Oregon Tenant Protection by City: Statewide Rent Control & Local Rules in 2026

Oregon is the country's tenant-protection laboratory. In 2019, the state legislature did something no other state had ever done: it capped annual rent increases on virtually every residential unit in the state and outlawed no-cause evictions on month-to-month tenancies that had passed the twelve-month mark. SB 608 made Oregon the first state with statewide rent control, and the legislature has been refining the framework every session since — HB 2001 in 2019 opening up middle housing, SB 282 in 2021 sealing pandemic-era eviction records, HB 4143 in 2022 tightening the rent-cap formula and expanding just-cause protections. On top of that statewide floor, Portland runs the most aggressive municipal relocation-assistance ordinance in the country, and Eugene, Bend, and a handful of other cities have layered their own protections on top of state law. If you are renting in Oregon in 2026 — or running a rental — the rules are easier to summarize than they used to be, but the city you live in still matters for the strongest protections. This guide walks through the statewide framework under ORS Chapter 90, the Portland Title 30 overlay, and the local layers in nine other Oregon cities.

SB 608 (2019): the statewide rent cap and the just-cause floor

Senate Bill 608, signed by Governor Kate Brown on February 28, 2019 and effective immediately, did two things that no other state had done at the statewide level. First, it capped annual rent increases on covered residential units to 7% plus the September CPI for the West Region — a formula codified at ORS 90.323 (for week-to-week and month-to-month tenancies in single units) and ORS 90.600 (for floating-home and manufactured-dwelling space rents). The Oregon Department of Administrative Services publishes the maximum allowable percentage each September, and the figure governs every rent increase notice delivered in the following calendar year. For 2024, the cap was 10.0%; for 2025, it dropped to 10.0% again before settling closer to the long-run 7%-plus-CPI norm in 2026. The cap applies to every residential unit that has received its certificate of occupancy more than 15 years before the increase notice — a deliberate carve-out designed to keep new-construction incentives intact.

Second, SB 608 ended no-cause evictions for tenants who have occupied a unit for more than twelve months. Under ORS 90.427, after the first year of occupancy a landlord may only terminate a periodic tenancy for one of the qualifying reasons listed in the statute — nonpayment, material lease violation, repeat violation, or one of the four enumerated "qualifying landlord reasons" (demolition or major repair, conversion to non-residential use, owner or family move-in, or sale to a buyer who intends to occupy). The four landlord reasons require 90 days' written notice and, critically, payment of one month's rent in relocation assistance — unless the landlord owns four or fewer residential units statewide, in which case the relocation payment is waived but the notice and just-cause requirements still apply. During the first twelve months a landlord may still terminate without cause on 30 days' notice, but after the one-year mark the just-cause framework becomes permanent.

The combination — a statewide rent cap plus a statewide just-cause regime — was a watershed. Before SB 608, only California (under the Costa-Hawkins-limited Tenant Protection Act, AB 1482, which had not yet passed when SB 608 was signed) had anything comparable, and California's law was still six months in the future. Oregon got there first and set the template that California, New York (HSTPA), and Washington (HB 1217 of 2025) would all draw from.

HB 4143 (2022): closing the loopholes

The 2022 short session produced HB 4143, the most consequential refinement of SB 608. The bill did several things. It clarified that the rent-cap percentage is calculated using the prior-year CPI figure published in September, eliminating ambiguity about which CPI release governs a January rent increase. It tightened the definition of "rent" under ORS 90.100 to include any periodic charge for the right to occupy the premises, closing the loophole of relabeling rent increases as new "fees." It strengthened the disclosure requirement on rent-increase notices — landlords must now cite the maximum allowable percentage and the calculation, and a notice that fails the disclosure requirement is void. And it adjusted the just-cause framework to make clear that a tenant who has occupied a unit under any prior tenancy at the same address counts toward the twelve-month threshold, preventing the prior practice of churning leases to keep tenants below the just-cause line.

HB 4143 also strengthened the Landlord's Tenant Relocation Assistance obligation under ORS 90.427(7) — the one-month relocation payment that accompanies a no-fault termination — by clarifying that the payment is due "on or before the date the notice is delivered," not at the end of the tenancy. A landlord who delivers a 90-day qualifying-reason notice without the relocation check attached has delivered an invalid notice, and the tenant may treat the notice as void.

