new restrictions on banking and more tenant protections

Starting January 1, 2026, the controversial practice of "rent banking" will gain new restrictions, lobbied for by OTU members. Rent banking is the practice of retroactively applying a rent increase from a prior year that wasn't given at the time. Starting in 2026...

• Landlords will only be able to bank a maximum of five years of rent increases, instead of the current ten.
• Landlords will not be able to pass banked rent increases on when they sell the building (although they can be passed on to a spouse or child who inherits the property.
• Landlords will be required to provide a current business tax certificate if they want to apply any banked rent increases.

In addition...

• The deadline to petition an illegal rent increase has been doubled from 90 to 180 days (as of December 24, 2024).
• Landlords will no longer be able to perform a no-fault eviction if they are behind on their business taxes (December 24, 2024).
• Landlords will no longer be able to raise your rent if they are behind on their business taxes (as of April 15, 2025).

Although OTU opposes the entire practice of banking and any deadline to contest illegal rent increases, these common sense regulations will greatly help our ability to stay in our homes! OTU thanks Councilmember Dan Kalb for authoring the legislation, and Councilmember Kaplan, Councilmember Fife, Councilmember Bas, and Mayor Thao for ensuring it passed.