Quick Reference: The Portland Compliance Stack

Portland Does Not Have Rent Control. So What Does It Have?

Search "Portland rent control" and you will find a great deal of advice on how to comply with it. Most of it describes something that does not legally exist.

ORS 91.225(2) prohibits an Oregon city or county from enacting any ordinance that controls the rent that may be charged for a dwelling unit, and subsection (7) bars enacting or enforcing anything inconsistent with that. The legislature declared rent control a matter of statewide concern. Portland cannot impose ordinary local rent control, and the record in the litigation described below shows the city council understood that when it legislated.

What Portland actually has is three separate code sections imposing procedural and payment obligations: PCC 30.01.085 on notice and relocation assistance, PCC 30.01.086 on application and screening, and PCC 30.01.087 on security deposits. What Oregon has, separately, is a statewide rent cap. Collapsing all of that into one imagined "Portland rent control ordinance" produces the two failure modes seen most often in Portland portfolios: planning around constraints that do not exist, and missing the ones that do.

Managers used to a single-source framework like Ohio's eviction process or Georgia's dispossessory proceedings have to make one adjustment here: know which level of government is speaking before deciding which rule applies.

The Three-Layer Compliance Stack

• Layer one: the statewide rent cap.
  ORS 90.323 limits the size of an increase and permits only one per 12-month period, with none in the first year of a tenancy. The formula, from Senate Bill 608 in 2019 as amended by Senate Bill 611 in 2023, is the lesser of 10% or 7% plus the regional Consumer Price Index, calculated under ORS 90.324. The Oregon Department of Administrative Services publishes the figure each September for the following calendar year. For 2026 it is 9.5%. A 6% cap applies to manufactured dwelling and marina facilities with more than 30 spaces under House Bill 3054. Exceeding the cap exposes the landlord to three months' rent plus actual damages under ORS 90.323(6).

• Layer two: Oregon's restrictions on no-cause termination.
  ORS 90.427 generally restricts terminating without cause after the applicable occupancy period and defines the qualifying landlord reasons that survive it. The section carries its own exceptions and timing rules by tenancy type, so it should be read rather than summarised.

• Layer three: Portland city code.
  Sections 30.01.085, 30.01.086 and 30.01.087. Portland's own tenant notices state the point plainly: city requirements are in addition to, not instead of, state and federal requirements.

  Nothing in layer three sets a rent. That is precisely why layer three is lawful.

Owen v. City of Portland: Why the Ordinance Survived

Portland enacted Ordinance 188219 in 2017, requiring relocation payments to tenants displaced by no-cause terminations or by rent increases of 10% or more. Landlords sued, arguing the payments were rent control under another name.

In Owen v. City of Portland, 368 Or 661 (2021), decided 4 November 2021, the Oregon Supreme Court held that ORS 91.225 preempts only local laws that regulate or exert restraining or directing influence over the rent a landlord has permission to charge. Portland's ordinance, the court reasoned, neither prescribes rent amounts nor prohibits increases. Landlords may set rents freely, reset to market on turnover, and raise rent by 10% or more without paying anything if the tenant stays. The payment is a condition attached to displacement, not a ceiling. The court also rejected the argument that the ordinance was "effectively" rent control, and upheld its private cause of action.

Justice Garrett dissented. His reasoning is worth reading for operational rather than legal purposes: he argued that a landlord facing a $2,900 payment at 10% will rationally stop at 9.9%, capturing almost the same revenue at no cost, and that this restrains rent-setting in practice. The majority disagreed that this amounted to control. Either way, the incentive he described is a real factor Portland managers should weigh when modelling increases on cap-exempt units.

The 2026 Arithmetic: Where the 10% Trigger Actually Bites

Here is the point most Portland guides miss.

The 2026 state cap is 9.5%. Portland's relocation trigger is a rent increase of 10% or more in a rolling 12-month period. For units subject to the 2026 ORS 90.323 cap, a lawful rent increase cannot reach Portland's 10% relocation threshold. Not because the city softened anything, but because the state ceiling currently sits below the city trigger.

Where the trigger is live in 2026 is on units exempt from the state cap, principally those whose first certificate of occupancy was issued less than 15 years before the notice. A newer Portland building can lawfully take a 14% increase, and the moment it does, PCC 30.01.085(C) engages fully. Note also that under ORS 90.323(3), a notice relying on that exemption must state the facts supporting it.

