Oregon rent increases: the annual maximum, the exemptions, and 90 days' notice

In Oregon you can raise rent by at most 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is less, in any 12-month period: 9.5% for increases taking effect in 2026, the figure the Department of Administrative Services publishes each September. No increase is allowed in the first year of a tenancy, every increase takes 90 days' written notice, and a building less than 15 years old is exempt, if the notice claims it.

It is a Wednesday in October, and the newer of your two buildings is about to stop being new. Its first certificate of occupancy was issued in March 2012, which has kept it exempt from the cap since you bought it. A notice dated this fall clears the 15-year line with months to spare. The same notice next fall does not, and nothing will announce the change.

The market-neutral spine of a rent increase, cadence, notice, service, and the file, is covered in How and When to Raise Rent: Scheduling and Notice Periods. This guide is the Oregon layer: the annual maximum and its formula, the exemptions and the notice that claims them, the two clocks, the September publication date, and what an unlawful increase costs. Operator education, not legal advice, every rule named to its official source.

How much you can raise rent in Oregon

Oregon wrote the first statewide rent increase cap in the United States: Senate Bill 608, chapter 1 of Oregon Laws 2019, in force since February 2019 and codified at ORS 90.323 (oregonlegislature.gov, verified August 2026). During any tenancy other than week-to-week, rent may not rise by more than the maximum the state publishes for the year. The formula sits in ORS 90.324: the lesser of 10%, or 7% plus the September annual 12-month average change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, West Region, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Department of Administrative Services publishes the result in a press release by September 30 each year, for the following calendar year: 10% for 2025, and 9.5% for increases taking effect in 2026 (oregon.gov/das, verified August 2026).

The 10% ceiling is the newer half of the rule: the original formula had no top, it produced a published maximum of 14.6% for 2023 (DAS's September 2022 calculation, reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting), and Senate Bill 611 answered in 2023 by capping the formula at the lesser of the two numbers.

The number is also the only number. ORS 91.225 reserves rent control to the state: no city or county can enact its own cap, outside narrow exceptions. There is no Portland percentage and no Eugene percentage; what those two cities attach instead is a cost, covered below. And the lower figure circulating in this year's coverage belongs to a different rulebook: 6% is the 2026 maximum for manufactured dwelling parks and marinas with more than 30 spaces, under ORS 90.600 as rewritten by House Bill 3054 in 2025 (oregon.gov/das, verified August 2026). It is not the apartment cap.

The exemptions, and the notice that claims them

ORS 90.323(5) exempts two kinds of units from the maximum. The first is new construction, on a rolling clock: the cap does not apply if the unit's first certificate of occupancy was issued less than 15 years from the date of the notice. Measured to each notice, the window closes quietly: a unit delivered in March 2012 is exempt for a notice dated in 2026 and covered for one dated after March 2027. Each calendar year rolls another construction vintage into the cap. Washington runs the same pattern on a 12-year window (Washington State Rent Increases: Annual Cap, 90 Days' Notice), and California on 15 (California Rent Increases: AB 1482 Cap and Local Ordinances).

The second covers regulated affordable housing: a unit whose rent is reduced under a federal, state, or local program or subsidy, where the increase does not raise the tenant's own portion or is required by program eligibility rules.

An exemption is claimed, not assumed. ORS 90.323(3) requires an above-maximum notice to state the facts supporting the exemption; for a new building, the certificate of occupancy and its date. A notice that raises rent past the year's figure without those facts is not exempt paper. It is a violation with a price on it, covered below.

Large increases can carry a municipal cost even where they are lawful. In Portland, a tenant facing an increase of 10% or more within a rolling 12-month period can request relocation assistance, between $2,900 and $4,500 by unit size, and end the tenancy (Portland City Code 30.01.085, portland.gov, verified August 2026). Eugene owes a tenant two months' rent when an increase at the state maximum arrives and they cannot afford it (eugene-or.gov, verified August 2026). Within the 2026 cap, Portland's trigger is out of reach for covered units; Eugene's is met by any increase at the maximum.

