Rent Escalation Clause
in Your Lease
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Statutes verified against primary state sources
Every statute cited here was read in its published text before this page went live: on the state's own site where that site can be reached, otherwise on a republished copy of the code. Court decisions are quoted from the published opinion and linked to it, so you can read the original yourself.
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Content verified against primary state statutes before publicationLast updated: October 2026
What it actually means, what Pennsylvania law says, what's specific to Philadelphia - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Philadelphia rent increases need 60 days' written notice for tenancies of a year or more, 30 days' for shorter ones.
- Notice must state the amount, effective date and new payment, sent by hand or first-class mail with proof of mailing.
- The Pennsylvania sections we read set no rent-increase notice, no rent control and no cap on the raise.
- Rent normally changes only at the end of a lease term or as your lease itself provides.
- In manufactured home communities, an increase is unenforceable until 30 days after notice is posted and mailed.
Count it for your dates
60 days before: the last day to act
What it means: Your landlord must deliver written notice of the increase, stating the amount, effective date and new payment, at least 60 days before it. Applies to a Philadelphia landlord raising rent on a tenancy of one year or more (a tenancy shorter than a year gets at least 30 days' notice instead) (Philadelphia Code § 9-804(11)(a)). Calendar arithmetic only; check how the section counts days before you rely on a date.
Copy and send: When a rent increase arrives with less notice than the ordinance requires, without the amount or start date, or by text or word of mouth
Ask for a corrected rent increase notice
Fill in the brackets and keep a copy of what you send.
How Pennsylvania compares
Advance notice required before a rent increase, state by state
30 days60 days90 daysNo figureGuide coming soonYou are here
See all 27 cities as a chart
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Understanding the Rent Escalation Clause
This page is for Philadelphia renters whose lease has a rent escalation clause: a set yearly raise, a formula, or the landlord's right to name a new rent at renewal. The key point is where your warning comes from.
It is a Philadelphia ordinance, not state law, and how much notice you get depends on how long you have rented. When a new rent arrives, read the city rule and the clause you signed side by side.
What renters assume
Pennsylvania law gives every renter a month's written warning before the rent goes up, the same as before an eviction.
What is actually true
No Pennsylvania section we read sets a rent-increase notice period. The 15- and 30-day periods people quote are eviction notice. Your notice rule is the Philadelphia ordinance.
Pennsylvania sits with Texas and Arizona at the bottom of this chart: no statewide notice, no cap on the raise. The difference is that Austin and Phoenix are preempted from fixing it, while Philadelphia went ahead and wrote its own 60-day rule.
Rent Escalation Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Philadelphia, PA
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
Paragraph C of the 99-year ground lease under a residential condominium in Steinhardt - a passage that promises an adjustment without ever printing a figure.
C. In view of the fluctuating purchasing power of the dollar, the parties hereto, desiring to adjust the above described rentals to such purchasing power, agree that adjustments shall be made in the annual rental from time to time as hereinafter provided so as to reflect as nearly as possible such fluctuations. The parties hereto adopt as standard for measuring such fluctuations the Consumer Price Index (revised using the 1957-1959 average as equal to 100), United States average on all items and commodity groups issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor, hereinafter referred to as the "Index".
Quoted from the published opinion in Steinhardt v. Rudolph, 422 So. 2d 884 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
What the 4 highlighted phrases mean
“the parties hereto, desiring to adjust the above described rentals to such purchasing power”
A sentence about intention, in a lease the payers had no hand in writing. Pennsylvania leaves that intention to the document: the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 (68 P.S. § 250.101 et seq.) contains no advance-notice requirement for rent increases, and rent normally changes at the end of a lease term or as the lease itself provides. Philadelphia is where that stops being the whole story.
“from time to time”
A timing phrase with no date in it, and in Philadelphia that is the gap the code closes. Notice must arrive at least 60 days ahead if your tenancy is a year or more, at least 30 days if it is shorter. So an adjustment made “from time to time” still has to become a specific date, communicated in advance, before it can cost you anything.
See the example
“the 1957-1959 average as equal to 100”
A base period is what turns an index reading into a percentage, and this clause has one - but you still have to do the arithmetic yourself before you know what you owe. Philadelphia attacks that from the other end: the notice has to state the amount, the effective date and the new payment. The landlord does the sum and tells you the answer, rather than handing you a formula and a base year.
See the example
“issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor”
The number is public, which sounds reassuring and is less than it seems: a published index tells you what the index is, not what your rent is. Pennsylvania puts no ceiling on the answer - no rent control and no statutory cap on how much a landlord may raise the rent - so the state's contribution is silence, and the city's is a date plus a duty to spell the number out.