Two consequences belong in policy.

The exemption is a rolling window, not a status. A building graduates into cap coverage on the fifteenth anniversary of its certificate of occupancy, so the pricing model has to graduate with it. Portfolios with 2010 and 2011 deliveries are crossing that line now.

And the relationship between the two thresholds is not fixed. The Owen court expressly noted the state formula can exceed 10% in a high-inflation year, which would put the Portland trigger back in play for capped units. The 2025 figure was 10.0%. Treating "the cap is under 10%, so relocation never applies to increases" as permanent is a policy that fails the first hot CPI year.

None of this touches the other triggers. Terminations, non-renewals and qualifying landlord reasons engage the relocation obligation independently of the rent cap, and those are the branches most Portland managers actually meet.

Relocation Assistance: The Mechanics That Catch People Out

PCC 30.01.085 is short, and its timing is unforgiving.

• On a termination. A no-cause termination or qualifying landlord reason requires at least 90 days' written notice, or the agreement's period if longer. Payment must reach the tenant not less than 45 days before the termination date. Declining to renew or replace an expiring agreement counts as a termination here. The obligation is per dwelling unit, so a four-person household in a two-bedroom shares one $4,200 payment.

• On a rent increase. The tenant has 45 calendar days from receiving the increase notice to request assistance in writing. The landlord then has 31 calendar days from receiving that request to pay.

• The six-month window nobody plans for. After payment, the tenant has six months from the effective date of the increase either to repay the assistance and stay at the higher rent, or to serve a termination notice. A tenant who does neither is in violation. Operationally this means a paid relocation claim leaves an open item on the ledger for half a year with a repayment that may or may not arrive. It is a receivable and should be tracked as one.

• Two more that get missed. A description of the tenant's rights and the eligible amount must accompany every termination notice, every increase notice and every payment. And PHB must be notified of every payment within 30 days.

  A tenant may receive and retain relocation assistance only once per tenancy per dwelling unit.

The Exemption Paperwork

Section 30.01.085(I) lists twelve exempt circumstances, including week-to-week tenancies, landlord-occupied shared units, owner-occupied duplexes, qualifying accessory dwelling unit arrangements, temporary rental of the landlord's principal residence during an absence of up to three years or during active-duty military service, termination so an immediate family member can occupy, certain regulated affordable housing rent increases, units under the federal Uniform Relocation Assistance Act, units rendered immediately uninhabitable through no party's fault, units rented for under six months with a verified demolition permit, and fixed-term tenancies where an intent to sell or convert was disclosed before occupancy.

The code conditions these on the landlord having submitted an application to PHB, received an exemption acknowledgement letter, and given the tenant a copy. PHB's administrative rules identify a small number that do not require the form, and note that most must be filed before entering into the rental agreement.

An exemption you qualify for but never filed is, in a dispute, an exemption you cannot rely on. That makes exemption documentation one of the most important compliance controls for small Portland portfolios, where owner-occupied duplexes and on-site ADUs plainly fit an exemption but often have no acknowledgement letter in the file.

Usefully, subsection (J) confirms that engaging a licensed Oregon property manager does not cost a unit its exemption merely because the manager's total portfolio is large.

Two Different Clocks: 5% and 10%

PCC 30.01.085(C) does something separate from the relocation obligation and reaches a far wider set of increases.

Any increase of 5% or more over a rolling 12-month period requires 90 days' written notice, or the agreement's notice period if longer. The notice must state the amount of the increase, the new rent or associated housing costs, and the effective date.

Two features matter. The threshold is a rolling 12-month total, so two 3% increases inside a year cross it even though neither does alone. And the calculation is not limited to the base-rent figure: the ordinance refers throughout to rent and associated housing costs, and the same measure governs the 10% relocation threshold. Before assuming a particular charge falls outside the calculation, check it against the code and PHB's administrative rules.

For the record, the expiration of a rent concession specified in the rental agreement is not treated as a substantial change under this section.

A State Rule Portland Managers Cannot Simply Import

Oregon amended its landlord-tenant statutes in 2025, and one change is a live trap for Portland operators.