The notice: 90 days, in writing, with the required contents

Oregon's notice rule is plain: during any tenancy other than week-to-week, rent moves only on at least 90 days' written notice before the effective date (ORS 90.323). A week-to-week tenancy takes seven days, and the percentage maximum does not reach it; every other tenancy type carries the cap, the freeze, and the once-a-year rule. What a fixed-term lease permits mid-term is the lease's own question.

The statute mandates the content, not the paper. Oregon prescribes no government form; ORS 90.323(3) lists what the written notice must specify instead: the amount of the increase, the amount of the new rent, the date it takes effect, and any exemption facts. A dated, signed notice carrying those items, served correctly, is the instrument, which puts Oregon in the composed-notice class with Texas and Alberta rather than the prescribed-form class British Columbia anchors.

Service follows the chapter's general rule, ORS 90.155: personal delivery or first class mail, with post-and-mail where the rental agreement provides for it and email only under a written addendum signed after the tenancy began. Mail is the trap: it extends the minimum period by three days, so the safe count for a mailed increase is 93 days, not 90. Proof is the file copy, the service record, and the dates.

The two clocks, and the September number

Two clocks run under the cap (ORS 90.323): no increase during the first year after the tenancy begins, and at most one in any 12-month period after that. Stacked with the notice floor, each lease carries one annual slot, the first at month 13 at the earliest, and the decision behind each slot is made at least 90 days before it: month 13's number is set in month 10. A missed slot does not slide by a week; the next effective date is the first one a compliant notice can still reach, and the old rent runs until then.

Each published maximum belongs to a calendar year, and DAS keeps the previous, current, and following years on its page (ORS 90.324; oregon.gov/das). This guide reads the year off the date an increase takes effect, and no official source states a notice-date rule instead, so where a notice straddles the year line the professional move is a percentage lawful under both figures: the lower one. The September date matters for a second reason. A January 1 effective date puts the 90-day service deadline in the first days of October, and the figure that governs January publishes by September 30: the window between the number and the deadline is measured in days. Oregon operators do their January arithmetic in the first week of October.

What an unlawful increase costs

ORS 90.323 carries its own price. An increase above the maximum without a qualifying exemption makes the landlord liable for three months' rent plus the tenant's actual damages, and the same penalty backs the turnover rule: a landlord who ended a tenancy in its first year with a 30-day no-cause termination may not charge the next tenancy more than the terminated one could have been charged. The notice is load-bearing too: the statute permits an increase only on the written notice it describes, so a notice short on days or contents does not move the rent. The served notice, its date, and its proof of service are what show each increase was inside the limit, once in the window, and on time.

Oregon's rent increase rules, at a glance

The table collects the rules above with their sources, for the renewals file.

The Oregon procedure, start to finish

Run this per lease, counted backward from the intended effective date:

1. Find the slot. Past the first year, 12 months since the last increase, and consistent with the lease.
2. Read the year's maximum. DAS's figure for the year the increase takes effect, and whether the unit holds an exemption whose facts you can state.
3. Set the number. At or under the maximum unless the exemption is real, checked against the relocation triggers where the property sits in Portland or Eugene.
4. Pick the effective date and count back. A rent-due boundary at least 90 days out, 93 if the notice will be mailed.
5. Write the notice. The amount of the increase, the new rent, the effective date, and the exemption facts if one is claimed, dated and signed.
6. Serve it under ORS 90.155. By hand or first class mail, or another method only where the agreement allows, and keep the record.
7. Record it. The served notice and its date anchor the next 12-month window.

Key questions

Is there rent control in Oregon?

Yes, statewide, and Oregon's was the first in the country. Since February 2019, rent in any tenancy other than week-to-week may rise by at most 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is less, published annually (9.5% for 2026), with no increase in a tenancy's first year, at most one in any 12-month period, and 90 days' written notice (ORS 90.323, 90.324). New construction is exempt for 15 years from its first certificate of occupancy, and cities cannot add caps of their own (ORS 91.225).

