The number that matters most to District landlords this year is 4.1 percent. That is the ceiling on rent increases for most rent-stabilized units during Rent Control Year 2026, which runs May 1, 2026 through April 30, 2027. If the tenant is elderly or has a disability, the ceiling drops to 2.1 percent. Get the math or the paperwork wrong and a tenant petition can win a rollback, a refund, and fines.

DC layers rent stabilization, business licensing, TOPA, and some of the country's tightest deposit and eviction rules on top of each other. Here is how the whole stack works in 2026, with citations you can check against Title 42, Chapter 35 of the D.C. Code.

Which DC buildings are rent-stabilized, and what you can raise

The Rental Housing Act of 1985 puts most DC rental housing built before 1976 under rent stabilization (D.C. Code § 42-3501.01 et seq.). The main exits: buildings first occupied after 1975, federally or District-subsidized units, and landlords who are natural persons owning four or fewer rental units in the District. No exemption is automatic. You claim it by filing with the Rental Accommodations Division (RAD), and an "exempt" unit with no filing on record gets treated as covered (D.C. Code § 42-3502.05).

For covered units, the standard annual increase is CPI-W plus 2 percent, never more than 10 percent total. For elderly tenants and tenants with disabilities, it is capped lower. The Rental Housing Commission publishes the caps each year: 4.1 percent standard and 2.1 percent elderly or disability for RCY 2026, down from 4.8 and 2.5 the year before.

Three rules ride along with every increase. Only one increase per unit per 12 months. The unit must be properly registered and substantially free of housing code violations. And any rent increase, stabilized or not, needs at least 30 days' written notice before it takes effect (D.C. Code § 42-3509.04).

Vacancy turnover is capped too

When a stabilized unit turns over, the vacancy adjustment is capped at 10 percent. The old option of jumping to a "comparable unit" rent was abolished, and a vacancy increase starts a fresh 12-month clock before the next one.

Before you collect a dollar: license, register, disclose

Renting anything in the District, even one condo, requires a Basic Business License with the right endorsement (one-family rental, two-family, or apartment) from DLCP, plus a rent-control registration or exemption claim on file with RAD. Expect a housing inspection as part of licensing. Operating unlicensed invites fines and hands the tenant easy ammunition in any later court fight.

At lease signing, DC also requires a disclosure packet: the unit's rent-control or exemption status, the current rent and last increase, any pending petitions, housing code violation reports from the past year, and a copy of the Tenant Bill of Rights (D.C. Code § 42-3502.22). Pre-1978 buildings add the federal lead-paint disclosure on top.

TOPA gets one paragraph because it can reshape an entire sale: under the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, you generally cannot sell a rented building without first delivering an offer of sale that gives tenants a chance to buy (D.C. Code § 42-3404.02). Most single-family sales are exempt, and the 2025 RENTAL Act added more exemptions, including a 15-year pass for new construction and carve-outs aimed at small 2-to-4-unit buildings.

Security deposits: one month, escrowed, earning interest

The cap is one month's rent, charged once (14 DCMR § 308.3). The money must sit in an interest-bearing escrow account at a DC financial institution, and tenants whose tenancies run 12 months or longer are owed interest at the prevailing statement savings rate, refreshed each January and July (D.C. Code § 42-3502.17).

The return clock has two stages. Within 45 days of the tenancy ending, either refund the deposit with interest or deliver written notice, personally or by certified mail, that you intend to withhold. If you send that notice, you get 30 more days to provide an itemized statement of repairs and refund the balance (14 DCMR § 309). Miss a deadline or skip the itemization and you forfeit the right to withhold anything; a court that finds bad faith can award the tenant treble the amount.

For contrast, Florida has no deposit cap at all, and Georgia only added a two-month cap in 2024. DC's one-month, interest-bearing regime is the strictest in the region, and the 45-day clock is where landlords slip most; Rentari tracks that deadline per tenancy so it never quietly passes.

The 5 percent late-fee ceiling and the 48-hour entry rule

Rent is not late until 5 days after the due date, and the late fee is capped at 5 percent of the full monthly rent (D.C. Code § 42-3505.31). You cannot charge interest on a late fee, deduct it from the next payment, impose it twice for the same month, or evict over unpaid late fees. On a $2,000 unit, the most you can ever add for a late month is $100.