Senate Bill 586 amended ORS 90.427 effective 26 September 2025 to let a landlord give a 60-day notice instead of 90 days when terminating because the dwelling is being sold to a buyer who intends to occupy it, provided the tenant receives an amount equal to one month's periodic rent.

Portland's own Landlord-Tenant Policy Changes page states that this change does not apply within Portland city limits, because PCC 30.01.085 and 30.01.086 already govern there. The reason is visible in the code: PCC 30.01.085(B) sets a floor of not less than 90 days for a termination without cause or for a qualifying landlord reason, and the city relocation schedule applies on top. A Portland manager who reads a statewide summary of SB 586 and serves a 60-day notice has served a defective notice and skipped a relocation payment.

A second 2025 change is worth flagging alongside the screening section. Senate Bill 599 amended ORS 90.303 effective 6 June 2025 concerning inquiries and decisions based on immigration or citizenship status. Portland's screening workflow should be reviewed against both PCC 30.01.086 and the current ORS requirements rather than either alone.

FAIR: The Ordinance That Governs Leasing, Not Rent

PCC 30.01.086, part of the Fair Access In Renting package and reflecting amendments effective 1 January 2025, regulates advertising, application order and denials. For a leasing team this is the higher-frequency risk, because it engages on every vacancy.

• Advertising and queue order. If a unit is advertised, the notice must publish at least 72 hours before the open application period, and must state when applications open, the evaluation factors if a screening fee is charged, and whether the unit is an accessible dwelling unit. Applications received early are timestamped as eight hours after the open period begins. Applications may be processed simultaneously but must be accepted, conditionally accepted or denied in order of receipt. Applicants for an accessible unit with a mobility-disabled household member get priority during the first eight hours.

• Two tracks. A landlord may use the city's low-barrier criteria, or apply more restrictive criteria of its own. Under the code, if any single criterion is more prohibitive than the low-barrier list, an individual assessment is required for every basis on which the landlord intends to deny, before the denial issues. That assessment must weigh the nature and severity of the incidents, their number and type, the time elapsed, and the applicant's age at the time.

• What low-barrier covers. On credit, a landlord adopting it agrees not to reject for a score of 500 or higher, insufficient credit history, unpaid obligations under $1,000, prior rental damage balances under $500, a discharged bankruptcy, an active Chapter 13 repayment plan, or medical and educational debt. On criminal history, it excludes arrests without conviction, diversion completions, dismissed or expunged convictions, conduct no longer illegal in Oregon, juvenile adjudications, misdemeanours sentenced more than three years ago, and felonies sentenced more than seven years ago. The framework also limits rental history use, restricting reliance on certain prior possession actions depending on their outcome and age, on most verbal or written reference information outside defined categories such as rent defaults and terminations with cause, and on insufficient rental history.

• Income ratios are capped. No more than 2.5 times rent where rent sits below PHB's published 80% median-income threshold, and no more than 2 times at or above it. That threshold is published annually by PHB and should be checked against the current table before the ratio is applied. The calculation must use rent reduced by any government voucher or subsidy, count all income sources including non-governmental rent assistance and monetary public benefits, and use the applicants' combined resources.

• Conditional approval carries a clock. If an applicant misses the ratio, the landlord may require a guarantor or an additional security deposit, must communicate the conditional approval and the amount in writing, and must give the applicant no less than 48 hours to accept or decline. Where a friend or family member acts as guarantor, the landlord cannot require guarantor income greater than three times rent.

• Identity and non-applicant tenants. An application cannot be rejected as incomplete for lack of a Social Security number or proof of lawful presence, and the landlord must accept any of a listed set of identity documents, including expired government identification. Adults who are not financially responsible may be screened only for property care and conduct. A qualifying applicant cannot be denied because a non-applicant tenant was denied. A written decision is due within two weeks of the evaluation being completed.

• The 30-day appeal. Every denied applicant must be offered an appeal for 30 days. A successful appeal prequalifies the applicant at the landlord's Portland properties for three months and waives the screening fee for that period.

Security Deposits: The Rules Do Not Stop at the Dollar Cap

PCC 30.01.087 is where Portland goes furthest beyond state law, and where the draft most managers work from is usually thinnest.

• Amount. One month's rent where last month's rent is not collected. Where last month's rent forms part of the deposit, no more than an additional half month. A conditional approval permits a further half month, payable in instalments over up to three months.

