Does New Hampshire have rent control?

No — New Hampshire has no statewide rent control or stabilization. No rent control exists anywhere in New Hampshire — no statewide scheme and no municipal ordinance.

Does New Hampshire preempt local rent control ordinances?

No New Hampshire statute expressly addresses local rent control — state law neither authorizes municipalities to adopt rent-stabilization ordinances nor expressly prohibits them from doing so.

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

Rent is locked during a fixed term as a matter of contract. A renewal offer at a higher rent still needs the 30-day notice under RSA 540:2, IV to make a tenant's refusal good cause for eviction.

How much notice is required to raise the rent in New Hampshire?

Verified July 11, 2026 All New Hampshire topics →

Legislative changes ahead — not yet in force. The rules on this page reflect the law in force today. The following measure would change it:

HB 1598 (2026) — Eviction-process overhaul (compromise between NH Legal Assistance and landlord groups): caps discretionary eviction stays at 60 days (75 with special circumstances), requires tenants to raise affirmative defenses/counterclaims early, adds pre-hearing evidence-exchange rules and unauthorized-occupant removal procedures. Amends RSA 540:13, 540:13-c, 540:14, 540-A:2, 540-A:4 VII, and rewords RSA 540-A:3 V while keeping the entry standard 'notice which is adequate under the circumstances' verbatim — no change to the answers shown here.Status: Passed both chambers (Senate 2026-05-14, House concurrence 2026-05-21); enrolled 2026-06-04. As of 2026-07-12 the official gc.nh.gov docket still showed general status PASSED and ended at the 06-04 enrollment entries, carrying NO signing entry and NO chapter number; press reports of a signing the week of 2026-07-06 (InDepthNH, 2026-07-10) ran ahead of the official record. The bill takes effect 90 days after passage — approximately early October 2026 if signed — so it was NOT law on 2026-07-12. (checked 2026-07-12).

Measure that did not become law. The following recent proposal failed and is not law — noted here because failed bills are sometimes still described as if enacted:

HB 1336 (2026) — Would have created a 'regulated conditional deposit' letting landlords collect up to one additional month's rent beyond the RSA 540-A:6 one-month security-deposit cap from applicants failing standard screening criteria (credit, income, eviction history), with disclosure and re-screening rights.Status: Passed both chambers; VETOED by Gov. Ayotte 2026-07-02 (veto message: would impede access to housing and lacked clarity on how long landlords could hold the funds). Not law; an override attempt is possible at the fall 2026 veto day — re-check then. (checked 2026-07-11).

New Hampshire landlords must give written notice of the amount and effective date of a rent increase at least 30 days before it takes effect — that is the express condition in RSA 540:2, IV for making a tenant's refusal to pay the higher rent 'good cause' for eviction.

Cited to NH RSA 540:2 I, II(e), II(i), IV, V, VIII and 3 more New Hampshire statutes · Verified July 11, 2026

The rule is built into the eviction machinery rather than standing alone: a tenant who rejects a properly noticed increase can be evicted for that refusal, while an increase noticed short of 30 days cannot be enforced. For most multi-unit rentals ('restricted property') New Hampshire is a good-cause eviction state, but two paths still discipline the market: single-family homes of small owners and owner-occupied buildings of four or fewer units can be terminated on a simple 30-day notice with no cause, and since July 1, 2026 a landlord may decline to renew any 12-month-or-longer lease with 60 days' written notice. There is no rent control anywhere in the state, no limit on the size or frequency of increases, and no cap tied to increase size — the tiered-notice figures floating around online come from bills that died. Manufactured-housing park tenants are the exception: lot-charge increases need 60 days' written notice with an explanation and a mediation option.

New Hampshire rent increase notice at a glance

Notice — month-to-month	30 days
Varies by increase size	Not addressed by statute
Fixed-term leases	Rent is locked during a fixed term as a matter of contract. A renewal offer at a higher rent still needs the 30-day notice under RSA 540:2, IV to make a tenant's refusal good cause for eviction. At term end, New Hampshire law changed on 2026-07-01: under new RSA 540:2, II(i) (2025 ch. 263, HB 60) a landlord of restricted property may decline to renew a lease whose original or renewed term totals 12 months or more, without other good cause, by giving written non-renewal notice at least 60 days before the term ends and filing any possessory action within 6 months of expiry. Such a no-fault termination may not be reported as an 'eviction' on tenant-screening reports (new paragraph VIII).
Statewide rent control / stabilization	No
Rent control details	No rent control exists anywhere in New Hampshire — no statewide scheme and no municipal ordinance. There is no express statutory preemption either; municipalities simply lack enabling authority under New Hampshire's Dillon's-rule framework, which is why enabling bills keep being filed and killed. HB 95 (2023) was rejected by the House 301-63 in March 2023, and HB 1362 (2024), a municipal rent-stabilization enabling bill with a 120-day notice scheme, died Inexpedient to Legislate on 2024-02-15.
Local rent regulation	No New Hampshire statute expressly addresses local rent control — state law neither authorizes municipalities to adopt rent-stabilization ordinances nor expressly prohibits them from doing so.
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, New Hampshire Rent Increase Notice Laws (verified July 11, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/rent-increase-notice/new-hampshire/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the New Hampshire statute in the citations section below.