HB 2001 (2019): middle housing and indirect tenant impact

House Bill 2001 of 2019 is not a tenant-protection statute per se, but it shapes the rental market enough to deserve a paragraph. The law required every Oregon city with more than 10,000 residents (and every city inside Metro, the Portland-area regional government) to allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and townhouses on lots zoned for single-family detached homes. Implementation deadlines staggered through 2021 and 2022, and the result was a substantial increase in the entitled middle-housing pipeline in Portland, Eugene, Salem, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, and other covered cities. The tenant-protection angle is indirect: more housing supply, especially smaller rental units, moderates the rent-growth pressure that the SB 608 cap was designed to address. HB 2001 also pairs naturally with SB 1051 of 2017, the earlier statewide ADU preemption that required every city to allow at least one accessory dwelling unit on every single-family-zoned lot.

SB 282 (2021): eviction record sealing and pandemic protections

Senate Bill 282 of 2021 began as a pandemic-era extension of eviction protections and ended as a permanent fixture of Oregon landlord-tenant law. The bill's most durable provision is at ORS 105.163, which automatically seals eviction filings that did not result in a judgment for the landlord — dismissed cases, settled cases, and cases where the tenant prevailed are no longer publicly searchable in the Oregon court records system. The practical effect is that a tenant who fought and won an eviction case no longer carries that record into future rental applications. The sealing happens automatically; no motion is required.

SB 282 also extended the "for cause" eviction framework to include protections against discrimination based on past eviction filings — landlords may not deny a rental application solely because an applicant has an eviction filing on record, if that filing was dismissed or resulted in judgment for the tenant. The statute is one of the strongest tenant-screening protections in the country and pairs naturally with the federal CFPB's tightening of background-check accuracy standards.

Portland's Renter Relocation Assistance Ordinance: PCC 30.01.085

On top of the statewide floor, Portland runs the most aggressive municipal tenant-protection layer in the country. The Renter Relocation Assistance Ordinance, codified at Portland City Code §30.01.085 and originally adopted in February 2017 as Ordinance 188219, requires landlords who issue a no-cause termination, a qualifying-reason termination, a rent increase of 10% or more in any twelve-month period, or a substantial change to lease terms that the tenant does not accept, to pay the tenant a relocation assistance amount tied to unit size. The 2024 amounts are $2,900 for a studio or single-room-occupancy unit, $3,300 for a one-bedroom, $4,200 for a two-bedroom, and $4,500 for a three-bedroom or larger.

The Portland ordinance applies on top of the SB 608 framework, not as a substitute. A Portland landlord who issues a 90-day qualifying-reason termination under ORS 90.427 owes both the statewide one-month relocation payment under state law (if the landlord owns more than four units) and the Portland Title 30 relocation amount based on unit size. The two payments stack. The ordinance is enforced by the Portland Housing Bureau through the Rental Services Office, and a landlord who fails to pay the required amount is liable for three times the relocation amount, attorney fees, and any other damages the tenant suffered. The ordinance survived a federal constitutional challenge in 2018 (Owen v. City of Portland, in federal district court) and remains in full force.

Portland's ordinance also requires a landlord to provide a written notice to the tenant explaining the relocation-assistance right whenever any qualifying event is triggered. Failure to provide the notice — even if the relocation payment itself is tendered correctly — exposes the landlord to the same triple-damages remedy. The notice form is published by the Portland Housing Bureau and must be served with the termination or rent-increase notice.

Portland: FAIR Ordinance and tenant screening

The Fair Access in Renting (FAIR) Ordinance, codified at PCC 30.01.086 and effective March 1, 2020, layers additional Portland-only protections onto the application stage. The ordinance limits how a landlord may screen tenants — capping security deposits at one to one-and-a-half months' rent depending on landlord choice between the "low-barrier" and "individual assessment" tracks, requiring written denial reasons, prohibiting blanket criminal-history bars beyond seven years, and creating a private right of action for screening violations. FAIR predates and supplements SB 282's eviction-record protections — the two operate together to give Portland renters the strongest tenant-screening protections in the country.

Eugene: layered protections under a statewide ceiling

Eugene runs a substantial local layer on top of state law. The Eugene Tenant Protection Ordinance, codified in Chapter 8 of the Eugene Code, requires landlords to provide ninety days' notice for any rent increase over 5% in a twelve-month period (more protective than the state's 90-day notice on the just-cause side), to register all rental units annually through the Eugene Rental Housing Program, and to comply with the Eugene Rental Housing Code, which sets habitability standards above the state minimum under ORS 90.320. Eugene's Rental Housing Program runs proactive inspections — landlords are inspected on a rolling schedule rather than only when a tenant complains — which is a meaningful enforcement advantage compared to the largely complaint-driven framework most cities operate.

Eugene does not have a Portland-style relocation-assistance ordinance, but the city does fund a Rental Assistance Program through the Lane County Human Services Division that supplements the state's relocation-payment framework for qualifying tenants. Eugene tenants displaced under the SB 608 qualifying-reason framework still receive the statewide one-month relocation payment from larger landlords, but Eugene has not added a municipal layer to that payment the way Portland has.

