Landlord Rights and Obligations in New Brunswick Rent Increases

Your Right to Raise Rent Is Statutory, Not Contractual

Under the Residential Tenancies Act (R.S.N.B. 1975, c. R-10.2), every residential landlord in New Brunswick has the legal right to increase rent — but that right comes with strict procedural obligations. A lease clause waiving the tenant's protections is void under Section 2 of the Act. The statute overrides the contract, every time.

As a self-managing landlord, knowing where your rights end and your obligations begin prevents the two most expensive mistakes: serving an invalid notice (which costs six months of lost increase) and accidentally exceeding the cap (which triggers the deemed-3% mechanism or a tenant challenge).

What You Are Entitled to Do

Raise rent up to 3% per year. The statutory cap (in effect through December 31, 2027) lets you increase rent by up to 3% without seeking any prior approval, as long as all notice and timing rules are satisfied.

Apply for above-cap increases. If you have spent money on significant capital renovations, you can apply to a Residential Tenancies Officer for an above-cap increase up to 9%. This requires documented evidence of the expenditure and prior approval before serving notice.

Set market rent on a vacant unit. When a tenant leaves and a new person moves in, vacancy decontrol lets you set the initial rent at whatever the market supports. The cap only applies to increases during an ongoing tenancy.

Collect a security deposit. Up to one week's rent for a week-to-week tenancy, one month's rent for other standard residential premises, or three months for mobile home sites. The deposit must be remitted to the provincial Security Deposit Fund within 15 days.

What You Must Do

Serve six full calendar months' written notice. This applies to every tenancy type — month-to-month, fixed-term, year-to-year, and week-to-week. The notice period runs from the first day of the next full calendar month after service.

Use a separate, standalone document. Under Section 11.1(2)(b), the rent increase notice must not be combined with any other communication — not a lease renewal, not a receipt, not a maintenance letter. A combined notice must be set aside by a Residential Tenancies Officer.

Follow the default 12-month frequency limit. Unless the landlord and tenant agree otherwise in writing, no increase is permitted in the first consecutive 12-month period of the tenancy agreement, and no more than one increase is permitted in any other consecutive 12-month period. A property sale does not reset the tenancy's rent history.

Include all required information. The notice must state the tenant's name, the property address, the current rent, the proposed new rent, the effective date, and bear the landlord's signature.

Keep proof of service. Whether you deliver personally, send by ordinary mail to the premises, or use electronic transmission to the address given in the lease, maintain a record. A standard rent increase review application must be filed within 60 days; mobile home site applications have a 15-day deadline.

What You Cannot Do

Charge fees outside the rent to get around the cap. Section 8(4) bars requiring an amount other than rent, a security deposit, or a reasonable amount for a service to be provided in relation to the tenancy. Mandatory administrative fees, key fees, and service surcharges are treated as rent components subject to the 3% ceiling.

Withdraw services to force higher effective rent. Pulling a parking stall, utility allowance, or storage locker without a proportional rent reduction is treated as an indirect rent increase. If the monetary value of the withdrawal exceeds the cap, it is an unlawful increase.

Use a rent increase as retaliation. Under Section 11.2(1), a notice served between the day a tenant makes a complaint and six months after that day is not valid if the tenant tells an officer in writing within 15 days after receiving the notice that they believe it was retaliatory and the landlord does not satisfy the officer that it was not served for that reason.

The Self-Managing Landlord's Compliance Path

The majority of rent increase disputes in New Brunswick come down to paperwork — serving the wrong document format, miscounting the six-month window, or lacking proof of delivery. The main rules are simple (3%, the default frequency limit, and six months' notice). The procedural execution is where landlords get tripped up.

The Rent Increases in New Brunswick guide gives self-managing landlords the complete compliance workflow, including a pre-service checklist, calculation worksheets, service log templates, and a tenant review preparation roadmap.

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