North Carolina Bans Local Rent Control

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-14.1(a) provides that "No county or city as defined by G.S. 160A-1 may enact, maintain, or enforce any ordinance or resolution which regulates the amount of rent to be charged for privately owned, single-family or multiple unit residential or commercial rental property." The statute, enacted in 1987 and amended in 2024, carves out narrow exceptions: a local government may still regulate rent for property it owns, enter agreements regulating rent on subsidized properties, restrict rent on Community Development Block Grant-assisted properties, or attach rent terms to projects that receive local funding or incentives. North Carolina imposes no statewide cap on rent or rent increases, so for ordinary private rentals the amount of rent and any increase are governed by the lease terms, not by any rent-control law.

Any local rent-control ordinance is void as preempted by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-14.1 and unenforceable against landlords. Because there is no statewide rent cap, a landlord setting or raising rent on a private rental faces no rent-control penalty; the only constraints are the lease terms and applicable notice requirements.