Entry requires written notice at least 48 hours ahead, for a reasonable purpose, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and not on Sundays or federal holidays unless the tenant agrees (D.C. Code § 42-3505.51). Email or text counts once the tenant has acknowledged electronic notice in writing. Emergencies are the exception, and a tenant who reports a code violation must let you in within 48 hours of a written request to fix it.

Evictions run on cause, court, and the U.S. Marshals

There is no "lease is up, please leave" in the District. When a fixed term ends, the tenancy rolls forward on the same terms, and you can recover possession only on a statutory ground listed in D.C. Code § 42-3505.01: nonpayment, an uncorrected lease violation, personal use, substantial rehab, demolition, and a few others, each with its own notice.

  • Nonpayment: you cannot file unless the tenant owes at least $600, and you must first serve a notice of past-due rent at least 10 days before filing, on the RAD form, in English and Spanish (D.C. Code § 42-3505.01(a-1)). The 10-day figure is new; it was 30 days until the RENTAL Act took effect December 31, 2025.
  • Lease violation: a 30-day notice to correct the violation or vacate.
  • Personal use and occupancy: 90 days. Substantial rehabilitation: 120 days. Demolition: 180 days.

Every case goes through the Landlord and Tenant Branch of D.C. Superior Court, and only the U.S. Marshals can execute the eviction. Self-help lockouts have been illegal since Mendes v. Johnson (D.C. 1978). Evictions also cannot be carried out while precipitation is falling or when the forecast is at or below 32 degrees (§ 42-3505.01(k)).

Habitability runs on the same track in reverse: DC's housing code implies a warranty of habitability in every lease (Javins v. First National Realty, the case that invented the doctrine, is a DC case). Tenants can raise code violations to abate rent in an eviction case or seek repair orders through the court's Housing Conditions Calendar, so fix-it tickets are cheaper than litigated ones.

What the RENTAL Act changed on December 31, 2025

The Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords (RENTAL) Amendment Act of 2025 (D.C. Law 26-80) is the District's biggest landlord-tenant rewrite since the pandemic. Five changes matter most to working landlords:

  • The pre-filing nonpayment notice dropped from 30 days to 10.
  • Courts can now order tenants to pay ongoing rent into the court registry while a case is pending, so a contested case no longer guarantees months of zero income.
  • A pending ERAP application no longer automatically stays the case.
  • Cases involving dangerous crimes or violence get a 10-day notice to vacate and an expedited hearing.
  • TOPA gained the 15-year new-construction exemption and small-building carve-outs described above.

Judges also gained discretion to overlook technical filing defects instead of dismissing outright. Nothing in the Act touched the deposit rules, the late-fee cap, or rent stabilization itself. If you also hold units in Delaware, note that almost none of this machinery exists there; the two markets barely share a rule.

DC landlord FAQ

Can I ever evict just to get my unit back?

Yes, but only through the statutory grounds: your own personal use on 90 days' notice, sale to a buyer who will occupy, substantial rehab, or demolition. Several of those trigger relocation assistance. Ending a paying tenant's lease for no reason is not an option in DC.

Do I owe deposit interest on a short tenancy?

Interest is owed when the tenancy lasted at least 12 months. Under a year, you return the deposit itself on the normal 45-day clock without interest (D.C. Code § 42-3502.17).

Is my post-1975 building automatically exempt from rent stabilization?

No. The exemption follows the RAD filing, not the building's age by itself. And exempt units still follow everything else here: the deposit rules, the late-fee cap, entry notice, TOPA, and cause-based eviction.

Can I raise the rent by the maximum every year?

On a stabilized unit, yes in principle: one properly noticed increase per 12 months, up to that year's cap, on a registered and code-compliant unit. Unused headroom from skipped years does not carry forward.

Where do I check the current caps and forms?

The Rental Housing Commission publishes each year's CPI-W caps, and RAD publishes the required notice forms. Our DC quick-reference page tracks the headline numbers, and the forms library has DC-specific lease and notice templates.

This guide is general information for landlords, not legal advice. District law changes quickly and individual facts matter; confirm anything load-bearing against the D.C. Code, the Rental Housing Commission, or a DC landlord-tenant attorney before acting.