Reminder: No Banked Rent Increases in Consecutive Years

Published on December 01, 2023

The City of Alameda’s Rent Ordinance permits a landlords of fully regulated units to forgo and “bank” an Annual General Adjustment (AGA) rent increase. These banked amounts may be carried over and added to a subsequent year’s AGA (a “Banked Rent Increase”), provided that certain requirements are met.

The moratorium on rent increases during the COVID-19 pandemic meant that many landlords—even those who had not intended to forgo an AGA—ended up with multiple years’ worth of rent increases banked. Landlords were first eligible to serve notice of rent increases using these banked amounts on December 18, 2022. As a result, many Alameda tenants received Banked Rent Increases in the first few months of 2023.

As a reminder, the Rent Ordinance prohibits landlords from imposing a Banked Rent Increase in consecutive years. This means that if a landlord already served notice of a Banked Rent Increase since December 18, 2022, for at least 24 months the landlord may increase rent only by the AGA (currently 2.9%).

(Please note that, regardless of whether or not a rent increase includes banked amounts, a landlord may not increase rent more than once within a 12-month period.)

Before imposing a Banked Rent Increase, landlords who have questions are encouraged to review Rent Ordinance Regulation 20-05(PDF, 207KB) and information at alamedarentprogram.org/FAQs/Rent-Increases-101, watch a recording of the special workshop on the subject posted at alamedarentprogram.org/Workshops-Clinics, and contact Rent Program staff for more information.

Additionally, the Rent Program now provides a rent increase notice template landlords may, but are not required to, use. Form RP-210(PDF, 261KB) may be used to notify tenants of an AGA increase; a banked rent increase; and other increases, adjustments or pass throughs permitted by the Rent Ordinance.

Tenants who would like to request a review of a past or upcoming rent increase, whether or not they include banked amounts, may submit form RP-100 and Attachment C, available at alamedarentprogram.org/Forms/Tenant-Forms.