Does Delaware have rent control?

No — Delaware has no statewide rent control or stabilization. Delaware has no statewide rent control or rent cap for conventional rentals, and the codes of Wilmington, Dover, Newark and New Castle County contain no rent-control or rent-stabilization ordinance.

Does Delaware preempt local rent control ordinances?

No Delaware statute expressly addresses local rent control — state law neither prohibits nor authorizes rent regulation by cities or counties, and the codes of Wilmington, Dover, Newark and New Castle County contain no rent stabilization ordinance.

Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in Delaware?

Rent cannot change during a fixed term unless the lease itself so provides. To renew on modified terms, expressly including rent or security deposit, the landlord must give at least 60 days' written notice before the term expires, stating the changes and their effective date (25 Del. C. § 5107(a)).

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

Verified October 1, 2026 All Delaware topics →

Enacted but not yet in force. This page reflects the law in force today. The following measure has been signed and takes effect on the date shown:

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: Signed by the Governor on September 9, 2026 and published as chapter 494 of volume 85 of the Laws of Delaware. It takes effect on March 9, 2027, six months after enactment, and the new requirements under 25 Del. C. § 5512A apply to rental agreements entered into on or after that date. It changes no figure shown here; from March 9, 2027 it changes the Code-applicability notes under § 5102 and adds pre-termination duties for tenancies whose rent is paid from a state reentry fund. The online Delaware Code now prints the amended sections and labels the new text effective March 8, 2027, one day earlier than the March 9, 2027 date on the General Assembly's bill record; the General Assembly and the Governor's office both record the signing as September 9, 2026. (checked October 1, 2026).

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.

Cited to 25 Del. C. § 5107 (a)-(d) and 8 more cited sources · Verified October 1, 2026

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 general limit on the size or frequency of increases for apartments and houses, with one exception: a 3-year freeze on a property where lead-based paint work was paid for by the State; a 2024 bill to cap increases statewide (HB 455) died in committee, and Wilmington's 2025 city rent-stabilization ordinance was defeated in City Council, so no rent-stabilization ordinance is in force in Wilmington, Dover, Newark or New Castle County. 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 on modified terms, expressly including rent or security deposit, the landlord must give at least 60 days' written notice before the term expires, stating 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	Delaware has no statewide rent control or rent cap for conventional rentals, and the codes of Wilmington, Dover, Newark and New Castle County contain no rent-control or rent-stabilization ordinance. Wilmington's 2025 rent-stabilization ordinance was defeated in City Council on June 5, 2025, with six members voting for it and five against. The one local limit on rent increases in those codes is narrow: when a Wilmington rental building is converted to condominiums, a tenant who decides not to buy cannot have the rent raised, during the conversion notice periods, above the rent most recently charged for a comparable unit in the complex, and never by more than 10% (Wilmington City Code § 9-43(d)(4)). 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 (85 Del. Laws c. 358) was signed on July 23, 2026 and took effect the same day, making the pilot calculation provisions permanent. A separate and much narrower freeze sits outside Title 25: where lead-based paint abatement or remediation is carried out at State expense, the owner may not raise the rent of any tenant on that property for 3 years unless the owner reimburses the State's estimated cost within 30 days (16 Del. C. § 2612(f)).
Local rent regulation	No Delaware statute expressly addresses local rent control — state law neither prohibits nor authorizes rent regulation by cities or counties, and the codes of Wilmington, Dover, Newark and New Castle County contain no rent stabilization ordinance.
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Delaware Rent Increase Notice Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/rent-increase-notice/delaware/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Create a Delaware rent-increase notice — free, no signup, built on the same verified Delaware law as this page.

