Annual General Adjustment

The AGA allows landlords to raise rents for most fully covered rental units

Each year the Berkeley Rent Board passes an Annual General Adjustment (AGA) in October. On January 1, the rent ceilings for most units fully covered by the Rent Ordinance increase by the AGA, which allows landlords to raise rents (with proper notice) up to the new rent ceiling. The AGA is set by taking 65% of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers in the Bay Area from July 1 through June 30 of the prior year.

Current AGA 

You can use our AGA Calculator to calculate the allowable rent increase. 

cases where a rent increase is prohibited

Landlords cannot raise the rent for the rest of the year in which the tenancy started, and for one additional calendar year. For example, if a tenancy starts on March 1, 2023, the landlord cannot raise the rent for the rest of 2023, or in 2024. The landlord may take the first AGA rent increase in 2025 with proper notice to the tenant.  

No matter when a tenancy started, a landlord cannot take the AGA if:

• The landlord has not fully paid Rent Board registration fees
• There is an order from the Rent Board denying AGAs (generally due to a decrease in services or substandard conditions)
• There are serious repair problems or outstanding housing code violations 
• The landlord has failed to pay interest on the security deposit for the unit

If a tenant has a fixed-term lease, the landlord will have to wait until the lease term expires to impose the AGA (unless the lease allows the increase). 

Proper notice of rent increase

Landlords must provide a 30-day written notice for a rent increase of 10% or less, or a 90-day written notice for increases of more than 10%.

“Banking” of Annual General Adjustments

If a landlord chooses not to take an AGA rent increase in a given year, they do not lose it. Landlords can “bank” AGAs and then raise the rent to the rent ceiling at any time if they provide the tenant with proper notice.  

A note about the registration fee pass-through

Each year with the elected Rent Board’s approval, landlords may pass through a part of the registration fee as a rent increase to tenants who have occupied their units since before 1999, and often do this at the same time they take the AGA. This pass-through does not become a part of the permanent rent ceiling, so it may appear to those tenants that they are paying slightly more than the rent ceilings reflected in our records during the term of the pass-through. Some low-income tenants may be eligible for reimbursement of the pass-through from the Rent Board.