I received a rent increase notice — can I refuse it?

The trap: here, silence commits you

This is the costliest difference to overlook in residential tenancy law. Two notices, the same letterbox, opposite effects.

Faced with a rent increase, saying nothing within the month counts as acceptance. Faced with a repossession notice, saying nothing counts as refusal. A tenant who puts both in the same drawer to think about accepts one and refuses the other without meaning to.

Always reply in writing, and keep proof that you sent it.

The landlord's notice periods

A landlord cannot change the lease whenever they like. For a lease of 12 months or more, notice must be given at least three months and at most six months before the end of the lease. For a lease of less than 12 months, at least one month and at most two. For an indeterminate lease, at least one month and at most two (article 1942).

For the lease of a room, those periods drop to 10 and 20 days.

A notice given outside those windows is contestable on that ground alone. Check the date before you check the amount.

The content matters just as much. Every modification notice must inform the tenant of their rights and remedies under articles 1945 and 1947, and a notice increasing the rent must state in dollars the proposed new rent, or the increase in dollars or as a percentage of the current rent (article 1943). A notice that simply announces "an increase" with no figure, or says nothing about your remedies, does not meet those requirements.

What your refusal sets in motion

In the ordinary case, refusing does not end the lease and does not require you to move: the lease renews, and what remains open is the amount of rent. There is an important exception: where the lease concerns a dwelling covered by article 1955 — a housing cooperative, or a newly built or recently converted building, within five years — a tenant who refuses the modification must leave at the end of the lease (article 1945). Check this before you refuse.

After your refusal, it is the landlord's move: they have one month from receiving it to apply to the Tribunal administratif du logement to have the rent fixed.

If they let that month pass, the lease is renewed by operation of law on the previous conditions (article 1947). A landlord who does not act loses the increase for the year.

How the rent is actually fixed

The Tribunal does not decide by impression. It applies a calculation based on the building's real expenses: municipal and school taxes, insurance, energy, maintenance, major work, and net income.

That is why an increase can be justified even where it feels steep, and excessive even where it looks modest. The percentage on its own tells you nothing.

You can ask the landlord for the detail behind the increase. A landlord who can document nothing is in a weak position before the Tribunal.

Major work and special cases

An increase may include amortisation of major work actually carried out. That means improvement or replacement work, not routine maintenance, which the landlord must absorb rather than charge to the rent.

Some dwellings fall outside the rent-fixing mechanism: those leased by a housing cooperative, and those in a building newly built or recently converted to rental use, for the five years following the date the building is ready for its intended use (article 1955). A landlord can invoke those restrictions against you only if they are set out in the lease. These are the dwellings where refusing obliges you to leave: read the clause before replying.