10 Ways DIY Landlords Accidentally Break Oregon Law

10 Ways DIY Landlords Accidentally Break Oregon Law

THE ARTICLE

Most Oregon landlords who violate landlord-tenant law never intended to violate anything.

That is the honest, slightly uncomfortable center of this article. In our work taking over management of occupied rental properties — often from owners who have been managing on their own for years — we open a lot of files. And the pattern is remarkably consistent. The owners are conscientious. They maintain their properties. They like their residents. And somewhere in the file there is a notice served on the wrong timeline, a lease clause that stopped being lawful three sessions ago, or a deposit deduction that a judge would not allow.

Oregon is a technical state. Screening, deposits, notices, entry, fees, habitability, discrimination, and termination each carry detailed statutory requirements, governed primarily by ORS Chapter 90. Those requirements do not bend for good intentions, and several of them have changed significantly in the last three legislative sessions.

Here are the ten violations we see most often.

A note on what this is. This article is general education from a property management company, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for an attorney. Statutes are summarized, not quoted in full, and some provisions have exceptions not described here. Local ordinances in Portland and Eugene add requirements beyond state law. If you have a live situation, talk to an Oregon landlord-tenant attorney.

1. Screening applicants inconsistently — and skipping the required disclosures

The version everyone recognizes is the subjective one: two applicants with comparable files, and the owner chooses based on a feeling. I liked this couple better. Written, consistently applied screening criteria exist precisely to keep that instinct out of the decision, because “I liked them better” is indistinguishable, from the outside, from something far more serious.

But Oregon’s screening rules go well past consistency, and this is where DIY owners most often stumble without knowing it.

Under ORS 90.295, before you accept an applicant screening charge you must give the applicant written notice of the amount of the charge, your screening or admission criteria, the process you will use, their right to dispute inaccurate information, your nondiscrimination policy, the rent and deposit amounts, and any renter’s insurance requirement. You may charge an applicant only one screening fee in any 60-day period. If you fill the unit before screening them, or they withdraw in writing before you screen them, you owe a refund within 30 days.

ORS 90.303 then limits what you may consider. Arrests that did not result in conviction are generally off-limits. Certain older eviction judgments are off-limits. Unpaid rent accrued between April 1, 2020, and March 1, 2022, may not be considered. Neither may a medical marijuana card.

And ORS 90.304 requires that a denied applicant receive a written statement of the reasons for denial within 14 days.

What it costs: an applicant may recover twice the screening charge plus $250 for screening-charge violations, and $100 for a missing denial statement.

Local note: if your property is in Eugene, the city caps the applicant screening charge at $10, regardless of your actual cost. That cap survived litigation and is in force.

2. Fair housing violations — usually verbal, usually casual

Fair housing claims rarely originate in a written policy. They originate in a sentence said out loud at a showing.

“I’d rather not have kids upstairs.”
“We don’t really do Section 8.”
“No pets, no exceptions.”

Oregon’s housing discrimination statute, ORS 659A.421, protects race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, familial status, and source of income — which expressly includes Section 8 and other housing assistance. Refusing or burdening a voucher holder is not a business preference in Oregon. It is a violation.

Disability is protected under a separate statute, ORS 659A.145, which carries affirmative obligations to permit reasonable modifications and to make reasonable accommodations. That one has its own entry below.

The change most owners have missed sits in ORS Chapter 90 rather than in the fair housing statute. In 2025, Oregon enacted Senate Bill 599 (2025 Or. Laws ch. 226), amending ORS 90.303 and adding new sections to Chapter 90 to restrict inquiry into immigration and citizenship status. A landlord may not inquire into an applicant’s or tenant’s immigration or citizenship status except where a federal housing program requires it. A landlord may not reject an applicant solely for lacking a Social Security number or proof of lawful presence where the applicant offers alternative identification — and the statute specifies what must be accepted, including an ITIN card, a certified birth certificate, a passport or government ID regardless of expiration, and other documents. A landlord may not disclose or threaten to disclose immigration status to harass, retaliate against or intimidate.

