Rent Adjustment Program Fee and Exemptions

If your rental property is covered by either the Rent Adjustment Ordinance or the Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance, then the unit is also covered under the Rent Adjustment Program.

Owners of rental property covered by either Ordinance must file and pay an annual fee of $101 for each unit. All fees will be due on January 1, and will be deemed delinquent if not paid to the Business Tax Office* by March 1. Owners who timely pay the annual RAP fee are allowed to pass half (50%) of the fee onto the tenant.

However, there are some residential units that are exempt from both the Rent Adjustment Ordinance AND the Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance and are therefore exempt from paying the Rent Adjustment Fee:

  • Newly constructed units built entirely from the ground up within the past 10 years, and are not a result of a conversion or prior residential use. (Please provide either (a) Certificate of Occupancy issued after April 1, 2013, or (b) a Certificate of Exemption issued by RAP after December 30, 2022, certifying that the property is exempt from both the Rent Adjustment Ordinance and the Just Cause Ordinance. Certificate of Occupancy MUST be for ground-up new construction, and not for a unit created from existing residential space.
  • Fully owner-occupied units, including single family homes
  • Hospitals, skilled nursing, or health facilities
  • Non-profits or substance abuse recovery facilities
  • Non-profits to support the homelessness

*The Business Tax office only handles the billing and does not make determinations of exemption. If you would like a Certificate of Exemption or have questions about whether your property is exempt from Rent Control and/or Just Cause Ordinances, please contact the Rent Adjustment Program. Our contact information is below.

Info Sheets

Rent Adjustment Program Exemption Flyer

Just Cause and Rent Control Coverage Flyer

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 E-mail

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

Contact a RAP Housing Counselor: rap@oaklandca.gov. Please include in your e-mail: your full name, your telephone number, and your address.

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 e-mail 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 e-mail 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 e-mail 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 e-mail the Rent Adjustment Program at rap@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 E-mail List

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

Join the RAP e-mail list!