Is there a rule of thumb when raising rent?

[Walter Correia]

Does anyone know how to raise rent? Is there a specific guideline to follow? One of our tenants is coming up on a one year lease. This is our first rental and we want to know the best way to take this approach.

[Brianne H.]

Just be sure that you're A) giving enough notice to increase the rents, and B) Make sure you follow the law exactly in regards to how to go about giving notice to raise the rents. In some local areas, they can be extremely strict with how and when to serve the notice to increase, like in BC Canada. (For example in BC, you MUST use a specific form to raise rents. If you don't use that EXACT form, the tenant can take you to court, and they WILL win, and get all the increase in rents due back to them. It's happened.)