Rent regulation

"Rent control" redirects here. 

Overview

"Rent regulation is a system of laws, administered by a court or a public authority, which aim to ensure the quality and affordability of housing and tenancies on the rental market for land. Comprehensive rent regulation is common in Commonwealth and European Union countries, including Canada, Germany, Ireland, Cyprus and Sweden, and also some states in the United States. Generally a system of rent regulation involves:

• price controls, limits on the rent that landlord may charge, with rent control and rent stabilization
• standards by which a landlord may terminate a tenancy (an equivalent of unfair dismissal from employment in tenancies)
• obligations on the landlord or tenant regarding adequate maintenance of the property
• a system of oversight and enforcement by an independent regulator and Ombudsman

The classic objective is to limit the price that would result from the market, where an inequality of bargaining power between landlords and tenants produces continually escalating prices without any stable market equilibrium."

- Wikipedia, "Rent regulation." 

 

Vacancy control or decontrol

A key difference between different rent-regulation regimes is whether, or how, they regulate rent of an apartment after it is vacated by a tenant.  The rent might be allowed only the same increment as if still occupied, it might be allowed a higher increment (e.g. as in New York City), or it may be allowed to revert to full market rate (as in San Francisco). 
 

Deferred rent stabilization 

The idea that a unit may come under rent-stabilization guidelines only a certain length of time after it is built, for example 10 or 20 years. 
 

California 'Costa-Hawkins' law repeal initiative

"a substantial expansion of rent control in California could result in...significant reductions in construction of new housing." Legislative Analysts Office @LAO_CA analysis of #CostaHawkins repeal initiative 

 

Rolling 

 

References

• Diamond, Rebecca, Tim McQuade, & Franklin Qian. “The Effects of Rent Control Expansion on Tenants, Landlords, and Inequality: Evidence from San Francisco.” NBER working paper, October 11, 2017. http://conference.nber.org/confer//2017/PEf17/Diamond_McQuade_Qian.pdf.
   
• East Bay For Everyone. "RE: AB 1506 - Residential Rent Control: Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act." (letter). 2017. https://www.scribd.com/document/350029454/Ab-1506-Support#from_embed.
   
• Legislative Analysts Office (California). Review of proposed statutory initiative pertaining to rent control (A.G. File No. 17-0041). 12 Dec 2017. http://www.lao.ca.gov/ballot/2017/170629.pdf.
   
• Wikipedia. "Rent regulation." 
   
• Willis, John W. “Short History of Rent Control Laws,” 36 Cornell L. Rev. 54 (1950). http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol36/iss1/3.