St Paul Rent Increases Surprise Tenants

If you own a St Paul duplex, triplex or fourplex, you may be confused about how much you can raise rent.

After all, two years ago voters passed an ordinance stating housing providers may not raise rent more than 3% in any given year.

Shortly thereafter, however, the St Paul city council amended the ordinance to allow landlords to seek a waiver of that rule and self-certify residential rent increases of up to 8% in order to ensure the landlord may continue to have a reasonable rate of return.

According to the St Paul Pioneer Press, through the end of 2022, this modification resulted in 86% of landlords who applied were approved for the waiver.

If your rents are below where they should be due to rising expenses, you can apply to increase them by more than 3% by following the instructions set forth here.

It is important to note there was an article in the Pioneer Press last week reporting tenant pushback on a rent increase of more than 3%.  Many were frustrated the original ordinance had not achieved its objectives for freezing rent.

And if we’ve learned anything, when tenant groups get frustrated, they tend to work for change.

Plan accordingly.