How much notice is required to raise the rent in Delaware?

Verified July 11, 2026 All Delaware topics →

Pending legislation — not yet law. The rules on this page reflect current law only. The following bills would change it if enacted:

SB 292 (153rd GA, 2026) — 'Grace Peterson Act' — Amends the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code to (1) close the 25 Del. C. § 5102 exclusion loophole that let unlicensed or uncertified residential operators claim exemption from the Code, including eviction procedure, and (2) add § 5512A duties when a tenant's rent is paid from a state reentry-services fund (landlord must assist with a discharge plan and notify the fund administrator and agencies before terminating; noncompliance brings one-year debarment from state funds; affected tenants may stay on without fund payments or terminate on 30-60 days' notice). Takes effect 6 months after enactment.Status: Passed both chambers 2026-06-24; awaiting the Governor's action as of 2026-07-11 (post-adjournment window under Del. Const. art. III, § 18 runs roughly to the end of July 2026). Not law at this verification. If enacted it changes Code-applicability notes (§ 5102), not the four topic numbers. (checked 2026-07-11).
SB 235 (153rd GA, 2026) — Manufactured-home communities only (25 Del. C. ch. 70): repeals the sunset on the Rent Justification Act pilot calculations, making the § 7052A/§ 7052B CPI-linked justified-rent-increase calculations permanently replace the § 7052 grounds for lot-rent increases. Does not touch apartment/site-built rentals under chs. 51-59.Status: Passed both chambers 2026-06-30; awaiting the Governor's action as of 2026-07-11. Out of v1 scope (lot tenancies) but flagged because rent-increase notes reference ch. 70. (checked 2026-07-11).

Delaware landlords must give at least 60 days' written notice before a rent increase takes effect, because raising the rent renews the rental agreement on modified terms under 25 Del.

C. § 5107 — an express statute that names rent and security-deposit changes and requires the notice to state the new amount and its effective date. The tenant then has a choice: say nothing and the new rent is deemed accepted, or reject it (at least 45 days before the term ends), which the law treats as notice of termination; for month-to-month tenancies — legally a renewable one-month term — the same 60-day rule applies, and a month-to-month termination notice likewise takes 60 days, counted from the first day of the month after the notice is given. Delaware has no statewide rent control and no limit on the size or frequency of increases for apartments and houses; a 2024 bill to cap increases statewide (HB 455) died in committee, and Wilmington's 2025 city rent-stabilization ordinance failed by one vote, so no Delaware locality regulates rents. The only rent-justification regime is for manufactured-home lot rents under a separate chapter. HUD income-based tenancies follow federal rules instead.

Delaware rent increase notice at a glance

Notice — month-to-month	60 days
Varies by increase size	Not addressed by statute
Fixed-term leases	Rent cannot change during a fixed term unless the lease itself so provides. To renew any rental agreement on modified terms — expressly including the amount of rent or security deposit — the landlord must give at least 60 days' written notice before the term expires, specifying the changes and their effective date (25 Del. C. § 5107(a)). The tenant may reject by giving termination notice at least 45 days before the last day of the term, and a rejection counts as an effective termination notice; a tenant who does nothing is deemed to accept (§ 5107(b)-(c)). A lease of 1 year or more rolls over to month-to-month on the old terms if the landlord gives no 60-day notice and the tenant no 45-day notice (§ 5108). HUD income-based tenancies follow HUD rules instead (§ 5107(d)).
Statewide rent control / stabilization	No
Rent control details	No statewide rent control or rent cap for conventional rentals, and no Delaware city or county has a rent-control ordinance. Wilmington's 2025 rent-stabilization ordinance (annual cap at the greater of 5% or CPI) failed in City Council 6-5 on June 5, 2025. The one Delaware rent-regulation regime is for manufactured-home LOT rents: the ch. 70 Rent Justification Act (25 Del. C. §§ 7050-7052B) ties lot-rent increases above CPI to justification and arbitration — it does not apply to apartments or site-built homes. SB 235 (2026), making the pilot calculation provisions permanent, passed June 30, 2026 and awaits the Governor.
Local rent control preempted	Not addressed by statute
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Notes and caveats

