Bend landlord rules for apartment owners come almost entirely from Oregon’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, ORS chapter 90, which caps annual rent increases (9.5% for 2026 and 10% for 2027), limits terminations after the first year of a tenancy, and sets detailed rules for deposits, screening fees and notices. The City of Bend adds one local layer of its own, a 90-day notice requirement for certain terminations, plus a separate permit system for short-term rentals.
This guide walks through each of those rules in the order an owner usually meets them, from leasing a vacant unit to raising rent and ending a tenancy, with links to the statutes and agency pages that govern them.
Why the rules matter more in Bend than the numbers suggest
Bend is the county seat of Deschutes County, which was established on December 13, 1916, according to the Oregon Blue Book’s Deschutes County entry. The city has grown quickly. The Census Bureau counted 99,178 residents in 2020 and estimates 107,342 as of July 1, 2025, an increase of 8.2% in five years.
Per the Census Bureau’s QuickFacts for Bend, the owner-occupied housing rate for 2020–2024 was 61.7%, so roughly 38% of Bend’s 44,436 households rent. Median gross rent over the same period was $1,883 a month. High rents mean that every rule tied to rent, such as the statutory penalty of three months’ rent for certain violations, carries a large dollar value in Bend.
Screening applicants and taking deposits
Oregon regulates the leasing process before a tenancy even starts.
Screening fees
Under ORS chapter 90, section 90.295, a landlord may charge an applicant screening fee only to cover the landlord’s actual costs of screening, and must give the applicant a receipt. Key limits include:
- Only one screening fee may be charged per applicant in any 60-day period, no matter how many units the applicant applies for with that landlord.
- Before accepting a fee, the landlord must provide written screening criteria and the other disclosures the statute lists.
- If the landlord does not actually screen the applicant, the fee must be refunded within 30 days.
- A landlord who violates the section can owe the applicant twice the fee plus $250.
Hold deposits
ORS 90.297 allows a deposit to hold a unit only after an application has been approved. If the landlord does not then sign a rental agreement, or the applicant declines because of a habitability defect, the hold deposit must be returned within five business days. The section was amended again in 2025.
Security deposits
ORS 90.300 governs security deposits and prepaid rent. The rules that most often trip up apartment owners are these:
- The landlord must provide a written receipt for any deposit.
- A landlord may not impose or increase a deposit during the first year of a tenancy, except by agreement for a specific purpose, such as allowing a pet.
- After the first year, a tenant must be given at least three months to pay a new or increased deposit.
- Deductions are limited to unpaid amounts owed under the agreement and damage beyond ordinary wear and tear.
- The landlord must give a written accounting and return any balance within 31 days after the tenancy ends.
- Failing to provide the accounting, or withholding in bad faith, can cost the landlord twice the amount wrongfully withheld.
Application questions after SB 599
Senate Bill 599 from the 2025 session (Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 226) prohibits landlords from asking about an applicant’s or tenant’s immigration or citizenship status and requires landlords to accept a range of identification documents, including an individual taxpayer identification number and expired government-issued ID. Owners who use standard application forms from a national screening company should confirm those forms were updated for Oregon.
Bend landlord rules for raising rent
Oregon adopted statewide rent stabilization in 2019 (Oregon Laws 2019, chapter 1), and the legislature has adjusted the system several times since. The core rules are in ORS 90.323 and 90.324.
The annual cap
For most apartments, the maximum annual increase is the lesser of 10% or 7% plus the annual change in the Consumer Price Index. The CPI figure is the September 12-month average change in the CPI-U for the West Region, and the Oregon Department of Administrative Services must publish the resulting cap by September 30 each year. The 10% ceiling was added by Senate Bill 611, which Governor Kotek signed on July 6, 2023.
Recent caps published by DAS:
- Calendar year 2025: 10.0%.
- Calendar year 2026: 9.5%, published in a correction notice dated October 1, 2025.
- Calendar year 2027: 10%, published September 28, 2026 on the DAS rent stabilization page.
Because the cap is set each year, owners should check the DAS figure for the calendar year in which they deliver the notice rather than relying on last year’s number.
Timing and notice
ORS 90.323 also controls when and how rent can change:
- A landlord may not increase rent during the first year of a tenancy, other than in a week-to-week tenancy.
- After the first year, rent may be increased only once in any 12-month period.
- Each increase requires at least 90 days’ written notice.
- The notice must state the amount of the increase, the new rent and the date it takes effect.
- If the landlord is relying on an exemption to exceed the cap, the notice must state the facts that support the exemption.
The new-construction exemption
The cap does not apply to a unit whose first certificate of occupancy was issued less than 15 years before the date of the rent increase notice. Certain regulated affordable housing is also exempt. In a fast-growing city like Bend, many newer apartment communities fall inside this rolling 15-year window, while buildings completed before roughly 2011 are subject to the cap. Because the window rolls forward, a building that is exempt today will become subject to the cap once it passes the 15-year mark.
Penalties and the vacancy rule
A landlord who raises rent above the cap owes the tenant three months’ rent plus actual damages. There is also a rule aimed at turnover: a landlord who ends a tenancy without cause during the first year may not charge the next tenant more than the cap would have allowed for the previous tenant. In practice, that removes the incentive to end a first-year tenancy simply to reset the rent.
Ending a tenancy: the first year and after
Termination rules under ORS 90.427 depend on how long the tenant has lived in the unit.
During the first year of occupancy
During the first year, a landlord may terminate a month-to-month tenancy with at least 30 days’ written notice without stating a cause. The statute defines the first year broadly: it covers any period in which any of the tenants has occupied the unit for one year or less.
