illegal to set different rental terms, rent included, because of your race, color, religion, sex, disability or national origin, or because you have children.

What can you do if a rent increase breaks the rules?

Write to your landlord, say which rule the increase breaks, and keep a copy. If that doesn’t settle it, your city’s rent board, your state attorney general or a legal aid office can tell you your options before you hold back any rent.

1. Check the notice against your state’s row. Look at the date it arrived, the date the new rent starts, and whether it’s in writing.
2. Check whether your home is exempt. In the capped states, a newer building is the usual reason. In Oregon and Washington, a notice for more than the cap has to give the facts behind the exemption the landlord is claiming.
3. Put your objection in writing. In Washington, that’s the required first step: a written demand asking the landlord to bring the increase down to the limit. You can also end your lease with 20 days’ written notice (opens in a new tab) before the increase starts, without a fee.
4. Know what a landlord owes for breaking a cap. In Oregon, it’s three months’ rent plus your actual damages (opens in a new tab). In Washington, it’s the extra rent you paid, up to three more months of the unlawful rent and your attorney’s fees, and the state attorney general can also sue.
5. Get help. New York’s housing agency, Homes and Community Renewal (opens in a new tab), handles complaints about rent-stabilized apartments. Elsewhere, find your state attorney general (opens in a new tab), or a legal aid office through LawHelp.org (opens in a new tab).

If you decide to move instead, our guide to security deposit laws by state shows how long your landlord has to return your deposit.

Use the notice period to set the increase aside

Most increases come with at least a month’s warning, and in Oregon and Washington, three months. Each month until the new rent starts, move the amount of the increase into savings. By the time it begins, you’ll know whether you can afford it, and if you can’t, the money you set aside is still in your account. On a $2,000 apartment in Oregon, three months of a 10% increase is $600.

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This is general information, not legal advice. Rent limits change every year, so check your state’s or city’s own page, linked above, before you rely on a number here.