Free Georgia Rent Increase Notice

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A Georgia month-to-month tenancy is a tenancy at will, so a landlord must give at least 60 days’ written notice to raise the rent (O.C.G.A. 44-7-7; Georgia Attorney General). Georgia has no rent control and no cap – and 44-7-19 bars any city from capping rent – so you may raise it by any amount. You cannot raise rent mid-term on a fixed lease unless it allows it, and you cannot raise it in retaliation within three months of a protected tenant action (O.C.G.A. 44-7-24). Generate a clean notice below.

60-day notice (month-to-month) O.C.G.A. 44-7-7 / 44-7-19 / 44-7-24 Georgia Free PDF

This Georgia Rent Increase Notice raises the rent on a month-to-month tenancy. Because a Georgia month-to-month is a tenancy at will (O.C.G.A. 44-7-6), a landlord must give at least 60 days’ written notice to change the rent (O.C.G.A. 44-7-7), the same notice needed to terminate a tenancy at will – the Georgia Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division applies that 60-day rule directly to a rent increase. Georgia sets no rent control and no cap (O.C.G.A. 44-7-19 also bars any city or county from capping rent), so the amount is up to you – only the 60-day timing and the tenant’s consent or 30-day exit are fixed. Keep the increase out of the three-month retaliation window of O.C.G.A. 44-7-24. Our how to raise rent guide covers the timing, and the tenant screening laws by state hub helps you place reliable tenants in the first place.

Complete the fields below to generate a Georgia rent increase notice. The new rent and effective date must give the tenant the full statutory notice period. Service should comply with applicable Georgia law; retain proof of service.

A Georgia rent increase notice is the written notice a landlord gives to raise the rent on a tenancy. Georgia is a market-rate state: there is no statewide rent control and no statutory cap on how much the rent can go up. O.C.G.A. 44-7-19 goes further and forbids any Georgia county or municipality from enacting an ordinance that regulates the amount of rent charged for private residential or commercial property, so there is no local rent control either. What the law regulates instead is when an increase can take effect and why.

The controlling question is the type of tenancy. On a fixed-term lease, the rent is locked for the term and cannot be raised mid-lease unless the lease itself contains an escalation clause; the increase takes effect at renewal. On a month-to-month tenancy, the landlord can change the rent prospectively – but must give the right notice. Georgia does not have a statute that says “rent increase” by name; instead, the notice comes from how Georgia classifies a month-to-month tenancy. Under O.C.G.A. 44-7-6, “where no time is specified for the termination of a tenancy, the law construes it to be a tenancy at will,” so an ordinary month-to-month is a tenancy at will. And O.C.G.A. 44-7-7 provides that “sixty days’ notice from the landlord or 30 days’ notice from the tenant is necessary to terminate a tenancy at will.” Because a landlord who raises the rent on a tenancy at will is effectively ending the existing tenancy on its old terms and offering a new one, that 60-day termination notice is the floor for the change. The Georgia Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division states the point directly: in a tenancy at will, a landlord must give the tenant at least 60 days’ notice before making any change to the rental agreement, and that “would apply to an increase in the monthly rent amount.” The notice must be in writing – a verbal notice is not enough – and if the lease itself requires more than 60 days, the longer lease period controls. The tenant, by contrast, needs only 30 days to end the tenancy and move.

Even without a cap or a fixed notice period, an increase can still be unlawful because of its motive. O.C.G.A. 44-7-24, Georgia’s anti-retaliation statute, lets a residential tenant establish a prima-facie case of retaliation by showing two things: that the tenant took a protected action relating to a life, health, safety, or habitability concern – exercising or trying to exercise a legal right, giving the landlord a notice to repair, complaining in good faith to a government entity that enforces building or housing codes or to a public utility, or organizing or joining a tenants’ association – and that within three months the landlord responded by increasing the rent, terminating or declining to renew the tenancy, or filing a dispossessory action. The statute carves out several situations that are not retaliation: an increase that is part of a genuine pattern of rent increases across an entire multiunit building or complex, an increase tied to an escalation clause for utilities, taxes, or insurance, an increase required by a state or federal subsidy program, and any action where the tenant is delinquent in rent, has damaged the property or threatened safety, has otherwise breached the lease, or is holding over after the tenancy ended. A tenant who proves retaliation can recover a civil penalty of one month’s rent plus $500, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees where the landlord’s conduct is willful, wanton, or malicious, and may raise retaliation as a defense to an eviction; a landlord can rebut the claim by showing the property was inspected and certified code-compliant within the prior twelve months. Federal fair housing law independently bars an increase aimed at a tenant because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability.

Because Georgia sets no required method to serve a rent-increase notice, the practical standard is provable written delivery. Personal delivery, a copy left with an occupant plus a mailed copy, certified mail with a return receipt, or first-class mail all work; email or a tenant portal is fine only when the lease authorizes electronic notice. Whatever the method, the notice should state the current rent, the new rent, and the effective date, and the landlord should keep a signed, dated copy with proof of delivery. Our how to raise rent guide walks through the timing, and screening applicants with verified reports keeps tenancies stable so the increases you serve actually stick.

