Mississippi Bans Local Rent Control

Mississippi expressly preempts local rent control. Miss. Code § 21-17-5(2)(h) provides that the governing authorities of a municipality may not "regulate, directly or indirectly, the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential property in which the municipality does not have a property interest." The only carve-out preserves a city's ability to set rent on property in which it holds an interest, such as housing it owns. Because the statute occupies this field, no Mississippi city or town may impose a rent ceiling or rent-increase cap on private landlords. Mississippi also sets no statewide limit on rent or rent increases, so for residential tenancies rent is governed by the lease and ordinary notice rules rather than any cap.

Any local ordinance attempting to cap private residential rent would be void and unenforceable as preempted by Miss. Code § 21-17-5(2)(h). A landlord or affected party could have such a measure struck down in court; no penalty mechanism exists because municipalities lack authority to enact rent control at all.