Salem: state defaults, no significant local layer

Salem, the state capital, applies the SB 608 / ORS 90 framework without significant local overlay. There is no Salem-specific rent-increase notice requirement beyond the state's 90-day rule, no Salem relocation-assistance ordinance, and no Salem rental-licensing program. The Salem Revised Code includes a habitability and housing-code chapter that mirrors the state's ORS 90.320 standards, and the city enforces through complaint-driven code enforcement. Salem tenants get the full benefit of statewide rent control and just-cause protections, but the local layer is thin compared to Portland or Eugene.

Bend: the high-growth tenant pressure zone

Bend has been one of Oregon's fastest-growing rental markets for a decade, and the SB 608 framework has been the principal restraint on the city's rent-growth trajectory. Bend itself has not adopted a Portland-style relocation ordinance, but the city has expanded its short-term rental regulations under Bend Code Chapter 3.65 to limit STR conversion of long-term rental housing — capping STR licenses by zone and prohibiting whole-home short-term rentals in most residential zones. The STR cap is itself a tenant protection in a city where Airbnb conversion has been a major source of rental-housing loss. Bend's Affordable Housing Advisory Committee has periodically considered a local relocation ordinance modeled on Portland's but has not adopted one as of 2026.

Bend renters receive the full statewide rent cap and just-cause protections, plus the SB 282 record-sealing protections, plus the STR-conversion buffer. For a high-growth, high-cost city, that combination places Bend renters in a meaningfully stronger position than tenants in similar growth markets in Texas, Florida, or the Carolinas.

Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham: Portland-metro defaults

The Portland-metro suburbs — Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Gresham — all sit inside the Metro regional government boundary and therefore inherit some Metro-level housing policy, but none of the three has adopted a Portland Title 30-style relocation ordinance. Each applies the SB 608 / ORS 90 framework as the operative tenant-protection layer. Beaverton's Community Development Code includes habitability standards consistent with state law, and the city runs a Rental Housing Inspection Program that performs proactive inspections on multi-family properties of four units or more. Hillsboro and Gresham operate complaint-driven enforcement. None of the three cities cap rent increases below the state ceiling or impose municipal relocation-assistance requirements.

The practical effect is that a tenant moving between Portland and a Portland suburb crosses a significant protection threshold — the statewide floor stays the same, but the Portland Title 30 overlay does not. A Portland tenant displaced under a qualifying-reason termination receives both the state one-month payment (if applicable) and the Portland $2,900-to-$4,500 relocation payment. The same tenant displaced from a unit in Beaverton or Hillsboro receives only the statewide payment.

Medford and Springfield: rural and small-city defaults

Medford, in Jackson County in southern Oregon, and Springfield, immediately east of Eugene in Lane County, both operate under state defaults. Neither city has adopted a local rent-increase notice requirement above the state's 90-day rule, neither has a relocation-assistance ordinance, and neither runs a rental-registration program. The SB 608 cap and the ORS 90.427 just-cause framework apply as the principal tenant protections. Springfield does receive some spillover benefit from Eugene's Rental Housing Program because some Eugene-based landlords own rental property on both sides of the city line and apply Eugene standards across their portfolio, but the legal framework in Springfield is the state framework.

Medford has periodically considered adopting a local landlord-tenant ordinance in response to rapid rent growth in the Rogue Valley, but as of 2026 the city has not enacted one. The principal restraint on Medford rent growth has been the statewide SB 608 cap, which applies to every covered unit in the city regardless of local action.

Corvallis: tenant protections through the university lens

Corvallis, home to Oregon State University, has a substantial student-rental market that drives some city-specific tenant-protection dynamics. The Corvallis Municipal Code includes a rental-housing chapter (Chapter 9.05) that requires registration of rental properties and authorizes the city to inspect for compliance with the Corvallis Housing Code. The city does not cap rent increases below the state ceiling or require relocation payments beyond the state minimum, but it does maintain a Tenant-Landlord Mediation Program through the Linn-Benton Housing Authority that handles disputes short of formal eviction proceedings.

The student-rental dynamic in Corvallis interacts with SB 608 in an interesting way: many student leases are fixed-term 12-month leases that end exactly at the twelve-month threshold, meaning the just-cause protections under ORS 90.427 rarely take effect for student tenants. Landlords structure leases this way deliberately. Year-round Corvallis tenants who renew past twelve months gain the full just-cause protection.