If you are still using a rental application you downloaded before mid-2025, there is a real chance it asks a question you may no longer ask. Go read it.

A further measure passed in the 2026 session (HB 4123) restricts landlord disclosure of a broad category of tenant confidential information — including immigration status, financial information, and records of a tenant asserting their rights — with damages of twice the monthly rent for a knowing violation. It took effect June 5, 2026, and applies now.

3. Mishandling the security deposit

ORS 90.300 gives you 31 days after the tenancy terminates and the tenant delivers possession to provide a written accounting specifying the basis of any claim and to return the balance. Note the trigger has two parts. Termination alone does not start the clock.

You may deduct unpaid rent and the cost to repair damage the tenant caused. You may not deduct for ordinary wear and tear — a term the statute does not define, which means that in a dispute, someone else defines it.

The provision owners violate most often without realizing it is carpet cleaning. You may charge a tenant for carpet cleaning only if all three of the following are true: the cleaning is performed with a machine specifically designed for cleaning or shampooing carpets; the carpet was cleaned or replaced after the prior tenancy and before this tenant took possession; and the written rental agreement provides that you may deduct the cost. Miss any one of the three and the deduction is improper.

Two more that catch people: you may not impose a new or increased security deposit during the first year of a tenancy, and after the first year you must give the tenant at least three months to pay an increase. And under ORS 90.300(4), you may not charge a pet security deposit for a service or companion animal a tenant with a disability requires as a reasonable accommodation.

What it costs: withholding without a written accounting, or in bad faith, exposes you to twice the amount withheld.

Local note: Portland caps deposits (one month’s rent, or half a month more where last month’s rent is also collected) and requires a signed move-in condition report with landlord photographs. Eugene caps deposits at two months’ rent and imposes its own condition-documentation requirements. State law imposes neither — which is not the same as saying you should skip them. (More on that in Part 2.)

4. Entering the property improperly

“I own it, so I can go inside.”

Not while someone lives there. ORS 90.322 requires at least 24 hours’ actual notice of intent to enter, and entry only at reasonable times. “Actual notice” is a real standard — it means the notice reached the tenant, not that you sent it.

There are genuine exceptions, and they are narrower than most owners assume: an emergency; serving a notice; a repair the tenant requested in writing; yard maintenance where the rental agreement authorizes it at reasonable times and frequency; showing the unit for sale under a separate written agreement supported by consideration; and entry by agreement with the tenant at the time of entry.

The emergency exception has a back end that owners routinely miss: after entering without notice in an emergency, you must give the tenant actual notice within 24 hours stating that you entered, the date and time, the nature of the emergency, and who entered.

One correction worth making, because it circulates widely in landlord-facing content: Oregon does not impose specific clock hours for entry. There is no 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. rule here. The standard is “reasonable times,” which is a judgment call — and judgment calls are evaluated after the fact.

What it costs: actual damages, but not less than one month’s rent (one week’s rent for a week-to-week tenancy). The same provision also reaches repeated entry demands that are lawful in form but harassing in effect.

5. Charging fees Oregon does not allow

Oregon does not permit you to create a fee simply because the lease says so. ORS 90.302 sets out the permitted fees, and a fee must be described in a written rental agreement. You may not charge a fee at the start of a tenancy for anticipated landlord expenses.

The noncompliance fee structure is where good-faith owners get caught. For most categories — pet waste, garbage, parking violations, improper vehicle use — the first violation gets a written warning only, with no fee. That warning must describe the specific noncompliance, state the fee amount for a second violation, and be delivered within 30 days of the act. A second violation within a year supports a fee of up to $50; a third and subsequent, $50 plus five percent of the rent. Two categories carry a $250 cap instead: smoking in a designated nonsmoking area, and keeping an unauthorized pet capable of causing damage.

Late fees are governed separately by ORS 90.260. A late charge may be imposed only if rent is not received by the fourth day of the rental period — day five at the earliest. The obligation, type and amount must be in the written agreement. And only three calculation methods are lawful: a reasonable flat amount charged once per period; a daily charge not exceeding six percent of that flat amount; or five percent of the periodic rent charged once per five-day period.

