(a) The County Executive must issue annual voluntary rent increase guidelines not later than March 1 of each year. The Executive must publish the guidelines in the County Register and on the County website.
(b) The guidelines must be based on the increase or decrease in the residential rent component of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA) as published by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, or any successor index, for the preceding calendar year, unless an alternative standard better reflecting the costs of rental housing in the County is established by regulation.
(c) The Department should encourage landlords to hold rent increases at the lowest level possible. The Department may review any rent increase that appears to be excessive and encourage the landlord to reduce, modify, or postpone the increase. (2000 L.M.C., ch. 32, § 1; 2016 L.M.C., ch. 39, § 1; 2018 L.M.C., ch. 3, §1.)
Editor's note—Former Sections 29-53—29-55 were deleted as they expired at 12:00 midnight on January 31, 1981, as provided in former section 29-54(c).