Oregon Landlord-Tenant Law 2026: The Complete Handbook

Tenby is an AI-powered property management platform for independent landlords managing 1-50 rental units. Tenby's compliance engine is loaded with Oregon-specific rules — security deposit deadlines, required disclosures, late fee limits, rent increase caps, and eviction notice requirements — automatically enforced for every Oregon property.

Oregon's landlord-tenant relationship is governed by ORS Chapter 90 (Residential Landlord and Tenant). Oregon is one of the most regulated rental markets in the country: it has statewide rent control, a mandatory late fee grace period with prescribed fee structures, and eviction notices that courts will throw out over missing boilerplate. Portland layers its own local rules on top. Here's everything you need to know.

Security deposits in Oregon

Key details:

• The deposit (or an itemized accounting of deductions) must be returned within 31 days after the tenancy ends (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.300)
• There is no cap on the deposit amount and no escrow or interest requirement
• Deductions must be itemized in writing — document with photos and receipts

> Check your numbers: Use our free Oregon security deposit calculator to verify your deposit and return deadline are compliant.

Eviction process in Oregon

Oregon eviction notices are technical, and courts enforce the technicalities. Self-help evictions (changing locks, removing belongings, shutting off utilities) are illegal — you must go through the court process.

Step 1: Serve proper notice

• For nonpayment, serve a Notice of Termination for Nonpayment with a 10-day period (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.394)
• Critical: the notice must include rental assistance information in multiple languages — the court will dismiss your case without it (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.394). Do not use a generic out-of-state form
• The tenant has a right to cure — paying what's owed within the notice period ends the eviction
• To end a month-to-month tenancy, Oregon requires 90 days' notice (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.427) — triple what most states require

Step 2: File the eviction action

If the tenant neither pays nor vacates, file the eviction action in the county where the property is located.

Step 3: Hearing and judgment

Both parties present their case. If the court rules for the landlord, the judgment for possession is executed by law enforcement — never by the landlord personally.

Practical tip: more Oregon evictions die on defective notices than on the merits. Generate the notice from a current Oregon-specific template every single time.

Late fees in Oregon

> Calculate your late fee: Use our free Oregon late fee calculator to check your fee against ORS 90.260's structures. Also try our prorated rent calculator for move-in/move-out calculations and rent estimate tool to see if your rent is at market rate.

Oregon regulates late fees more precisely than almost any state (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.260):

• 4-day grace period — no fee may be charged until rent is more than 4 days late
• The lease must adopt exactly one of three structures:

- (a) a one-time, reasonable flat fee

- (b) a daily fee of up to 6% of that reasonable flat fee per day

- (c) 5% of the periodic rent per each succeeding 5-day period the rent remains unpaid, within the rental period

A fee charged during the grace window, or a structure not written into the lease, is not collectible. Tenby stores structure (c) conservatively as a 5%-of-monthly-rent first-period cap.

Landlord entry in Oregon

• Give the tenant at least 24 hours' notice before entering (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.322)
• Emergencies (fire, flooding, gas leak, imminent danger) permit entry without notice
• Enter at reasonable times and log every entry

Required disclosures in Oregon

Oregon landlords must provide the following:

1. Lead paint disclosure — for properties built before 1978, disclose known lead-based paint hazards and provide the EPA "Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home" pamphlet (federal requirement)
2. Flood zone — disclose if the dwelling is located in a 100-year floodplain
3. Radon — provide the EPA radon pamphlet

Rent increase rules in Oregon

Oregon is the flagship statewide rent control state — the SB 608 lineage, codified at ORS 90.323.

• Statewide cap: annual rent increases on covered tenancies are limited to 7% plus CPI, which works out to a cap of roughly 10% (Tenby's compliance database enforces 10% as the working ceiling per ORS 90.323)
• 90 days' notice to terminate a month-to-month tenancy (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.427) — plan your increase timelines around the same long-notice posture
• Cannot raise rent during a fixed-term lease unless the lease includes a rent increase clause
• Portland adds local rules on top of state law. Tenby's local override layer flags Portland-specific renter protections (Portland City Code 30.01.085) and Portland's ban-the-box screening ordinance (Portland City Code 30.01.086) for every Portland property

Never "eyeball" an Oregon increase. Check the current year's allowable percentage before sending any notice.

Maintenance obligations

Landlord must:

• Maintain the property in habitable condition
• Comply with applicable building and housing codes
• Keep plumbing, heating, electrical, and supplied appliances in good working order
• Maintain common areas
• Make repairs within a reasonable time after notice

Tenant must:

• Keep the unit clean and sanitary
• Use appliances and systems reasonably
• Not damage the property
• Not disturb neighbors
• Notify the landlord of needed repairs promptly

Tenant rights in Oregon

Tenants in Oregon have the right to:

• Habitable housing — the landlord must keep the premises habitable
• Rent withholding — tenants may withhold rent over serious unremedied habitability failures (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.365)
• Repair and deduct — tenants may also arrange essential repairs and deduct the cost after proper notice (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.365); Tenby's compliance database applies a 7-day repair window before these remedies ripen
• Privacy — 24 hours' notice before landlord entry (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.322)
• Rent increase caps — the statewide 7% + CPI (~10%) ceiling under ORS 90.323
• Regulated screening charges — applicant screening charges are regulated by statute (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.295)
• Source-of-income protection — Oregon law protects renters from discrimination based on lawful source of income, including housing assistance (Or. Rev. Stat. § 659A.421)
• Domestic violence protections — under federal VAWA, tenants in certain federally subsidized housing have additional protections

How Tenby helps Oregon landlords

Tenby's compliance engine handles Oregon-specific requirements automatically:

• Rent increase cap check against the ORS 90.323 ceiling before any increase notice goes out
• 4-day grace period enforcement — late fees are blocked during the statutory window
• Late fee structure validation — flat, daily (6% of flat), or per-5-day-period (5%), matched to what your lease actually says
• 31-day deposit return tracking with countdown alerts
• Nonpayment notice generation with the required rental assistance information included
• 90-day notice tracking for month-to-month terminations
• Portland local override detection — city rules surface automatically for Portland addresses
• Source-of-income screening guardrails built into the application flow

The bottom line

Oregon is the most tenant-protective state in this series, and the penalty for sloppiness is real: increase notices that exceed the ORS 90.323 cap, late fees charged inside the 4-day grace window, and nonpayment notices missing the rental-assistance insert all fail — sometimes with the case dismissed outright. The core numbers: ~10% rent increase ceiling (7% + CPI), 4-day grace, one late fee structure written into the lease, 31-day deposit return, 10-day nonpayment notice, 90-day month-to-month termination, 24-hour entry. Automate the deadlines, use Oregon-specific forms, and Portland landlords: check the local layer every time.