Rent increase letter template
The letter is not where you argue. It states the old rent, the new rent, the date it starts, and that nothing else changes. Everything persuasive happens in the conversation before you send it.
Rent increase notice
Reasons (optional — most states require none)
Preview
1 October 2026 Dana Whitfield 1412 Ashgrove Ave, Unit 2 Re: Notice of rent increase This is written notice that the rent for 1412 Ashgrove Ave, Unit 2 will change from $1850 to $1924 per month, effective 1 December 2026. That is 60 days from the date of this notice. - Property tax on the building rose this year. - Insurance renewed higher after the roof claim. - The unit is below the rents on comparable listings in the block. All other terms of your tenancy stay the same. Rent remains due on the same day of the month and payable the same way. If you would like to discuss a renewal term instead, reply before 1 December 2026 and I will hold the current rate while we talk. M. Reyes
Serve it the way your lease says notices must be served, and keep proof of service with the copy.
Send it before you have to
The legal minimum is the latest you may send it, not the best time. A tenant who learns in October that rent moves in December has time to accept it. A tenant who learns on the last legal day starts by feeling ambushed and ends by looking at listings.
- 01Work the number in the rent increase calculator and check it against your cap.
- 02Price the alternative in the turnover cost calculator.
- 03Send the letter with more notice than the statute requires.
- 04Offer a longer term at a lower number in the same breath.
Wording that does not create an argument
- State the figures once. Repetition reads as defensiveness.
- Name what changed — tax, insurance, the block's rents — in one line, not a paragraph.
- Say explicitly that all other terms are unchanged. Tenants assume otherwise.
- Give a reply route and a date. A tenant who can negotiate rarely leaves.
One letter, one subject
Do not attach a lease amendment, a pet rule change and a parking reassignment to a rent notice. Each of those is its own letter, and mixing them invites a dispute about all three.
Serving it so it counts
Serve the notice the way the lease says notices are served. Where the lease is silent, follow the statute. Where both are silent, use a method that produces a receipt — certified mail, or personal delivery with a dated copy signed by you. An increase you cannot prove you served is an increase the tenant does not owe.
Under Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.1 (checked 2026-09-04) the notice period on a periodic tenancy is 60 days for a resident of a year or more, 30 days below that — the same clocks the notice to vacate template uses.
Related in the binder