• Custody. Within two weeks of receipt, funds must go into a financial institution account segregated from the landlord's personal and operating accounts. The rental agreement must name the institution and state whether the account bears interest. Interest accrues to the tenant's benefit, subject to an optional 5% administrative deduction, and a receipt is available on request once a year.

• Condition reports. Before the commencement date the landlord must make reasonable efforts to schedule a mutually convenient walkthrough, complete a condition report covering the fixtures, appliances, equipment and personal property listed in the rental agreement, obtain both signatures, photograph the items noted, and share those photographs. If no convenient time can be arranged, the report must be completed before commencement and the photographs shared on the commencement date. The tenant then has seven days to submit an addendum on a landlord-provided form; if none arrives, the landlord's report becomes final. If an addendum arrives, the landlord has seven days to dispute it in writing, and failing to do so makes the report as amended the baseline against which deductions are measured. The report must be updated for repairs and replacements during the tenancy.

• Move-out. Within one week of the termination date the landlord must conduct a final inspection, at the tenant's option with the tenant or their representative present, on at least 24 hours' notice.

• Deductions. Only for items identified in the rental agreement, and only up to the cost of restoring the unit to its condition at commencement. No deductions for routine maintenance, ordinary wear and tear, failures not caused by the tenant, or costs reimbursed by insurance or warranty. Flooring may be charged only where damage exceeds ordinary wear and tear, and only for the discrete impacted area, defined as the room, closet, hallway, stairway or other defined space affected, not beyond. Interior painting cannot be charged at all except to repair specific tenant damage beyond ordinary wear and tear or to repaint walls the tenant painted without permission. Visual damage must be documented with photographs supplied with the ORS 90.300 accounting, and labour costs above $200 need documentation that the rate is consistent with typical metropolitan rates.

• Two documents. A written notice of rights must be delivered with the ORS 90.300 accounting. And under PCC 30.01.087(F), within five business days after receiving a tenant's request or delivering a notice of intent to terminate, the landlord must provide a written accounting of the tenant's rent payment history covering up to the prior two years, plus a completed rental history form from the PHB website.

  Noncompliance runs to $250 per violation plus actual damages, attorney fees and costs. Given how many discrete obligations a single tenancy generates, that figure compounds quickly.

Common Mistakes Property Managers Make in Portland

1. Hard-coding last year's cap. The DAS figure changes each September. A policy still reading 10.0% from 2025 is wrong for 2026, when it is 9.5%.

2. Confusing the two remedies. Exceeding the state cap is three months' rent plus actual damages under ORS 90.323(6). Relocation noncompliance is a separate city remedy of up to three times monthly rent plus damages, the assistance itself, and fees. They are different claims and can both be in play.

3. Applying the cap to the wrong units. The 15-year window is rolling, and an exemption relied on in a notice must be supported by stated facts.

4. Measuring thresholds on base rent alone. Both the 5% and 10% triggers run on rent and associated housing costs, over a rolling 12 months.

5. Relying on an unfiled exemption. Most relocation exemptions need an application, an acknowledgement letter and a copy to the tenant, usually before the tenancy begins.

6. Importing SB 586 into Portland. The 60-day sale notice does not apply inside city limits.

7. Missing the 45-day pre-termination payment, or the 30-day PHB report. Both are separate obligations from the payment itself.

8. Not tracking the six-month repayment window. Unmonitored, a repayable relocation payment becomes a lost receivable.

9. Deciding applications out of order, or denying under stricter criteria with no individual assessment. Simultaneous processing is fine; out-of-order decisions and post-hoc justifications are not.

10. Treating the deposit rules as a dollar cap. The condition report, the photographs, the seven-day addendum window and the painting and flooring limits are where deposit claims actually fail.

Build the Compliance Record Before You Need It

Nearly every Portland obligation is a timestamp or a document, and nearly every dispute turns on whether it exists.

Four things belong in the system rather than in someone's memory. Each unit needs its certificate-of-occupancy date as a field, because it determines cap coverage and changes status on a known anniversary. Each increase needs a rolling 12-month total of rent and associated housing costs so the 5% and 10% triggers are calculated, not estimated. Each exemption needs its PHB acknowledgement letter attached with the dates it was issued and delivered. And each vacancy needs an auditable application queue with recorded receipt times.

