Property owners:

Landlords must submit a request for a rental increase to DCA for approval prior to raising the rent on their property. Upon the property owner’s request and DCA approval, the rent to owner may be increased on the anniversary of the Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) Contract, or at least sixty (60) days after the program receives the owner’s request.  A rent adjustment is conditional, however, on the unit satisfying the requirements of the housing quality standards and the owner’s compliance with the terms and provisions of the dwelling lease and the HAP Contract. The owner and the family are responsible for negotiating the new rent to owner, but the amount of increase is subject to the rent reasonableness limitation

 

Tenants:

When you are living in a Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV) approved rental unit, the landlord can't just decide to increase your rent.  Landlords must submit a request for a rental increase to DCA for approval prior to raising your rent.  An HCV participants rent can only be increased once per year and it can only happen on their re-certification date.  Tenants are not required to pay more rent unless they have been notified in writing by DCA that they must do so.  All tenants must receive a written 30 day notice of their rent increase for it to be valid.  Rent increase requests that are deemed to be unreasonable or outside of what the fair market would allow are generally refused.

 

Other Reasons Tenant’s Rent May Increase:

  • An increase in the amount of household income.
  • A tenant decides to move out of one rental property and into another one, including into a different apartment within the same building.
  • The DCA approved rent is higher than payment standards.
  • DCA reduces the amount of its payment standards and thus pay less to a landlord.