The single most common late-fee error: applying a rent payment to a previously imposed late charge, then treating the tenant as short on rent. ORS 90.260(4) prohibits it — and it typically produces a second problem, because the nonpayment notice that follows states an incorrect amount.

Utility and service charges have their own regime under ORS 90.315, including a 30-day billing window, separate statement of rent and utilities, an explanation of how charges are allocated, and — importantly — no markup on a pass-through utility beyond what the provider billed you, subject to a narrow exception permitting up to 10 percent on cable, satellite, video and internet service.

What it costs: charging a fee not permitted by the section exposes you to twice the tenant’s actual damages or $300, whichever is greater.

6. Serving the wrong termination notice

If you take one thing from this article, take this one.

The 72-hour nonpayment notice now survives only for week-to-week tenancies. It stopped applying to everything else on March 29, 2023, when HB 2001 took effect. For every other tenancy — month-to-month and fixed-term leases alike — the requirement is a 10-day notice served no earlier than the eighth day of the rental period, or a 13-day notice served no earlier than the fifth. We still see 72-hour notices served in Oregon. Every one of them is void, and a dismissal does not refund your filing fee.

ORS 90.394 also requires the notice to state the amount of rent due and the date and time by which the tenant must pay to cure. The Oregon Supreme Court has held that a notice stating an inaccurate rent amount is invalid — overstate the balance, and you start over.

Delivery is its own trap. Under ORS 90.155, first-class mail adds three days to the notice period, and the notice must state the extended period. “Nail and mail” is available only if the written rental agreement provides for it reciprocally. And a termination notice sent by email must also be sent by first-class mail — email alone never terminates a tenancy.

On the no-cause side, ORS 90.427 is the provision most often misunderstood. During the first year of occupancy, a landlord may terminate a month-to-month tenancy without cause on 30 days’ notice. After the first year, you generally cannot terminate without cause at all. You need either tenant cause or one of four qualifying landlord reasons — demolition or conversion, major repairs rendering the unit unfit, landlord or immediate family occupancy, or an accepted purchase offer from a buyer who will occupy — with not less than 90 days’ notice, the supporting facts stated, and payment of one month’s rent in relocation assistance. Landlords with an ownership interest in four or fewer units are exempt from the relocation payment. A 2025 amendment (SB 586, operative September 29, 2025) allows a shortened 60-day notice for the sale-to-owner-occupant reason — but you pay for it, with an additional month’s periodic rent on top of any relocation amount otherwise owed, and documentation of the purchase offer delivered with the notice.

What it costs: three months’ rent plus actual damages.

Local note: Eugene and Portland each add their own relocation-assistance requirements on certain terminations — in Eugene’s case, including no-cause terminations during the first year of occupancy. If your property is in either city, confirm the current local ordinance before serving anything.

The related trap — rent increases. Under ORS 90.323, no rent increase is permitted during the first year of a tenancy; after that, 90 days’ written notice is required, stating the increase amount, the new rent, the effective date and the facts supporting any exemption. For standard residential tenancies, Oregon caps the annual increase at the lesser of 10 percent or 7 percent plus regional CPI — for 2026, 9.5 percent. Manufactured dwelling parks and marinas run on a separate track: under HB 3054 (2025), facilities with more than 30 spaces are capped at a flat 6 percent, subject to a narrow exception permitting up to 12 percent once every five years for qualifying infrastructure costs. Facilities with 30 or fewer spaces use the 9.5 percent figure. The penalty is, again, three months’ rent plus actual damages. Confirm the current year’s figure against the Oregon DAS publication before issuing any notice — it is republished annually by September 30.

7. Treating habitability as complaint-driven

ORS 90.320 is a list, and it is worth reading in full at least once. It requires effective waterproofing and weather protection; plumbing in good working order; a safe water supply with hot and cold running water; adequate heating; electrical systems in good working order; grounds free of debris, filth, rubbish, rodents and vermin; adequate garbage receptacles; floors, walls, ceilings, stairways and railings in good repair; ventilating and supplied facilities in good repair; fire safety including working smoke alarms with batteries supplied at the start of a new tenancy; carbon monoxide alarms where a CO source is present; and working locks on entrance doors with latches on windows.