Put together, a clean Georgia increase is simple but exact: confirm the tenancy is month-to-month (at will) or that you are at renewal on a fixed lease, give at least 60 days’ written notice under O.C.G.A. 44-7-7 (or the longer period the lease requires), keep the timing outside the three-month retaliation window of 44-7-24, deliver the notice in writing with proof, and never let the increase track a tenant’s protected complaint. The amount itself is unregulated – no state cap, and no local cap, since 44-7-19 preempts city and county rent control. None of this replaces the screening you do at move-in – a tenant chosen for steady income and a clean payment history is the one most likely to absorb a lawful increase without a dispute.

• 60 days’ written notice from the landlord to raise the rent on a month-to-month tenancy – a tenancy at will under O.C.G.A. 44-7-6 – because O.C.G.A. 44-7-7 requires 60 days to terminate or change a tenancy at will (the Georgia Attorney General applies this to rent increases). A verbal notice does not count.
• The lease controls if it demands more – where a written lease sets a notice period longer than 60 days, follow the lease. The tenant needs only 30 days to end the tenancy.
• No statewide cap on the amount of a rent increase, and no rent control – O.C.G.A. 44-7-19 bars any county or city (Atlanta, Savannah, DeKalb, and every other Georgia jurisdiction) from regulating the amount of rent, so there is no local cap.
• No mid-term increase on a fixed-term lease unless the lease expressly allows it; the increase applies at renewal.
• No retaliatory increase within three months of a tenant’s protected action under O.C.G.A. 44-7-24 (a genuine building-wide increase is exempt).
• No discriminatory increase based on a protected class (the federal Fair Housing Act).

• The notice must be in writing – the Georgia Attorney General stresses that a verbal notice is not sufficient. Georgia sets no single required method, so the goal is provable written delivery.
• Personal delivery to the tenant, or a copy left with an occupant at the residence plus a mailed copy.
• Certified mail with a return receipt, or U.S. first-class mail, gives a dated paper trail; allow added days for receipt when you mail.
• Email or a tenant portal works only if the lease authorizes electronic notice; keep the send record either way.

Georgia sets no statutory limit on how often a landlord can raise the rent. On a month-to-month tenancy, a landlord may increase the rent as many times as they like – so long as each increase gives the full 60 days’ written notice, is not retaliatory, and is not discriminatory. There is no annual cap, no “once every twelve months” rule, and no maximum percentage; those exist in rent-controlled states like California and Oregon, not in Georgia. The one hard stop is the fixed-term lease: while a lease term is running, the rent is locked and cannot change until renewal unless the lease has an escalation clause. In practice, most Georgia landlords raise rent once a year at renewal or when a month-to-month arrangement reaches a natural review point, because frequent increases invite turnover even though the law would allow them.

There is no local rent control anywhere in Georgia. O.C.G.A. 44-7-19 provides that “no county or municipal corporation may enact, maintain, or enforce any ordinance or resolution which would regulate in any way the amount of rent to be charged for privately owned, single-family or multiple-unit residential rental property.” That preemption is statewide, so Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Columbus, DeKalb County, and every other Georgia jurisdiction are barred from adopting a rent cap or “just cause” rent ceiling. Some online guides claim a Georgia city has a local rent-cap percentage; those claims are incorrect, and you should not rely on them.

There is also no senior rent-increase cap in force. A proposed Senior Stabilization Act – House Bill 938, later revived as House Bill 1019 – would cap increases at 10% for tenants aged 62 and older whose income comes from Social Security or disability benefits. As of 2026 that measure remains a proposed bill that has not been enacted, so no senior cap applies. If it ever becomes law, this page will be updated; until then, the standard rule governs even for older tenants: no cap on the amount, with at least 60 days’ written notice on a month-to-month tenancy.

A month-to-month tenant is not required to accept a Georgia rent increase. Once served a valid 60-day notice, the tenant has three choices: pay the new rent, try to negotiate a smaller increase, or give the landlord 30 days’ written notice and move out before the new rent takes effect (O.C.G.A. 44-7-7). None of those responses is a breach – they are the tenant’s ordinary rights on a tenancy at will.

If the tenant stays past the effective date but keeps paying only the old amount, the shortfall becomes unpaid rent once the 60-day notice has run. At that point the landlord can pursue Georgia’s dispossessory (eviction) process for nonpayment. Since the Safe at Home Act (House Bill 404, effective July 1, 2024), that process begins with a written demand for the rent and a three-day opportunity to pay before the landlord may file a dispossessory affidavit. A landlord cannot simply lock the tenant out or seize belongings; only a court can order possession. And the increase must have been valid in the first place – a 60-day notice that was properly served and timed – or the tenant can defend on the ground that the higher rent was never lawfully due.

• Giving less than 60 days’ notice on a month-to-month tenancy – Georgia treats it as a tenancy at will, so 60 days is the floor (O.C.G.A. 44-7-7).
• Ignoring a longer notice period the written lease requires – the lease controls when it demands more than 60 days.
• Raising the rent mid-term on a fixed-term lease that does not allow it.
• Serving the increase within the three-month retaliation window of O.C.G.A. 44-7-24.
• Relying on a verbal notice with no written record or proof of delivery.

• Give at least 60 days’ written notice before the new rent starts on a month-to-month tenancy – and read the lease, because a longer lease period controls if it requires one.
• State the current rent, the new rent, and the effective date plainly on the notice, and put it in writing (a verbal notice is not enough).
• Count the 60 days from the tenant’s receipt, allowing added mailing days, and set the effective date at the start of a future rental period.
• Deliver by a method you can prove, and avoid timing an increase right after a tenant’s protected complaint (the three-month 44-7-24 window).

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