EXPRESS statute per the batch convention: § 5107(a) expressly covers 'amended provisions relating to ... the amount of security deposit or rent,' so notice_days_month_to_month=60 is encoded (not a termination derivation); 'month to month' is defined as 'a renewable term of 1 month' (§ 5141(22)), placing m2m renewals inside § 5107, and the Delaware AG's official Summary of the Landlord-Tenant Code reads it the same way. MECHANICS WRINKLE (render honestly): § 5107(b)'s 45-day tenant-rejection window cannot literally fit inside a one-month term; in practice an m2m tenant who rejects an increase falls back on the § 5106(d) termination right — 60 days' written notice with the period starting on the FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH FOLLOWING actual notice (83 Del. Laws c. 203), which also stretches the landlord's effective m2m timeline past a bare 60 days depending on when in the month notice lands. PREEMPTION: local_control_preempted=null — Title 25 contains no preemption statute (swept), Delaware is a Dillon's Rule state, and the question has never been adjudicated: Wilmington's 2025 ordinance failed on VOTES (6-5, seven needed, 2025-06-05), with the Governor's and Mayor's administrations questioning city authority but no court ruling. TRAP: a circulating claim that rent control is 'preempted under 25 Del. C. § 7011' is false — § 7011 is the manufactured-home HOLDOVER remedies section. DEAD BILL: HB 455 (2024, 5%/7% CPI statewide cap program) died in House Housing committee at the 152nd GA's end; search-engine summaries still describe it in enacted-sounding language — it is not law. Manufactured-home lot rents (out of v1 scope): ch. 70 Rent Justification Act (§§ 7050-7052B) requires justification/arbitration for above-CPI lot-rent increases with 90-day meeting-notice machinery; SB 235 (passed 2026-06-30, awaiting Governor) makes the pilot § 7052A/B calculations permanent. Verified negatives: no increase-size tiers, no frequency limit, no statewide cap (full ch. 51 subch. I sweep). All figures double-read (HTML + official PDF).

Statute citations

25 Del. C. § 5107 (a)-(d) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5106 (b), (d) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5108 (a)-(b) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5141 (22) Official source
HB 455 (152nd GA, 2024 — proposed statewide rent-increase caps; died in committee) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Delaware Code site (delcode.delaware.gov), each load-bearing section read twice through independent official paths: the delcode HTML chapter pages (25 Del. C. ch. 51 subchapters I-II, ch. 53, ch. 55) and the official Title 25 PDF served from the same host, with every load-bearing figure matching verbatim (1-month deposit cap and its 1-year-lease / month-to-month-after-1-year scope; 20-day return and itemized-list deadline with 10-day tenant objection window; double damages and account-forfeiture penalties; 1-month pet deposit cap; application-fee cap at the greater of 10% or $50; 5% late-charge cap with the 5-day no-imposition window and 3-day extension for no in-county payment office; 48-hour entry notice and the 8:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. window; 60-day renewal-with-modifications notice with the 45-day tenant rejection right; 60-day month-to-month termination notice with the first-of-following-month start). Sections read in full: 5101, 5102, 5106, 5107, 5108, 5116, 5123, 5124, 5141, 5310, 5311, 5501, 5502, 5509, 5510, 5514, 5514A, 5515, plus complete section listings of ch. 51 subch. I, ch. 53, and ch. 55 as sweep basis for verified negatives (no deposit-interest requirement, no other late-fee or entry provision, no rent-increase tiers or frequency limits, no rent-control preemption statute in Title 25). The Delaware Attorney General's official Summary of the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code corroborates the 60-day rent-increase-notice reading of section 5107 for month-to-month tenancies. 2025-2026 session sweep: the complete 153rd General Assembly docket (all 1,961 pieces of legislation) was retrieved from the official legis.delaware.gov AllLegislation API and title-filtered; one on-topic enactment incorporated (HB 217, 85 Del. Laws c. 295, key-surrender rules, signed 2026-06-24), two passed bills awaiting the Governor flagged (SB 235, SB 292), and three on-topic bills confirmed dead at the 2026-06-30 sine die adjournment (SB 186 deposit e-communications, HB 229 summary-possession service window, HB 467 renters insurance). HB 455 (152nd GA statewide rent cap) confirmed dead in committee in 2024. Wilmington's 2025 rent-stabilization ordinance confirmed failed 6-5 in City Council on 2025-06-05.