Rent Control

Rent control refers to laws or ordinances that regulate how much landlords can legally charge for their property. In its simplest form, there are two approaches to rent control. The first approach is that a “fair rent” is fixed for every unit and that an enforcement mechanism is established to ensure that these rents are in fact charged. The second form of rent control is a “control on rent increases,” regardless of the current rent level. Rent control was established to protect renters from excessive rent increases, especially if such an increase could lead to renters being forced out of the premises. As such, rent control was intended to help renters, especially indigent ones, by allowing them to continue living in areas which otherwise would ...