Oregon Landlord Tenant Law: What Investment Property Owners Must Know

If you own rental property in Oregon and manage it the way you would in Texas, Arizona, or Florida, you will eventually write a check to a tenant just for the privilege of getting your own property back. Oregon's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (ORS Chapter 90) is among the most tenant-protective frameworks in the country, and it changed dramatically between 2019 and 2023 in ways that many landlords still haven't internalized.

This is a compliance-focused guide for investors who own or plan to own rental property in the state.

Statewide Rent Control: The Annual Cap

Oregon was the first state in the nation to enact statewide rent control, through Senate Bill 608 in 2019. Under ORS 90.323, landlords face two hard constraints on rent increases:

Frequency: Rent can only be raised once within any rolling 12-month period, regardless of the tenancy type. Splitting a large increase into two smaller ones spread across the year is illegal.

Amount: The maximum allowable increase is the lesser of 10% or 7% plus the September-over-September Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Urban Consumers, West Region. The Oregon Department of Administrative Services publishes the exact percentage each year by September 30. For 2025, the cap hit the hard ceiling at 10.0%. For 2026, lower inflation brought the cap down to 9.5%.

Notice requirement: Landlords must provide 90 days' written notice specifying the new rent amount and the effective date.

Penalty for violations: A landlord who exceeds the cap or fails proper notice is liable for three months' rent plus actual damages.

The 15-year exemption: Buildings that received their first certificate of occupancy less than 15 years before the date of the rent increase notice are entirely exempt from the cap. This rolling window incentivizes new construction but requires tracking the exact occupancy date as a property ages into its 16th year.

Just-Cause Eviction: The 12-Month Line

SB 608 also eliminated traditional no-cause evictions for established tenancies. The first 12 months of occupancy function as a probationary period. During this window, a landlord can issue a standard 30-day no-cause termination notice (extended to 90 days in Portland and Milwaukie).

But there is a critical anti-rent-reset provision: if you terminate without cause during the first year, you cannot raise the rent for the next tenant above the statutory cap applied to the previous rent. The intent is to prevent landlords from cycling tenants to reset to market rates.

After 12 months, no-cause termination is prohibited. A tenancy may only be terminated for:

Tenant-cause reasons: Nonpayment of rent, material lease violation, criminal activity on the premises, or other violations specified in ORS 90.392-90.396.

Qualifying landlord reasons (ORS 90.427):

• Intent to demolish the unit
• Intent to convert the unit to non-residential use
• Intent to undertake renovations that render the unit unsafe for occupancy
• Landlord or immediate family member intends to move in
• Accepted a bona fide purchase offer from a buyer who will occupy as primary residence

Each qualifying landlord reason requires 90 days' written notice.

Mandatory Relocation Assistance

If you terminate a tenancy for a qualifying landlord reason, state law requires you to pay the tenant one month's rent as relocation assistance, delivered concurrently with the termination notice. The only exemption is for small landlords who own four or fewer residential dwelling units statewide.

Portland and Eugene impose separate, much larger relocation mandates on top of the state requirement. Portland's mandatory renter relocation assistance ranges from $2,900 for a studio up to $4,500 for a 3-bedroom unit. Eugene requires two months' current rent. These municipal mandates are triggered by no-cause terminations, non-renewals, and in some cases by rent increases above certain thresholds.

For investors running the numbers on unit turnover, renovation-driven vacancies, or owner move-in strategies, relocation payments are a hard line item in the proforma.

Nonpayment Eviction: The 10-Day Notice and Right to Cure

The eviction process for nonpayment was overhauled by House Bill 2001 in 2023. The old 72-hour pay-or-vacate notice is gone for standard tenancies (it still applies to week-to-week arrangements).

Step 1: Issue a written 10-day notice once rent is eight or more days late (13 days if served by mail). The notice must state the exact amount owed, the payment deadline, information about rental assistance programs, and include specific legal disclosures.

Step 2: If the tenant does not pay within the notice period, file a Forcible Entry and Detainer (FED) action in the county circuit court.

Step 3: Even after filing, the tenant has the absolute statutory right to pay all overdue rent and cure the default up until their first court appearance. Payment at that point compels the judge to dismiss the eviction.

Step 4: If uncontested, a first appearance hearing is typically scheduled 7 to 15 days after filing. A default judgment is entered if the tenant doesn't appear. If contested, a trial date is set.

Step 5: Upon judgment for the landlord, a Writ of Execution goes to the county sheriff, who provides the tenant roughly 4 days' final notice before the physical lockout.

Total realistic timeline (uncontested): 3 to 6 weeks from filing to lockout. Contested cases run significantly longer.

Rental assistance defense: Landlords are legally required to cooperate with third-party rental assistance programs. Refusing to accept offered assistance gives the tenant an affirmative defense to the eviction.

Repeat Violations and the 10-Day Shortcut

If a tenant repeats the exact same lease violation within six months of receiving a prior 30-day notice to cure, the landlord can issue a 10-day notice to vacate without providing another opportunity to fix the problem. This mechanism is critical for managing chronically delinquent tenants, but it requires meticulous documentation of the original violation and notice.

Source of Income Discrimination Is Prohibited

Oregon law prohibits landlords from categorically refusing applicants who pay with Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers or other government-backed rental subsidies. You can screen on income-to-rent ratios, credit, and rental history, but you cannot reject an applicant solely because their income comes from a voucher rather than employment.

What This Means for Investment Underwriting

Oregon's landlord-tenant framework directly affects how you model an investment property. Rent growth is capped. Turnover costs include potential relocation payments. Eviction timelines are longer than neighboring states. Screening is constrained in Portland and Eugene by municipal ordinances that go beyond state law.

None of this makes Oregon a bad investment market. The same regulations that constrain landlords also constrain housing supply, which supports high occupancy rates and long-term appreciation driven by the state's Urban Growth Boundary system.

But the margin for operational error is thin. Miscounting notice days voids an eviction and resets the clock. Exceeding the rent cap triggers treble damages. Failing to pay relocation assistance exposes you to penalties up to three times the monthly rent in Portland.

The Oregon Investment Property Guide breaks down compliance checklists, notice templates, and financial modeling that accounts for Oregon's regulatory environment, so you can underwrite deals with accurate assumptions rather than out-of-state defaults.

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