Guide
The six things to check on the letter itself, in the order the law checks them.
A rent increase notice looks like a bill. It is actually a legal claim — and like every claim, it can be wrong. Read yours in this order:
When is it dated, and when does the increase take effect? The gap between them is your notice period, and it is the single most common defect: Maine wants 75 days above 10%, Washington 90 on a prescribed form, Seattle 180 for anything. Count actual days, not “about a month.”
Divide the increase by your current rent. Then ask what counts as rent: several caps (Washington expressly) fold mandatory recurring charges into the number. A “6% increase” plus a new $40 fee can be an 8.5% increase in law.
If the letter says your unit is exempt, it has told you where to dig. Exemptions have conditions — owner type, a written notice, building age. California’s single-family exemption fails in the landlord’s own paperwork more often than anywhere else.
When was your rent last raised? Oregon, Washington, Colorado and DC all ration increases to one per 12 months; Washington and Oregon ban them entirely in your first year.
Did you complain, request repairs, or call an inspector recently? An increase landing inside a retaliation window (90 days in Washington, 180 in California, a year in New York) is presumed to be exactly what it looks like.
If you are mid-term on a fixed lease, the analysis mostly ends here: rent is frozen until the term ends unless the lease itself says otherwise.
Run the six through the checker and keep the letter. Whatever you do next starts from that piece of paper.
Rules checked October 2026