How much notice does a landlord have to give to raise rent in Oregon?

At least 90 days' written notice before the effective date, for any tenancy other than week-to-week; a week-to-week tenancy takes seven days (ORS 90.323). The notice states the amount of the increase, the new rent, the effective date, and the facts behind any exemption claimed. Service is personal delivery or first class mail, and mailing adds three days (ORS 90.155), so a mailed notice is safe at 93.

How often can a landlord raise rent in Oregon?

Once in any 12-month period, and never during the first year after the tenancy begins (ORS 90.323). The two rules stack with the notice floor, so each lease carries one annual increase slot whose notice went out at least 90 days earlier. A missed window is gone; the next lawful effective date is the earliest one a compliant notice can still reach.

Is my building exempt from the Oregon rent increase limit?

Possibly, on one of two grounds, and only if the notice says so. A unit whose first certificate of occupancy was issued less than 15 years before the notice is exempt, as is regulated affordable housing where the increase does not raise the tenant's own portion or is required by program rules (ORS 90.323(5)). The notice must state the supporting facts, and the window is measured to each notice, so a building ages into the cap on a date nobody announces.

Which year's maximum applies to a rent increase in Oregon?

The figure DAS publishes for the calendar year the increase takes effect in: 9.5% for 2026, with the 2027 figure due by September 30, 2026 (ORS 90.324). No official source ties the maximum to the notice date, so for a notice that straddles the year line the conservative choice is a percentage lawful under both figures. For a January 1 effective date, the 90-day deadline falls in early October, days after the new figure publishes.

Does the Oregon rent cap apply between tenancies?

No, with one exception. The limits in ORS 90.323 operate during a tenancy; when a tenancy ends on its own terms, the statute does not control the rent offered to the next tenant. The exception: a landlord who terminated the prior tenancy in its first year with a 30-day no-cause notice may not charge the next tenancy more than the terminated one could have been charged. A violation costs three months' rent plus actual damages.

How Scaalr runs an Oregon increase

Scaalr treats an Oregon rent increase as a scheduled, validated event on the lease rather than a date in a spreadsheet. The operator confirms the Oregon market once, reviewing its cap, clocks, notice floor, and service rules, before anything can send. Because Oregon is a capped market, the rate resolves in layers: the profile carries the published maximum for the current calendar year (9.5% for 2026), an optional account rate policy can sit below it, and any lease can carry its own percentage; each notice records which layer set the number, and when a new annual figure publishes, the worklist asks whether to keep the maximum or set your own.

Validation runs at scheduling and again before service: the percentage against the cap, one increase per 12-month window, the first-year no-increase window, and the 90-day floor against the effective date. The floor is the statute's and the lead is yours, so the three days mail adds ride as a longer lead on the schedule, and the worklist inside Leases shows each lease's earliest lawful effective date and serve-by date. A renewal cannot reset either clock.

Oregon prescribes no form, so Scaalr composes the written notice from the market's rules, carrying the parties, the premises, the current and new rent, the effective date, the date of the notice, and a signature; every notice is signed with a real signature image or held for approval until one exists. The exemption call stays yours: Scaalr does not decide whether a unit is exempt or compute the 15-year window, the notice it composes is built for increases within the limit, and an above-limit increase under a claimed exemption is a notice you prepare and certify yourself. Service is a staff task with its proof (Oregon notices are not served by email in Scaalr), and the served record anchors the next 12-month window. Jurisdiction-aware rent-increase notices are part of Growth and up.

The building, current

Back to the Wednesday and the building about to stop being new. The exemption call was always yours, and it still is: Scaalr does not watch certificates of occupancy. What the system holds is everything around the call: the first-year window, the once-a-year slot, the serve-by date that has been in the worklist since summer, the composed notice with its dates and signature, and the served record that anchors next year's window. When the fifteenth year arrives, the number changes. The clocks, the paper, and the proof do not.