One recent addition to this list gets missed: units in buildings permitted on or after April 1, 2024 must have adequate cooling in at least one room other than a bathroom. A second requirement sits outside ORS 90.320 — under HB 3378 (2025), effective January 1, 2026, a landlord using an app-based or electronic access control system must offer at least one alternative means of access: a code, fob, card or tangible key.

The mindset error is “the tenant hasn’t complained, so we’re compliant.” Habitability is an affirmative and continuing duty. A tenant’s silence is not evidence of a maintained property; it is only evidence of silence.

Note also that Oregon has no general repair-and-deduct remedy. Deduction is available to tenants only for essential services under ORS 90.365. That is a narrower rule than many owners and tenants believe, in both directions.

8. Retaliating — or appearing to

The fact pattern is almost always innocent-looking. A tenant complains about a maintenance issue. A few weeks later the rent goes up, or services are reduced, or a termination notice arrives.

ORS 90.385 prohibits increasing rent, decreasing services, serving a termination notice, or bringing or threatening a possession action because the tenant complained to a government agency, made a good faith complaint to the landlord, organized or joined a tenants’ union, testified against the landlord, successfully defended a possession action within the previous six months, operated a qualifying family child care home, or performed any other act asserting or invoking a right secured under federal, state or local law. That last category is deliberately broad.

One clarification, because landlord-facing content often gets it wrong: Oregon’s statute contains no rebuttable presumption of retaliation. There is no window after which a rent increase or a notice is presumed retaliatory because of timing alone. (The six-month period above is part of the definition of a protected act, not a presumption.) A rent increase 30 days after a complaint is not automatically retaliatory. But you do not need a presumption to lose this argument. You need a timeline, and the other side will build one.

There are defenses — a complaint made unreasonably or to harass, a condition primarily caused by the tenant’s own lack of care, a tenant in default on rent. The remedies run up to two months’ rent or twice actual damages, whichever is greater, and retaliation is a complete defense to your possession action.

The practical protection is documentation of your own reasoning, created before the complaint, not after.

9. Mishandling assistance animals and accommodation requests

An assistance animal is not a pet. It is not in that legal category at all, which is why a no-pet policy does not resolve the request.

Under federal fair housing guidance, when a disability is not observable, you may request information reasonably supporting (a) that the person has a disability and (b) that there is a disability-related need for the animal. That is the extent of it.

You may not ask for the diagnosis; require medical records, an examination or an independent evaluation; require a notarized statement or sworn affidavit; charge a fee to process the request; or restrict the animal by breed, size or weight. Any restriction must rest on the specific animal’s actual conduct — a direct threat or a fundamental alteration — not on its breed.

Acceptable supporting evidence includes a government disability determination, receipt of disability benefits, or documentation from a licensed health care professional with personal knowledge, including legitimate telehealth documentation. A certificate purchased from a registration website is not, by itself, sufficient.

Under ORS 90.300(4), you may not charge a pet security deposit for a service or companion animal required as a reasonable accommodation. What you retain: the tenant remains liable for actual damage through the ordinary security deposit, and ORS 90.302 permits a noncompliance fee for failure to clean up service or companion animal waste on the same terms as for pets.

Bear in mind that reasonable accommodation obligations extend well beyond animals — parking, unit transfers, policy modifications, and payment date adjustments can all be accommodation requests. A blanket “our policy is our policy” answer is the wrong answer to all of them.

10. Relying on an outdated or homemade rental agreement

ORS 90.245 voids certain provisions outright. A rental agreement may not provide that the tenant waives or forgoes rights or remedies under Chapter 90; authorizes any person to confess judgment; agrees to exculpation or limitation of liability for the other party’s willful misconduct or negligence, or to indemnify them for it; or agrees to pay liquidated damages, with one narrow exception.

