The rent increase verdict
Answer a few questions about the letter you received and get a verdict computed from the actual cap, notice and timing rules where you live — the math, the statute, and the letter to send. Free.
Check my increase — free Rules checked October 2026
When the verdict is in your favor — or even when it isn't
The checker gives you the verdict. The kit gives you the paper: the cap-challenge letter with your numbers already in it, the exemption-rebuttal letter, the notice-defect letter, the rent ledger that turns an overcharge into a repayment figure, the complaint walkthroughs, and the negotiation pack for the days the answer is “legal.”
One-time payment. No subscription, ever. The checker stays free either way.How the verdict works
Is your unit even under a cap? Landlords claim exemptions that fail on their own terms — a missing notice, a corporate owner, a building too old to be “new.”
Your increase against the cap that actually applies — state, city, or park — with the dollar excess, not just a percentage.
30 days where 90 were required is a defective increase, whatever the amount. Notice tiers run by size, tenure, age and place.
Mid-lease locks, first-year bans, one-increase-a-year rules, and the retaliation window after you complained.
Every verdict ends in the safe first move: a letter or a complaint — never “just stop paying.”
Where the caps actually are
California, Oregon and Washington cap rent increases statewide. New York City, Washington DC, Montgomery County, St. Paul and a belt of California cities run their own. Manufactured-home parks hide caps inside states that have none — a flat 5% in Washington, 3.5% in New Jersey, 3–5% in New Mexico. And in the states with no cap at all, the increase still stands or falls on the lease, the notice, and the calendar.
Why this exists
The polished rent calculators online ask you to supply your own inflation number and never ask whether your unit is covered. The guide farms contradict themselves in their own FAQs, and the big forms sites still list Washington notice as 60 days — eight months after the law changed it to 90. Landlord-side sites write for the other chair. This checker was built tenant-side, from the statutes themselves, with the date it was checked printed on every verdict.
From the guides
The six things to check on the letter itself, in order.
Why “single-family homes are exempt” is wrong twice a day in California.
Park residents often hold the strongest paper of any renter.