Rent Control Basics: How It Protects Tenants

Rent control limits how much, and how often, a landlord can raise the rent on a covered unit. Three states set statewide caps: California allows 5% plus local inflation, never more than 10% in 12 months; Oregon allows 9.5% for 2026 and 10% for 2027; and Washington, under a law in effect since May 7, 2025, allows 9.683% for 2026 and 10% for 2027. In the other states this guide covers, a limit applies only where a local law or, in New York, the state's Good Cause Eviction Law covers your unit; New York City's rent stabilization, for example, sets a 0% guideline increase for one-year and two-year leases starting October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.

Is your unit covered?

Check three things: whether your state has a statewide cap, whether your unit is exempt from it, and whether your city or county has its own rent control law that covers the unit. Rent limits are one part of your basic rights as a tenant, and our comparison of rent control and rent stabilization explains the difference.

The three statewide caps exempt newer buildings and some owner-occupied ones:

CPI is the Consumer Price Index, the federal measure of inflation. California uses the April-to-April change for the Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, or San Francisco metro area where you live, or the statewide California index elsewhere, with March figures used if April's are not published. A certificate of occupancy is the permit a local government issues when a new building is ready to be lived in.

In Washington, the owner-occupied exemptions are also unavailable when the owner is a REIT, a corporation, or an LLC with a corporate member. If you live in government-regulated affordable housing, your program's rent rules generally apply instead of these caps.

Local laws can also limit rent. In the states this guide covers, the main ones are:

• New York: rent stabilization in New York City generally covers buildings with six or more units built before 1974, plus some buildings with certain tax benefits. Nassau, Rockland, and Westchester counties also have local rent guidelines boards, and other localities can adopt rent stabilization after declaring a housing emergency.
• New Jersey: no state law limits rent, but municipalities can adopt rent control or rent leveling ordinances. Newly built multiple dwellings can be exempt for up to 30 years after construction. Your municipal clerk or local rent control board can tell you whether your unit is covered.
• Maryland: Montgomery County stabilizes county-licensed rental units once they are 23 years old, unless an exemption applies. The county program does not cover Gaithersburg, Rockville, Takoma Park, Barnesville, or Laytonsville.
• California: some cities have their own rent control ordinances, which apply instead of the state cap when they limit increases more. Our California rent control guide covers local rules.

How much can your rent go up?

Under a statewide cap, the limit applies to the total of all increases in any 12-month period, so an increase you already received in the past 12 months counts against it. If the new increase is your only one in that period, multiply your current rent by the cap for the year the increase takes effect.

• Washington, 2026: on $1,800 rent, 9.683% is $174.29, so the highest lawful new rent is $1,974.29.
• Oregon, 2026: on the same $1,800, 9.5% is $171, so the highest lawful new rent is $1,971.
• Both states, 2027: the cap is 10%, or $180 on $1,800. With the 90 days' written notice both states require, an increase noticed after early October 2026 takes effect in 2027.
• California: the base is the lowest rent charged for your unit in the 12 months before the increase, and a landlord can raise rent no more than twice in those 12 months.

For a New York City stabilized apartment, the Rent Guidelines Board set 0% for one-year and two-year leases starting October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, after allowing 3% and 4.5% for leases that started the year before. The guideline does not block increases the law separately allows, such as one the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) approves for a building-wide major capital improvement, capped at 2% of your rent per year. In Montgomery County, the standard limit for increases taking effect from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 is 5.2%, but a landlord can add unused increases banked from earlier years, up to 10% of your current rent in total, and must give 90 days' written notice. In New Jersey, any increase must not be unconscionable, meaning so unreasonable it would shock a fair person, and in a town with rent control it must also follow the local ordinance.

Oregon and Washington bar any increase during the first year of a tenancy, and Oregon allows only one increase in any 12-month period. The California and Washington caps stop at the end of a tenancy: a landlord can set any starting rent for the next tenant in California, and can adjust rent by any amount after you move out in Washington.

What if no rent control law applies?

Then no law caps the size of an increase, and your protections are the notice rules and the terms of your lease. New York adds a middle ground for many apartments without rent stabilization. Under the Good Cause Eviction Law, in effect in New York City since April 20, 2024 and in other cities and towns that opt in, an increase above the lower of 10% or 5% plus the yearly change in the CPI is presumed unreasonable, and if you dispute it, a court decides whether the landlord's reasons justify it. You cannot be evicted for not paying an unreasonable increase. The law exempts many units, including those owned by New York City landlords with 10 or fewer units statewide, buildings first certified for occupancy on or after January 1, 2009, condos and co-ops, and rents above a high-rent limit the state sets each year. Our guide to handling a rent increase covers negotiating and timing when no cap applies.

How to challenge an increase above the limit

1. Check the math and the dates. Compare the increase with the cap that applies on its effective date, and save the notice and your rent records.
2. Write to the landlord. State the cap, show your calculation, and ask for a corrected notice. In Washington, this written demand is a required first step before you can end the tenancy or go to court.
3. Use the remedy your law provides.

• California: a tenant can sue for the overcharge, or up to three times the overcharge if the landlord acted willfully, and the court can award attorney's fees. The state Attorney General, city attorneys, and county counsel can also enforce the cap. Claims must be filed within three years.
• Oregon: a landlord who raises rent above the cap owes the tenant three months' rent plus actual damages.
• Washington: after your written demand, you can end the tenancy with at least 20 days' written notice before the increase takes effect, though you still owe rent for the full month you move out, or sue for the excess, damages of up to three months of the unlawful rent, and attorney's fees. A landlord cannot report you to a tenant screening company for not paying the unlawful part, and the Attorney General can seek penalties of up to $7,500 per violation.
• New York stabilized units: ask DHCR for your apartment's rent history, then contact DHCR or a lawyer about an overcharge. Recovery reaches back four or six years depending on when the complaint is made, and a willful overcharge costs the landlord three times the amount.
• New Jersey: file a complaint with the municipal rent control board. Where no ordinance applies and you refuse an increase as unconscionable, the landlord can file for eviction over the unpaid amount, and you must pay it to stay if the judge disagrees with you.
• Montgomery County: call MC311 at 240-777-0311 with a question or complaint about an increase.

If an increase arrives soon after you requested repairs or complained to a code inspector, read about retaliation protections for tenants as well.