RIOO's tenant acquisition and screening tools give the application process a recorded order and a consistent evaluation path. Contracts and renewals holds lease terms, notice dates and unit-level attributes on one record so the rolling calculation is produced rather than reconstructed. And move-in and move-out management is where the condition report, its photographs, the tenant addendum and the final inspection have to live, because under PCC 30.01.087 those documents are the baseline that determines whether a deduction is defensible at all.

Conclusion

Portland's framework gets easier once you stop calling it rent control. The ceiling is the state's, published annually, currently 9.5%, and enforced by a three months' rent remedy. The city's contribution is procedural: longer notice on increases of 5% or more, payments when landlord-side decisions displace a tenant, an ordered and documented application process, and deposit rules that turn on condition evidence rather than dollar limits.

Owen v. City of Portland settled the legal question in 2021. For 2026, the arithmetic has moved: with the state cap at 9.5%, the relocation ordinance's rent-increase branch reaches only units still inside their 15-year exemption. The termination, non-renewal and substantial-change branches remain important compliance triggers regardless, subject to the exemptions in 30.01.085(I).

A Portland policy that tracks the annual DAS figure, carries certificate-of-occupancy dates at unit level, files exemptions in advance, proves the order in which applications were processed, and treats the condition report as a legal document rather than a formality will handle almost everything this city asks.

This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Portland City Code, PHB administrative rules and ORS Chapter 90 are amended frequently, and the maximum annual rent increase changes every year. Confirm the current figure with the Oregon Department of Administrative Services and the current code text with the City before acting, and consult a licensed Oregon attorney on a specific matter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Does Portland have rent control?
No, and it cannot. ORS 91.225 prohibits Oregon cities and counties from enacting ordinances that control the rent that may be charged. Portland's ordinances impose notice, payment and process obligations without setting rent levels, which is why the Oregon Supreme Court upheld the relocation ordinance in Owen v. City of Portland (2021).

Q2. What is the maximum rent increase in Portland in 2026?
9.5% for most units under the statewide formula in ORS 90.323 and 90.324, published annually by the Oregon Department of Administrative Services. A 6% cap applies to manufactured dwelling and marina facilities with more than 30 spaces. One increase per 12 months, and none in the first year of a tenancy.

Q3. What happens if a landlord exceeds the cap?
Under ORS 90.323(6), the landlord is liable to the tenant for three months' rent plus actual damages. That is separate from any Portland relocation remedy.

Q4. Which units are exempt from the Oregon rent cap?
Principally units whose first certificate of occupancy was issued less than 15 years before the notice, plus certain reduced-rent subsidised units. The notice must state the facts supporting the exemption, and the 15-year window is rolling.

Q5. When does Portland relocation assistance apply?
On a no-cause termination, a qualifying landlord reason, a decision not to renew on substantially the same terms, or a rent increase of 10% or more over a rolling 12 months where the tenant requests assistance in writing within 45 days. Twelve exemptions apply, most requiring a filed PHB application and acknowledgement letter.

Q6. How much is it and when is it due?
$2,900 studio or SRO, $3,300 one-bedroom, $4,200 two-bedroom, $4,500 three-bedroom or larger, per dwelling unit. On a termination, at least 45 days before the termination date. On an increase, within 31 days of the tenant's written request. PHB must be notified within 30 days of payment.

Q7. Can a tenant keep the money and stay?
Only temporarily. The tenant has six months from the effective date of the increase either to repay and remain at the higher rent, or to serve a termination notice. Doing neither puts the tenant in violation.

Q8. How much notice does Portland require for a rent increase?
90 days for any increase of 5% or more over a rolling 12-month period, or the period in the rental agreement if longer, measured on rent and associated housing costs.

Q9. Can I use Oregon's new 60-day sale notice in Portland?
No. SB 586 allows a 60-day notice on sale statewide from 26 September 2025, but Portland's guidance confirms it does not apply inside city limits because PCC 30.01.085 already governs, and that section sets a 90-day floor plus relocation assistance.

Q10. How much can I charge as a security deposit in Portland?
One month's rent, or half a month more if last month's rent forms part of the deposit, plus up to a further half month on conditional approval which the tenant may pay in instalments over three months. Portland also requires a segregated account, a signed and photographed condition report, a seven-day tenant addendum window, and strict limits on flooring and painting deductions.