See the example
The clause lost. Florida's Third District affirmed that this “double escalation” clause was unconscionable and upheld the refusal to enforce it going forward. Procedurally: the developer drafted the lease and signed both sides of it through a nominal trustee taking his orders, the unit owners had no voice in the terms, the developer's own lawyer - himself a trust beneficiary - was mistaken for theirs, and the documents were handed over at or after closing. Substantively: the rent could ratchet up but never down, a further increase applied if the dollar were devalued, the term ran 99 years, the unit owners carried taxes, insurance and maintenance while the lessor's “sole duty under the lease is to accept rents,” and unpaid rent became a lien on the apartment. The court also noted that the Florida legislature had separately declared CPI escalation clauses of this kind void as against public policy for leases entered after the statute's effective date, at Fla. Stat. § 718.401(8)(a). Two things to keep straight while reading the passage above. The up-only floor and the devaluation clause are separate paragraphs of the same lease, not part of these words - what is quoted here is the purpose-and-index half. And this was a 99-year ground lease sitting under a residential condominium: the payers were the 119 individual unit owners who lived in the apartments, so it is a lease attached to people's homes rather than an apartment tenancy.
How this state's law treats this clause
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Pennsylvania Law on Rent Escalation Clause
- The Pennsylvania sections we read set no rent control and no cap on how much a landlord may raise the rent.
- The Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 (68 P.S. § 250.101 et seq.) contains no advance-notice requirement for rent increases; rent normally changes only at the end of a lease term or as the lease itself provides.
- Landlords often follow the notice-to-quit periods in 68 P.S. § 250.501 (15 days for leases of one year or less, 30 days for longer leases), but that section governs eviction notice, not rent increases.
- One narrow carve-out: in manufactured home communities a rent increase is unenforceable until 30 days after notice is posted and mailed under the Manufactured Home Community Rights Act, 68 P.S. § 398.1 et seq.
Verify the current text in your state's landlord-tenant statutes.
The Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 (68 P.S. § 250.101 et seq.) contains no advance-notice requirement for rent increases. Three state rules sit near the question:
- Rent normally changes only at the end of a lease term or as the lease itself provides. During a fixed term, read your escalation clause for any raise.
- 68 P.S. § 250.501 sets notice-to-quit periods of 15 days for leases of one year or less and 30 days for longer leases. Landlords often follow them, but that section governs eviction notice, not rent increases.
- In manufactured home communities, a rent increase is unenforceable until 30 days after notice is posted and mailed, under the Manufactured Home Community Rights Act (68 P.S. § 398.1 et seq.).
The Pennsylvania sections we read set no rent control and no cap on how much a landlord may raise the rent.
What's Specific to Philadelphia
Under Philadelphia Code § 9-804(11)(a), a rent increase needs written notice at least 60 days ahead for tenancies of one year or more and at least 30 days ahead for shorter tenancies. The notice must state the amount, the effective date and the new payment.
It must be delivered by hand or by first-class mail with proof of mailing, which gives you a firm date to count from. Your lease may promise more notice, so check it too.
For tenancies of a year or more, § 9-804(11)(a) requires that much before a rent increase. Shorter tenancies get at least 30 days.
A clause naming a set percentage or dollar figure tells you the raise ahead. The Pennsylvania sections we read set no cap.
Rent normally changes only at the end of a lease term or as the lease provides. Read any mid-term raise language closely.
The ordinance calls for written notice by hand or by first-class mail with proof of mailing.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Thirty days' notice on a yearly lease
Tenancies of one year or more get at least 60 days' written notice. A 30-day term fits only shorter tenancies.
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Open-ended automatic raise
A clause raising rent to 'market rate' or by any amount the landlord picks meets no cap in the Pennsylvania sections we read.
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Notice by text or a taped note
The ordinance calls for delivery by hand or by first-class mail with proof of mailing. Other delivery leaves the start date open to question.
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A notice without the numbers
A Philadelphia notice must state the amount, effective date and new payment. A general warning that rent is going up does not.
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You agree to shorter notice
A line where you accept less warning tries to sign away the 60-day period, which comes from city law, not from your lease.
Your Rights as a Philadelphia Tenant
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Two months of written warning
Tenancies of one year or more get at least 60 days' written notice before a rent increase takes effect.
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Thirty days on short tenancies
A tenancy shorter than a year still gets at least 30 days' written notice of any increase.
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A notice that names the number
It must state the amount, the effective date and the new payment due.
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Proof it was sent
Delivery by hand or first-class mail with proof of mailing gives you a real date to count the notice from.
What To Do - Step by Step
Date the notice
Write down the day it arrived and how it came. The clock runs from proper written delivery, not a hallway conversation.
Check your tenancy length
One year or more means 60 days' notice. Anything shorter means 30.
Check the details
The notice must state the amount, the effective date and the new payment. Note anything missing.
Reread your escalation clause
See what your lease says about raises and notice. It may promise more than the ordinance does.
Write to the landlord
Name the problem, such as short notice, a missing amount or text delivery, and ask for a corrected notice. Keep a copy.
Get help
Take your dated notice and lease to Philadelphia's Fair Housing Commission or a local tenant help line before the new rent starts.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Rent Escalation rules near Pennsylvania
The same clause in the nearest states we cover.
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