Redlinethe fine print, decoded

Contract trap · Lease

One-way rent increase

The landlord may raise rent during the term at its discretion, to 'market rate', on short notice or more than once a year, or via an index clause that only ever goes up; or fixed step increases without caps.

Severity
Serious
How often it turns up
Regular
Holds up?
Depends where you are
Clause phrases
19

What it looks like in a contract

Redline matches these phrases against your document verbatim. Drafters rarely invent new wording — they copy it, which is why the same sentences turn up across unrelated contracts.

In English-language contracts

  • landlord may increase the rent
  • at any time during the term
  • by giving 14 days' notice in writing
  • to the prevailing market rate
  • indexed to CPI
  • increase but not decrease
  • rent review
  • rent shall increase by 5% annually
  • escalation clause
  • Staffelmiete
  • Indexmiete

In Russian-language contracts

  • Наймодатель вправе изменить размер платы в одностороннем порядке
  • индексация платы
  • не чаще одного раза в
  • уведомив за 30 дней
  • с учётом инфляции
  • в соответствии с рыночной стоимостью
  • повышение платы на 10% ежегодно
  • изменение размера платы по инициативе Наймодателя

Check your own contract

Paste a clause, a page or the whole document. Nothing leaves your browser: the matching runs here, on this page, against the phrases above.

Run the full scan on this document

Why it bites

Rent is the core price; a variation right turns a fixed term into a one-way option for the landlord while the tenant stays bound and pays exit penalties; one-sided index clauses have been struck in Berlin and an escalation clause was used to engineer an eviction (Bankway v Penfold-Dunsford).

Is it enforceable where you are

The same clause can be routine in one country and void in another. What follows is what the law says where you are — not advice on your particular contract.

In the US, deposit deadlines and entry notice are set state by state; in England and Wales the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the deposit protection schemes apply, and in the EU national tenancy law sits on top of Directive 93/13.

United States

Fixed-term rent cannot be raised mid-term unless the lease says so; month-to-month increases need 30-90 days' notice (NY 30/60/90 by tenure; CA 30/90 and AB 1482 cap of 5%+CPI ≤10%); rent-control jurisdictions (NYC, LA, SF, OR) override lease clauses.

  • Cited
  • AB 1482

European Union

93/13 Annex 1(l) for professional landlords; Germany: Indexmiete must follow VPI both ways (LG Berlin 67 S 83/24, 2024: one-way clause void), Staffelmiete needs stated amounts and 1-year gaps (557a/557b), Kappungsgrenze 20%/15% in 3 years (558); France: revision once a year on IRL only (loi 89-462 art 17-1).

  • Cited
  • 93/13 Annex 1(l)
  • LG Berlin 67 S 83/24
  • loi 89-462 art 17-1

United Kingdom

OFT/CMA: arbitrary increase clauses are unfair; Renters' Rights Act 2025: increases only via s.13 notice, once a year, 2 months' notice, challengeable at the First-tier Tribunal — contractual rent-review clauses no longer effective.

  • Cited
  • CMA
  • Renters' Rights Act 2025

Russia

ГК ст. 682 п. 2 — одностороннее изменение платы не допускается, кроме случаев, предусмотренных законом или договором, т.е. договорная индексация законна; без порядка/потолка условие ущемляет нанимателя (ст. 428, 10 ГК).

  • Cited
  • ГК ст. 682 п. 2
  • ст. 428

Where this has actually happened

Regulator actions, court rulings and the contracts they were fought over.

  • Bankway Properties Ltd v Penfold-Dunsford [2001] EWCA Civ 528: rent escalation to £25,000 as a device to evict held unenforceable
  • LG Berlin 20.06.2024, 67 S 83/24: Indexmiete clause allowing only increases held unwirksam
  • OFT356 (2005) unfair example: '[In a 12-month fixed term] The landlord may increase the rent at any time during the term by giving the tenant at least 14 days' notice'

What to do

In order, from the thing that takes a minute to the thing that takes a letter.

  1. Fix the rent for the whole term
  2. Allow increases only at renewal, once a year, with 2-3 months' notice, tied to a published index moving both ways with a cap
  3. Where statutory procedures exist (UK s.13, DE 558/559, FR IRL) strike any contractual bypass
  4. RU: «размер платы не подлежит изменению в течение срока договора» или индексация не чаще 1 раза в год с потолком.

Check your own document

Traps that travel with it

Drafters who use one of these usually use several.

79 traps · 1789 verbatim clause phrases