High-Rise Life: 2014 Rent Increases

by Barbara Cline

Last month, the DC Rental Housing Commission announced that the 2014 Consumer Price Index for urban workers (CPI-W) will be 1.4%.

This percentage is the basis for the 2014 rent increases for the approximately 79,000 DC rent-controlled apartments, effective from May 1, 2014 through April 30, 2015. Ward 3 has 16.2%, or 12,818, of the rent-controlled apartments in the District – ranking second just behind Ward 1 with 16.5% or 13,034 units. See the breakdown of rent-controlled apartments by ward (PDF, page 13).

All DC tenants living in rent-controlled apartments will receive one of the following two 2014 rent increases:

 
Not sure your apartment is rent-controlled?

RAD Form 8 (PDF), the annual rent increase notice, is two pages of dense and often confusing “governmentese.”

But you’ll find three clues within:

1) Mentions the rent-control law “…in accordance with the provisions of the Rental Housing Act of 1985”

2) Cites the CPI-W: “…the increase in rent charged is based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W)”

3) And buried on page 2 is the only place with the words “rent control:” The title of a RAD pamphlet called “What You Should Know about Rent Control in the District of Columbia” (PDF)

Mystery solved!