HOA preemption in Oregon

A frequent question from Oregon landlords is whether an HOA can impose rental restrictions that conflict with state tenant-protection law. The answer is generally no for landlord-tenant law itself (a tenancy contract is between the landlord and tenant, not the HOA) but yes for ancillary issues like short-term rental, occupancy limits, and certain pet restrictions. Oregon does not have a California-style HOA preemption for ADU rentals or accessory uses; ORS 94 (the Oregon Condominium Act and Planned Community Act) generally allows HOA CC&Rs to restrict rentals, subject to a 2019 amendment under HB 2008 that requires any new rental-restriction provision in CC&Rs to be approved by 80% of unit owners and to grandfather existing rentals. The result is that an HOA-imposed rental ban does not strip a tenant of SB 608 or ORS 90 protections during the existing tenancy, but it may prevent the landlord from re-renting the unit after the tenancy ends.

For ADUs, Oregon's SB 1051 and HB 2001 framework operates at the zoning level and does not contain an explicit HOA preemption. An HOA in Oregon may still restrict ADU rentals through CC&Rs, though the 80% supermajority requirement under HB 2008 makes new restrictions difficult to impose.

ORS Chapter 90: the framework underneath

All of the above sits on top of ORS Chapter 90, the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which is the most detailed and tenant-protective landlord-tenant statute in the country. The act covers everything from habitability standards (ORS 90.320) to security deposits (ORS 90.300), notice requirements (ORS 90.155 through 90.165), retaliation prohibitions (ORS 90.385), and the specific just-cause categories under ORS 90.427 that SB 608 incorporated. Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries does not enforce landlord-tenant law directly — enforcement is largely through tenant-initiated civil litigation in circuit court or small-claims court, with statutory attorney-fee provisions under ORS 90.255 making meritorious tenant claims economically viable for plaintiff-side attorneys to pursue.

The act applies to virtually every residential rental in the state, with limited exceptions for transient occupancy (under 30 days), occupancy by an employee as a condition of employment, occupancy in a residential facility licensed under different statutes, and certain owner-occupied two-to-four-unit buildings. The exceptions are narrow enough that the vast majority of Oregon rental units are fully covered.

Common pitfalls and edge cases

Six recurring issues create the most disputes between Oregon landlords and tenants. First, the new-construction exemption: SB 608's rent cap exempts units that received their certificate of occupancy within the last 15 years, but the exemption applies to the building, not the lease, and the clock resets only on new construction (not on substantial rehabilitation). Landlords sometimes claim the exemption incorrectly for substantially rehabilitated older buildings. Second, the "four or fewer units" exemption from the SB 608 relocation payment is calculated on a statewide ownership basis, not a per-property basis. A landlord with a four-plex in Portland and a duplex in Bend owns six units and owes the relocation payment. Third, the Portland Title 30 relocation amounts are adjusted periodically by the City Council and the figures above are 2024 amounts; check the Portland Housing Bureau website for current numbers. Fourth, fixed-term leases reaching their expiration date are treated differently from no-cause terminations of periodic tenancies — a landlord may decline to renew a fixed-term lease, but the just-cause framework still applies if the tenant has occupied the unit for more than twelve months. Fifth, the SB 608 rent cap is calculated on a rolling twelve-month basis, not a calendar-year basis — a landlord who raises rent in March 2025 cannot raise rent again until March 2026, regardless of when the next year's cap takes effect. Sixth, the Portland FAIR Ordinance applies to the application stage, not the renewal stage — a Portland landlord may not screen out an applicant based on a sealed eviction record, but the same rule does not necessarily apply to renewal decisions for existing tenants.

How to check your city

State law tells you what your landlord must respect at minimum. The city ordinances tell you what additional protections apply — relocation assistance, tenant-screening rules, rental-registration requirements, and proactive inspection programs that shape day-to-day enforcement. Before you sign a lease or contest a notice, answer six questions: Has my unit received its certificate of occupancy within the last 15 years (which exempts it from the SB 608 cap)? Have I occupied this unit for more than twelve months (which triggers just-cause protections)? Am I in Portland (which adds the Title 30 relocation overlay and the FAIR screening overlay)? Am I in Eugene (which adds the rental-registration and proactive-inspection overlay)? Does my landlord own more than four units statewide (which triggers the one-month relocation payment under state law)? Has my eviction record been sealed under SB 282 (which determines whether prior filings can be used against me in screening)? CityRuleLookup maintains a tenant-protection summary for every Oregon city we cover, pulling together the state and local layers. Start there, then confirm with the Oregon Real Estate Agency's landlord-tenant page and, if you have a specific dispute, with the Oregon State Bar's Lawyer Referral Service or one of the state-funded legal-aid organizations like Legal Aid Services of Oregon or the Oregon Law Center.