After the first year
Once every tenant has lived in the unit for more than a year, the landlord needs either a tenant cause, such as nonpayment or a material violation of the rental agreement, or one of four qualifying landlord reasons:
- Demolition of the unit or conversion to a non-residential use.
- Repairs or renovations that will be made while the unit is unsafe or unfit to occupy.
- The owner or a member of the owner’s immediate family will move in, and the landlord does not have a comparable unit available in the same building.
- The landlord has accepted an offer to sell the unit to a buyer who intends to occupy it as a primary residence.
Terminations for these landlord reasons require 90 days’ written notice that states the reason and the supporting facts. Senate Bill 586 from the 2025 session created an exception for the sale-to-an-occupant situation, allowing a 60-day notice instead of 90 days when the conditions in the amended statute are met.
Relocation payments
When terminating for a qualifying landlord reason, the landlord must pay the tenant an amount equal to one month’s rent at the time the notice is delivered. Landlords who have an ownership interest in four or fewer dwelling units are exempt from that payment, which means it applies to essentially every owner of a five-unit-plus apartment building in Bend.
Penalties
A landlord who terminates in violation of these rules can owe the tenant three months’ rent plus actual damages, and the tenant has a defense to an eviction. Tenants must bring that claim within one year.
Bend’s own termination ordinance
Bend is not Portland: it has no local relocation ordinance, no rental registration program and no local rent rule layered on top of the state cap, based on a review of the city code. What Bend does have is chapter 5.60 of the Bend Code, adopted in 2016 by Ordinance NS-2283.
Section 5.60.010 requires at least 90 days’ written notice to terminate a month-to-month tenancy of more than one year when the termination is not based on a cause defined in state law. A landlord who violates the ordinance can be liable for up to three months’ rent plus actual damages, attorney fees and costs. When the City Council adopted the rule in late 2016, it raised the notice period from 60 to 90 days.
Since 2019, state law has required 90 days’ notice and a qualifying reason for most terminations after the first year, so the Bend ordinance now largely overlaps with ORS 90.427. It still matters as an independent local basis for liability, and it is a reminder that notice periods in Bend should never be shorter than 90 days once a month-to-month tenant has passed the one-year mark.
Nonpayment notices and other rules owners use often
Notices for unpaid rent
Under ORS 90.394, a landlord may give either of two notices for nonpayment:
- A 10-day notice, which may be delivered no earlier than the eighth day of the rental period.
- A 13-day notice, which may be delivered no earlier than the fifth day of the rental period.
Either notice must state the amount owed and the date by which it must be paid. ORS 90.395 requires a separate notice about rental assistance to accompany it. Because the earliest delivery date and the stated amount must both be right, many owners build these dates into their property management software rather than calculating them by hand.
Other 2025 changes
The Oregon Real Estate Agency’s 2025 legislative round-up summarizes several additional bills that affect apartment operations:
- HB 2134 lets a tenant who receives a 90-day notice of non-renewal move out early on 30 days’ notice without paying a fee.
- HB 3378 requires landlords to offer tenants a way to enter the building that does not depend on the tenant’s own phone or app, which matters for properties that have moved to smart locks.
- HB 3522 created a 24-hour notice process for removing squatters.
- SB 973 added notice requirements before affordability restrictions on a property expire.
Short-term rentals are a separate system
Owners of small apartment buildings sometimes consider renting units by the night or week. In Bend, that is a different regulatory track. The city’s short-term rental program defines a short-term rental as one rented for less than 30 consecutive days to the same tenant, and requires both a land use permit and an annual operating license. Whole-house rentals in residential zones that require the more intensive Type II review must be at least 500 feet apart, and short-term stays carry a 10.4% room tax. Once a unit is rented for 30 days or more, the ORS chapter 90 rules above apply instead.
Putting the rules to work in a Bend building
Taken together, the rules point to a few habits that keep an apartment operation in Bend compliant and predictable.
- Know the age of each building. The certificate of occupancy date decides whether a property is subject to the rent cap. Keep a copy in the property file and note the date it crosses the 15-year line.
- Calendar every tenancy anniversary. The first-year mark changes how rent can be raised, how a tenancy can be ended and how much notice is required, under both state law and the Bend Code.
- Use the current year’s cap. With the cap at 9.5% for 2026 and 10% for 2027, an increase that is legal in January 2027 may not have been legal in December 2026.
- Budget for relocation payments. If a renovation, demolition or sale to an occupant is part of the plan, one month’s rent per affected household is a real cost for owners of five or more units.
- Audit forms and fees. Screening fees, hold deposits and application questions all changed in recent sessions, and the penalties for getting them wrong are fixed by statute.
These rules also shape how buildings trade. A buyer will want to see which units are capped, which tenants are past their first year and whether any termination notices are outstanding, because those facts determine how quickly rents can move after a sale. The same is true for owners comparing Oregon with other states; the state-by-state guide to rent control and property tax shows how unusual Oregon’s statewide system is.
Where this leaves Bend apartment owners
For owners comparing Bend with other parts of the state, the Oregon market overview covers the rest of the state’s cities. For owners thinking about an exit, including those researching selling an apartment building in Bend, a clean file showing compliant rent increases, correct notices and documented deposits is one of the most useful things to have ready.
Bend’s landlord-tenant framework is demanding but knowable. The state sets the cap, the termination rules and the deposit and screening procedures; the city adds a 90-day notice rule and a separate track for short-term rentals. Owners who track building age, tenancy anniversaries and the annual DAS figure will find that most of the risk in these rules comes from missed dates rather than from the rules themselves.
