Allowable Rent Increases

CPI Announcement Update: The City Council has adopted an amendment to change the formula used to calculate the annual allowable rent increase to 60% of the change in CPI, or 3%, whichever is lower. Effective August 1, 2023, the new annual CPI rent increase will be 2.5%.

Each tenant should receive a “Notice to Tenants” (or RAP Notice) when they move in. This notice explains the existence of the Rent Board and tenant’s rights under the rent law. If the owner does not give a RAP notice, the landlord cannot increase the rent until 6 months after the tenant receives the notice.

If all the tenants in the unit are new tenants, the owner can set the rent to market rate. If there are tenants in the unit who were original occupants under a prior tenancy, the owner is limited to following the Oakland Rent Adjustment Ordinance for allowable increases.

Annual CPI

The Oakland Rent Adjustment Ordinance allows an annual rent increase based on the regional Consumer Price Index (CPI) without a petition. These annual rent increases are known as CPI increases or annual general rent increases.

A new CPI rate takes effect each August 1 and remains in effect for rent increases through July 31 of the following calendar year. The City Council has adopted an amendment to change the formula used to calculate the annual allowable rent increase to 60% of the change in CPI, or 3%, whichever is lower. Effective August 1, 2022, the annual CPI rent increase is 3%. Effective August 1, 2023, the new annual CPI rent increase will be 2.5%.

Rent Ceilings

Rent can only be raised once a year. Rent increases can only happen every 12 months after a tenant’s move-in date or 12 months after the last rent increase. California law requires that tenants receive written notification 30 days in advance. For rent increases greater than 10%, tenants should receive 60 days’ notice. The total rent increase that can be imposed in any one rent increase may not exceed the total of three times the allowable CPI increase, and may not be greater than the lower of 10% or 5% plus the percent change in cost of living (set by State of California). This year, the rent ceiling for rent increases is 10% and is effective August 1, 2022 – July 31, 2023.

Rent Increases During the Moratorium

Rent increases during the Local Emergency cannot exceed the CPI. For more information on rent increases during the moratorium, click here (https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/emergency-moratorium-on-residential-rent-increases-and-evictions)

Services

Contact a Housing Counselor File a Property Owner Petition Appeal a Rent Adjustment Hearing Decision

Resources

Learn More About Allowable Rent Increases View the Rent Adjustment Petition Process

Topics

Hearings, Mediations, and Appeals

About

ABOUT THE RENT ADJUSTMENT PROGRAM

The Oakland City Council adopted the Rent Adjustment Program Ordinance (OMC Chapter 8.22) in 1980. This ordinance sets the maximum annual rent increase based on the annual CPI increase and handles rent adjustments for claims of decreases in housing services and handles other rent-related matters. The purpose of this program is to foster fair housing for a diverse population of renters and enforce the Rent Adjustment Ordinance set out by the City of Oakland.

Contact Us

Since March 2020, we have moved our services from in-person to online. Please read the information below carefully to find the best way to contact us.

By Phone

Phone: (510) 238-3721 | Fax: (510) 238-6181

The Rent Adjustment Program’s Housing Counselors are available from Monday to Thursday, 9:30am to 4:30pm to answer any RAP or housing-related questions you might have. Topics can be, but are not limited to, tenant and property owner issues and concerns, Oakland rental housing laws, or how to file a petition with RAP. Calls are generally limited to 10 minutes per person.

By Email

If you would prefer an email response, you can email us. RAP strives to return all emails within a twenty-four-hour timeframe.

Contact a RAP Housing Counselor: rap@oaklandca.gov.

Hearings Unit: hearingsunit@oaklandca.gov. If you have Hearings Unit-related issues or questions related to your pending case, you must contact your Case Analyst directly. If you do not know who your Case Analyst is, you can email hearingsunit@oaklandca.gov to find that information.

Petition Review/Filing: You have the option to schedule an appointment for review of your petition before filing. To schedule an appointment for review email rap@oaklandca.gov. If you do not want your petition reviewed and want to file, please submit your petition to hearingsunit@oaklandca.gov .

Eviction Notices: All eviction notices should be scanned and submitted via email to evictionnotices@oaklandca.gov.

By Mail

Address: 250 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Suite 5313

Oakland, CA 94612

Due to the Shelter-in-Place Order, we are no longer accepting in-person petition applications and related materials. All new petitions and petition-related documents can be submitted by mail to the address above, electronically submitted to rap@oaklandca.gov, or the online portal.

All documents for Ellis Act cases must be mailed to 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Suite 5313, Oakland, CA 94612.

Online Petition Filing

We also offer an online portal where you can submit your petitions and all petition-related forms online. Click here to access the portal.

For a full list of documents, click here to access all tenant forms and here for all property owner forms.

Request a Form

General forms can be found on our website. For property owner forms, click here. For tenant forms, click here. If you cannot find the form you want, you can email the Rent Adjustment Program atrap@oaklandca.gov to obtain it.

To request documents related to a case, you can either complete the Request for Copies form and email it to rap@oaklandca.gov or make a Public Records Request (PRR) here. Please note that all PRRs are considered public information. You can also look up information related to cases through the RAP database.

Join the Email List

If you would like to receive emails about upcoming events or updates from the Rent Adjustment Program, please sign up! Please use the link below to add your name and email to our list for future updates.

Join the RAP email list!