The mission of the Rent Adjustment Program is to promote community stability, healthy housing, and diversity for Oakland residents, while preventing illegal rent increases and evictions, and ensuring a fair return for property owners.
Live Counseling Sessions for Rent Registry: RAP continues to offer live counseling sessions for the rent registry to help answer any questions you may have! The next live counseling sessions are scheduled for the following dates/times:
Wednesday, November 20, 10 am – 11 am
Wednesday, December 18, 10 am – 11 am
Click here to join during the scheduled timeframes.
CPI Announcement Update: Effective August 1, 2024, the new annual CPI rent increase is 2.3%. Here, you will find more information on ALLOWABLE RENT INCREASES AS OF JULY 1, 2024.
NEW RAP Appointment Request Portal:
You can now: (1) request an appointment with a RAP Housing Counselor or Rent Registry staff:
and (2) review the status of your pending online appointment request at https://apps.oaklandca.gov/
Advisory Notice: Owners may now pursue evictions for Just Cause. However, Oakland's Emergency Moratorium continues to prohibit rent increases beyond the CPI on units covered under the RAP Ordinance through June 30, 2024. Owners must wait until after this date to pass along banked or petition-based rent increases. Council has posted information regarding the Moratorium Phase-Out and New Tenant Protections here. For questions, contact a RAP Housing Counselor at 510-238-3721 (option 1) or RAP@oaklandca.gov.
DECEMBER 2023 CITY COUNCIL APPROVED ORDINANCES AND REGULATIONS AMENDMENTS
On December 19, 2023, the City Council approved the following amendments to the Rent Registry Ordinance, the Rent Adjustment Ordinance, and the Ellis Act Ordinance. The City Council also approved amendments to the Regulations that implement the Rent Adjustment Ordinance on December 5. All these changes have taken effect immediately.
Please also add the following links to copies of the red-tracked changes approved by Council:
Rent Registry Ordinance amendment:
City of Oakland - File #: 23-0820 (legistar.com)
Rent Adjustment Ordinance and Ellis Act Ordinance amendments:
City of Oakland - File #: 23-0821 (legistar.com)
Regulations amendments:
City of Oakland - File #: 23-0822 (legistar.com)
For more information, click here.
Advisory Notice: Due to the new rent registry ordinance requirements, RAP petition and response forms have been updated. Property owners and tenants should use these updated forms as of July 3, 2023.
You can find the updated forms at:
https://www.oaklandca.gov/documents/rent-adjustment-program-forms-and-notices-for-tenants
https://www.oaklandca.gov/documents/rent-adjustment-program-forms-notices-for-property-owners
Register a unit or request an exemption
Request an appointment with a Counselor or check your pending online appointment request.
File Rent Adjustment Program tenant or property owner petitions or responses.
Upload & manage eviction notices online or view Citywide eviction data.
Navigating the housing process can be challenging. Ask us before you act!
Learn more information about free mediations, formal hearings, and the appeal process.
Log into OakAPPs to view your Rent Adjustment Cases.
Property Owners can pay their annual Rent Adjustment Program fee online.
Learn more and seek representation in your RAP case.
In 2022, the Oakland City Council adopted a requirement to establish a rent registry for all units subject to the RAP Program Fee. As of July 3, 2023, owners of these units are required to report rent and tenancy information to RAP annually. They are required to confirm or update their units’ tenancy information annually by March 1st.
Note: The 2024 deadline to register is July 1, 2024.
Starting in 2025, the annual deadline to register is March 1st.
The City of Oakland Rent Adjustment Program's Eviction Portal is now open! The public may view citywide eviction data and trends and property owners may file copies of eviction notices within 10 days after it is served on the tenant.
The phased sunsetting of the policy begins July 15, as the moratorium will no longer prohibit certain kinds of pandemic-related evictions; a moratorium on rent increases for some categories of residential dwelling units will phase out in June 2024
Please find a copy of the 2020-21 & 2021-22 Rent Adjustment Program’s Annual Report here.
Press the play button below to watch the Rent Adjustment Program's Annual Report Video for fiscal years 2018-19 & 2019-20. To view the full PDF document of the Annual Report, click here.
The Oakland City Council adopted the Rent Adjustment Program Ordinance (OMC Chapter 8.22) in 1980. This ordinance sets the maximum annual rent increase based on the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase and handles rent adjustments for claims of decreases in housing services and handles other rent-related matters. The purpose of this program is to foster fair housing for a diverse population of renters and enforce the Rent Adjustment Ordinance set out by the City of Oakland.
Since March 2020, we have moved our services from in-person to online. Please read the information below carefully to find the best way to contact us.
You can now request an appointment with a RAP Housing Counselor or Rent Registry staff and review the status of your pending online appointment request through the new RAP Appointment Request Portal at https://apps.oaklandca.gov/
Phone: (510) 238-3721, Monday through Thursday, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm
Select Option 1 to speak to a Housing Counselor for any RAP or tenant/property owner related questions you might have. Topics can be, but are not limited to, tenant and property owner issues and concerns, Oakland rental housing laws, or how to file petitions or responses with RAP. Calls are generally limited to 10 minutes per person.
PLEASE NOTE THAT RAP Housing Counselors cannot give legal advice. or provide legal document review. Housing Counselors CAN review any RAP rent adjustment petition for completeness before submission of the petition.
Select Option 2 to speak to a Rent Registration Unit staff member for any registration-related questions that you may have. Note: The Rent Registration Unit does not provide any housing counseling.
Per City policy, please allow us three (3) business days to respond to your inquiry.
If you would prefer an email response, you can email us. RAP strives to return all emails within a forty-eight-hour timeframe.
Contact a RAP Housing Counselor: rap@oaklandca.gov. Please include in your email: your full name, your telephone number, and your address.
Hearings Unit: If you have issues or questions relating to your pending case, you must contact your Case Analyst directly. If you do not know who your Case Analyst is, you can email hearingsunit@oaklandca.gov to find that information, or you can look up your case information here.
Petition and Response Review/Filing: You have the option to schedule an appointment for review of your petition or response before filing. To schedule an appointment for review, email rap@oaklandca.gov. If you do not want your petition or response reviewed and are ready to file, please submit your petition or response to hearingsunit@oaklandca.gov .
Eviction Notices: To file eviction notices online, click here. Eviction notices may also be scanned and submitted via email to evictionnotices@oaklandca.gov.
Address: 250 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Suite 5313, Oakland, CA 94612
Due to the Shelter-in-Place Order, we are no longer accepting in-person petition and related materials. All new petitions and petition-related documents can be submitted by mail to the address above.
All documents for Ellis Act cases must be mailed to 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Suite 5313, Oakland, CA 94612. For more information on Ellis Act cases, click here.
Online Petition Filing
We also offer an online portal where you can fill out and submit your petitions and all petition-related forms online. Click here to access the portal.
Request a Form
General forms can be found on our website. For property owner forms, click here. For tenant forms, click here. If you cannot find the RAP form that you are looking for, you can email the Rent Adjustment Program at RAP@oaklandca.gov to obtain it.
Request a Document/Public Records Request (PRR)
To request documents related to a case, you can make a Public Records Request (PRR) here. Please note that all PRRs are public information. You can look up certain information related to cases through the RAP database.
Join the Email List
If you would like to receive emails about upcoming events or updates from the Rent Adjustment Program, please sign up! Please use the link below to add your name and email to our list for future updates.
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