The penalty has a two-part trigger worth understanding: if a landlord knowingly includes such a provision and attempts to enforce it, the tenant may recover actual damages plus up to three months’ rent. Inclusion alone is not the violation. Enforcement is.

Beyond void provisions, the agreement carries required content. ORS 90.305 requires written disclosure at or before the start of the tenancy of the person authorized to manage the premises and an owner or agent authorized to receive service of process — and a manager who fails to comply becomes the agent for service by operation of law. ORS 90.228 requires flood plain disclosure. ORS 90.220 requires the smoking policy to be disclosed, provides that fixed-term tenancy terms may not be unilaterally amended, and requires you to give the tenant a copy of the agreement and all amendments.

Here is the structural point. A lease that was fully compliant in 2019 can contain three violations today. Notice periods changed in 2023. Service rules changed in 2024. Screening and habitability requirements changed in 2025 and 2026. A downloaded template is a photograph of a law that has since moved.

Quick reference: what these violations cost

Amounts reflect statutory remedies and do not include attorney fees, court costs, or the cost of a dismissed and refiled action.

The point isn’t that DIY landlords are bad landlords

Most of them aren’t. The owners we work with are careful people who have taken good care of their properties for years, sometimes decades.

The point is narrower and more useful than that:

Owning rental property is an investment. Managing rental property is a regulated business.

Those are genuinely different skill sets. A person can be an excellent real estate investor — good at acquisition, good at valuation, good at capital decisions — and still be poorly equipped to run screening compliance, fair housing practice, statutory notice procedure, deposit accounting, habitability systems, vendor compliance, and a body of law the Oregon Legislature amends every session.

That is not a character judgment. It is a description of what the job has become.

If you are going to keep self-managing, the highest-value hour you will spend this month is pulling out your rental application, your lease, and your notice templates and reading them against the ten items above. Most owners find at least one problem.

And in Part 2 of this series, we cover the other half of the picture — the ten things that are entirely legal and still cost owners enormous amounts of money. Documentation. Insurance. Contractors. Consistency. Arguably the more expensive list of the two.

Frequently asked questions

Is the 72-hour notice still valid in Oregon? Only for week-to-week tenancies. For every other tenancy — month-to-month and fixed-term leases alike — HB 2001 (effective March 29, 2023) replaced it with a 10-day notice served no earlier than the eighth day of the rental period, or a 13-day notice served no earlier than the fifth.

How long does an Oregon landlord have to return a security deposit? 31 days after the tenancy terminates and the tenant delivers possession. Both the written accounting and any refund are due within that window.

How much notice does a landlord have to give before entering in Oregon? At least 24 hours’ actual notice, with entry only at reasonable times, subject to statutory exceptions including emergencies and tenant-requested repairs. Oregon does not specify permitted clock hours.

What is the maximum rent increase in Oregon for 2026? 9.5 percent for standard residential tenancies. Manufactured dwelling parks and marinas with more than 30 spaces are capped separately at 6 percent under HB 3054 (2025). The figure for standard tenancies is republished annually by the Oregon Department of Administrative Services by September 30. No increase is permitted during the first year of a tenancy, and 90 days’ written notice is required.

Can an Oregon landlord charge a pet deposit for an emotional support animal? No. Under ORS 90.300(4), a landlord may not charge a pet security deposit for a service or companion animal a tenant with a disability requires as a reasonable accommodation. The tenant remains liable for actual damage through the ordinary security deposit.

About Centurion Real Estate Management

Centurion Real Estate Management, LLC provides full-service residential property management from Salem, Oregon, serving owners throughout the Willamette Valley including Salem, Keizer, Eugene and Lane County. We regularly assume management of occupied properties from self-managing owners and from outgoing management companies.

If you would like an honest assessment of how your rental property is currently being managed and where your exposure sits, we are glad to have that conversation.

Contact us | Our services | Read Part 2

This article is general information, not legal advice. Statutes are summarized and subject to exceptions, amendment and local variation. Consult a qualified Oregon attorney regarding your specific circumstances.