What You Need to Know About Rent Control
Rent controlled apartments are the four-leaf clovers of apartment life. Hiding among thousands of their fellows, they’re very hard to spot, and the finder of one is considered incredibly lucky. That’s because rent controlled apartments offer rent rate benefits to tenants that other apartments lack. Though the city best known for its rent controlled apartments is New York City, there are rent controlled properties in other U.S. cities like L.A., Washington D.C., and New Jersey.
Confused about rent control rules? Here are the top 4 things that apartment hunters need to know about rent controlled apartment life.
What Is Rent Control, Anyway?
The concept of rent control is the result of a variety of U.S. legislative measures passed between the 1920s and 1970s. Rent control means that rent cannot be raised above the limit that was set when the rent control law went into effect. Thus, it acts as a price ceiling for rental properties to ensure that rates are not being raised unfairly. Sometimes landlords are able to raise the rate and remove the controls once the original tenant moves out, but these rules vary from property to property. Generally, rent controlled apartment prices remain the same indefinitely.