Notes and caveats

60 days is express statutory text, not a derivation — § 5107(a) expressly covers 'amended provisions relating to ... the amount of security deposit or rent,' so the 60-day figure is direct statute, not a termination-notice workaround. 'Month to month' is defined as 'a renewable term of 1 month' (§ 5141(22)), which places month-to-month renewals inside § 5107. The Delaware Attorney General's official Summary of the Landlord-Tenant Code states the same 60-day notice for any lease renewed on amended or modified terms.
The mechanics wrinkle for month-to-month tenants — § 5107(b)'s 45-day tenant-rejection window cannot literally fit inside a one-month term. In practice a month-to-month 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 — which also stretches the landlord's effective month-to-month timeline past a bare 60 days, depending on when in the month notice lands.
The '§ 7011 preemption' claim is false — A circulating claim that rent control is 'preempted under 25 Del. C. § 7011' is false — § 7011 is the manufactured-home holdover remedies section.
Local rent control: no statute settles it — Title 25 contains no statute that addresses local rent regulation either way. A municipality of at least 1,000 people may amend its charter to take on home-rule powers under 22 Del. C. § 802, but that grant 'does not include the power to enact private or civil law governing civil relationships except as an incident to an exercise of an independent municipal power,' and no statute says whether a city may cap rents. Wilmington's 2025 rent-stabilization ordinance was defeated in City Council on June 5, 2025: six members voted for it, five against, one voted present and one was absent.
Dead bill: HB 455 is not law — HB 455 (2024, a 5%/7% CPI statewide cap program) died in the House Housing committee at the end of the 152nd General Assembly. Search-engine summaries still describe it in enacted-sounding language — it is not law.
Manufactured-home lot rents are a separate scheme — Out of scope here: ch. 70's Rent Justification Act (§§ 7050-7052B) requires justification or arbitration for above-CPI lot-rent increases, with 90-day meeting-notice machinery. SB 235 (85 Del. Laws c. 358, signed July 23, 2026 and effective on signature) made the pilot § 7052A/§ 7052B calculations permanent.
No tiers, no frequency limit, no cap — Chapter 51, subchapter I of Title 25 sets no increase-size tiers, no limit on how often rent may be raised, and no statewide cap on the amount of an increase.
One narrow rent freeze sits outside Title 25 — Where lead-based paint abatement or remediation work has been performed at State expense on a multi-unit property, or on a property that was rented to a third party in the year before the owner was notified of the hazard, the owner may not increase the rental fee charged to any tenant on that property for 3 years, counted from the date of the notice that the unit is uninhabitable during the work (16 Del. C. Section 2612(f)(1)). The freeze lifts only one way: the owner pays the Delaware State Lead-Based Paint Program its estimated cost of the abatement or remediation, including the estimated cost of the alternative lodging the Program must provide, within 30 days of being notified of that estimate (Section 2612(f)(2)-(3)). This is the one rent restriction in Delaware law that reaches conventional apartments and houses, and it depends entirely on the State having paid for the work.

Common questions: Delaware rent increase notice

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How many days' notice must a landlord give before raising rent in Delaware?: 60 days.
Does Delaware have rent control?: No — Delaware has no statewide rent control or stabilization. Delaware has no statewide rent control or rent cap for conventional rentals, and the codes of Wilmington, Dover, Newark and New Castle County contain no rent-control or rent-stabilization ordinance.
Does Delaware preempt local rent control ordinances?: No Delaware statute expressly addresses local rent control — state law neither prohibits nor authorizes rent regulation by cities or counties, and the codes of Wilmington, Dover, Newark and New Castle County contain no rent stabilization ordinance.
Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in Delaware?: Rent cannot change during a fixed term unless the lease itself so provides. To renew on modified terms, expressly including rent or security deposit, the landlord must give at least 60 days' written notice before the term expires, stating the changes and their effective date (25 Del. C. § 5107(a)).
How often can a landlord raise the rent in Delaware?: Not addressed by statute.

Citations

25 Del. C. § 5107 · (a)-(d) (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5106 · (b), (d) (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5108 · (a)-(b) (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5141 · (22) (verified 2026) Official source
HB 455 (152nd GA, 2024 — proposed statewide rent-increase caps; died in committee) (verified 2026) Official source
16 Del. C. § 2612 · (f) (verified 2026) Official source
22 Del. C. § 802 (verified 2026) Official source
Wilmington City Code § 9-43 · (d)(4) (verified 2026) Official source
Wilmington City Council, minutes of June 5, 2025 (Substitute No. 1 to Ordinance 25-016, defeated) · p. 9 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Delaware Code site (delcode.delaware.gov), each section these answers rest on 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 decisive 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 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 states the same 60-day notice for a lease renewed on amended or modified terms. 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 not enacted (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. September 12, 2026 addendum: the two bills flagged as awaiting the Governor have both been signed since that sweep. SB 235 was signed July 23, 2026 (85 Del. Laws c. 358, in force on signature) and SB 292 was signed September 9, 2026 (85 Del. Laws c. 494, effective March 9, 2027); both are carried in the records above. October 1, 2026: every section named above, with §§ 5125, 5301, 5314, 5316, 5317 and 5507, chapters 54, 56 and 59 of Title 25, 16 Del. C. § 2612 and 22 Del. C. § 802, was read again on Delaware Code Online in the edition that includes all acts enacted as of September 4, 2026, which takes in SS 1 for SB 116 (85 Del. Laws c. 436, in force September 1, 2026). The General Assembly's bill records show SB 186, HB 229 and HB 467 still not enacted. The codes of Wilmington, Dover, Newark and New Castle County were searched for rent control and rent stabilization provisions; the only limit on rent increases found is Wilmington's condominium-conversion rule (City Code § 9-43(d)(4)).