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

Notes and caveats

30 days is express statutory text, not a derived figure — RSA 540:2, IV requires 'written notice of the amount and effective date of the rent increase at least 30 days prior to the effective date.' It is a stated rent-increase rule, not a number derived from a termination-notice period.
The notice is the trigger for good cause, not a standalone duty — The 30-day notice is the precondition for treating a tenant's refusal to pay the higher rent as good cause under RSA 540:2, II(e). New Hampshire builds the rule into the eviction machinery rather than stating it as a freestanding obligation.
For nonrestricted property, 30 days is the floor either way — For nonrestricted property — single-family houses of owners with 3 or fewer such houses, owner-occupied buildings of 4 or fewer units, and foreclosure-held houses (RSA 540:1-a) — the landlord can alternatively just terminate on the same 30-day notice under RSA 540:3, II. Either route lands on 30 days.
Settled law: the proviso has not moved since 2013 — The last relevant amendment was 2013 ch. 48. The 2024 ch. 9 (HB 261) amendments to RSA 540:2 concerned domestic-violence protections, not rent increases.
Stale-source headline: pre-July-2026 guides miss the new non-renewal route — 2025 ch. 263 (HB 60, signed 2025-08-01) took effect 2026-07-01 — ten days before this verification — adding RSA 540:2, II(i) end-of-lease non-renewal (12-month-plus leases, 60 days' written notice, possessory action within 6 months) and paragraph VIII (no-fault terminations are not reportable 'evictions'). Guides written before July 2026 that call New Hampshire a no-end-of-term good-cause state are stale.
Dead-bill debunk: the tiered-notice figures online were never law — The '60 days for restricted property / 6 months for increases over 15% / 120-day municipal notice' tiers circulating in search results come from HB 95 (2023, killed 301-63) and HB 1362 (2024, Inexpedient to Legislate on 2024-02-15). The official chapter contains none of that language.
Local preemption is structural, not express — so the answer is left empty — New Hampshire has no express statute preempting local rent regulation. Municipalities simply lack enabling authority under the state's Dillon's-rule framework, which is why the answer is left empty rather than reading as a preemption.
Manufactured-housing parks run on a different clock — RSA 205-A:6, I requires 60 days' written notice with an explanation for any increase in a disclosed charge, plus notice of voluntary mediation. Paragraph I-a mandates a bold-print statement of mediation rights (51% petition, increase over $15 per month).
No limit on how often rent may rise — Nothing in RSA 540 or RSA 540-A limits how often a landlord may raise the rent, which is why no frequency limit is shown.

Common questions: New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire?: 30 days.
Does New Hampshire have rent control?: No — New Hampshire has no statewide rent control or stabilization. No rent control exists anywhere in New Hampshire — no statewide scheme and no municipal ordinance.
Does New Hampshire preempt local rent control ordinances?: No New Hampshire statute expressly addresses local rent control — state law neither authorizes municipalities to adopt rent-stabilization ordinances nor expressly prohibits them from doing so.
Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in New Hampshire?: Rent is locked during a fixed term as a matter of contract. A renewal offer at a higher rent still needs the 30-day notice under RSA 540:2, IV to make a tenant's refusal good cause for eviction.
How often can a landlord raise the rent in New Hampshire?: Not addressed by statute.

Statute citations

NH RSA 540:2 I, II(e), II(i), IV, V, VIII (verified 2026) Official source
NH RSA 540:3 II (verified 2026) Official source
NH RSA 540:1-a I, II (verified 2026) Official source
NH RSA 205-A:6 (manufactured housing parks) I, I-a (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official NH General Court site (gc.nh.gov, the redirect target of www.gencourt.state.nh.us): every section these answers rest on read at least twice via independent URLs — the merged chapter pages (540-mrg.htm read twice via independent paths, 540-A-mrg.htm, 540-B-mrg.htm) plus each individual section page (540-A:1, :2, :3, :4, :5, :6, :7, :8; 540:1-a, :2, :3, :9; 540-B:10; 205-A:6) read in full for verbatim quotes, with all figures matching across reads (greater-of one month/$100 cap, 30-day return from termination, one-year interest trigger with 3-year request cycle, double-damages penalty, 6-month unclaimed-deposit rule, 540-A:5 small-landlord exemption, consent-based entry with adequate-under-the-circumstances notice, 540:2 IV 30-day rent-increase notice, new 540:2 II(i) 60-day end-of-lease notice effective 2026-07-01). Negative checks (no late-fee or grace-period statute, no rent control, no express preemption) run against the full text of RSA chapters 540, 540-A, and 540-B plus a gc.nh.gov-restricted search. Session-law identities pinned by cross-referencing official source lines with bill records: 2025 ch. 263 = HB 60 (signed 2025-08-01, eff. 2026-07-01), 2025 ch. 176 = HB 309 (eff. 2026-01-01), 2024 ch. 9 = HB 261. 2026-session check on 2026-07-11: HB 1336 vetoed 2026-07-02; HB 1598 signed week of 2026-07-06, effective 90 days after passage, flagged as pending; dead bills HB 95 (2023) and HB 1362 (2024) debunked from contemporaneous reporting.