# Raising the Rent — Rules and Notice Template

> How long the notice period is, how often you may increase the rent, and when you must provide a calculation. A ready notice template and why none of it applies to an occasional lease.

Published: 2026-09-01
Updated: 2026-09-07
Source: https://smartrentier.com/blog/raising-the-rent-rules-and-notice-template
Tags: Poradniki, Prawo

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**In short:** **raising the rent** on a residential lease is not a unilateral decision you can simply announce by text message. Under a standard tenancy, a statutory procedure applies: written notice terminating the current rent level, a three-month notice period, and a ban on raising the rent more often than every 6 months. Above the threshold of 3% of the property's replacement value, a duty to justify the increase kicks in. Below you will find each condition with its legal basis, a ready-made notice template, and an explanation of why none of this applies to an occasional lease.

## By how much and how often can you raise the rent?

The rules for residential premises come from the Act of 21 June 2001 on the Protection of Tenants' Rights (consolidated text: Dz.U. 2023 item 725). In brief:

- **No more often than every 6 months** — the period runs from the day the previous increase took effect (Art. 9(1b)).
- **No amount cap up to 3% of the replacement value** of the property per year — only above that level does an increase require justification (Art. 8a(4)).
- **An increase up to the rate of inflation is deemed justified by statute** — this means the average annual consumer price index for the previous year, announced by the President of Statistics Poland in the "Monitor Polski" official journal (Art. 8a(4e)).

Before you start the procedure, it is worth checking whether the new figure matches the market at all — I explain how to calculate it in the guide on [how to set the rent](https://smartrentier.com/blog/how-to-set-rental-price).

## Notice of the new rent — form and deadline

An increase is introduced by **giving notice terminating the current rent level**, no later than at the end of a calendar month (Art. 8a(1)). The notice period is **3 months** unless the parties agreed a longer one in the lease (Art. 8a(2)). The notice must be in writing **on pain of nullity** (Art. 8a(3)).

What that means on a calendar: if you serve the notice in August, the old rate applies until 30 November and the new rent starts on 1 December. An e-mail or a text message does not satisfy the written-form requirement — the safest options are delivery against a receipt or a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

Note one distinction: notice terminating the _rent level_ is not the same as notice terminating the _lease_. It does not end the tenancy and does not require any of the statutory grounds — it only changes the rate.

## The 3% replacement value threshold and the duty to provide a calculation

If, after the increase, the annual rent exceeds 3% of the property's replacement value (or the increase starts from an already higher level), it may only take place in justified cases — and the Act defines them precisely (Art. 8a(4) and (4a)–(4b)): covering the costs of maintaining the property, return on capital, and a fair profit. The return on capital is capped: up to **1.5% per year** of the outlay on building or buying the property and up to **10% per year** of the outlay on permanent improvements that increase its utility value — until fully recovered.

The replacement value itself is the product of the usable floor area and the conversion index of the cost of rebuilding 1 m² (Art. 9(8)). The index is set every six months by the voivode and published by official notice in the voivodeship official journal (Art. 2(1)(12)) — which is why the threshold differs between regions and changes twice a year.

There is also a duty that is easy to forget: **at the tenant's written request the landlord has 14 days** to present, in writing, the reason for the increase and its calculation — on pain of the increase being invalid (Art. 8a(4)). The provision sits in the paragraph on increases above 3% of the replacement value, but since the sanction is invalidity, in practice it is safer to answer every written request within the deadline.

## What the tenant can do after receiving the notice

The tenant has **2 months** from the notice and three possible responses (Art. 8a(5) and (6a)):

1. **Accept the increase** — the new rate then applies from the end of the notice period.
2. **Refuse in writing** — this dissolves the lease at the end of the notice period; until that day the tenant pays the previous rent.
3. **Challenge the increase in court** — by suing for a ruling that it is unjustified or justified at a different amount. Until the judgment becomes final the tenant pays the previous rate, and **the burden of proving that the increase is justified lies with the landlord**. If the court upholds the increase, the tenant pays the difference for the period from the end of the notice period (Art. 8a(6b)).

The practical takeaway: documenting the costs of maintaining the property is not paperwork for its own sake — it is evidence.

## Occasional lease — these limits do not apply

This is the most frequently overlooked difference between the two forms of tenancy. As a rule, the Tenant Protection Act **does not apply** to an occasional lease, apart from a closed list of exceptions (Art. 19e) — and neither Art. 8a nor Art. 9(1b) is on that list. Instead, a short provision applies: "The owner may increase the rent only in accordance with the terms set out in the agreement" (Art. 19c(2)).

The consequence is the opposite of what most people expect. Under an occasional lease there is **no three-month notice period and no six-month cooling-off rule — but there is also no statutory increase**. If the agreement contains no rent-change mechanism, there is nothing to apply, and the rate can only be changed by agreement of both parties, that is by a [lease amendment](https://smartrentier.com/blog/lease-amendment-when-you-need-one-and-how-to-draft-it).

One more condition is easy to overlook: the exclusion of the Act works only if the owner reported the agreement to the head of the tax office within 14 days of the start of the tenancy (Art. 19e in conjunction with Art. 19b(1)). Without that report the agreement operates like a standard tenancy — including the whole rent-increase regime of Art. 8a. The differences between the two forms are set out in the article [occasional lease versus standard lease](https://smartrentier.com/blog/occasional-lease-vs-standard-lease-comparison).

## An increase is not the same as indexation

Indexation is a **contractual** clause: the rent changes automatically by the CPI because the lease says so. An increase under Art. 8a is a **statutory** procedure you use when there is no such clause, or when you want to go above the index. For residential premises the two have to be reconciled: even with a clause in place, it is safer to keep the written form and the notice period. The mechanics of the clause itself, a sample wording and the calculation are covered in the article on [how the CPI index works in rent indexation](https://smartrentier.com/blog/rent-indexation-cpi-gus), while the record-keeping side is described under [rent indexation](https://smartrentier.com/funkcjonalnosci/waloryzacja-czynszu).

## Template: notice of the new rent level

> \[Place\], \[date\]
> 
> \[Landlord's name\]  
> \[Landlord's address\]
> 
> \[Tenant's name\]  
> \[Tenant's address\]
> 
> **Notice terminating the current rent level**
> 
> Pursuant to Art. 8a of the Act of 21 June 2001 on the Protection of Tenants' Rights, the Municipal Housing Stock and on Amendments to the Civil Code, I hereby give notice terminating the current rent for the residential property located at \[address of the property\], leased under the lease agreement of \[date of the agreement\], subject to a three-month notice period.
> 
> Current rent: \[amount\] PLN per month.  
> New rent: \[amount\] PLN per month.  
> The new rate applies from \[first day of the month following the end of the notice period\].
> 
> All other provisions of the lease remain unchanged. Charges independent of the landlord are settled separately, according to the suppliers' actual costs.
> 
> \[landlord's signature\]

This is a working draft — count the start date of the new rate from the end of the calendar month in which the notice was delivered. Keep proof of delivery; in a dispute it is for you to show that the tenant received the letter and when.

## The most common mistakes

- announcing the increase by text, e-mail or verbally — without written form the notice is void,
- too short a notice period (for example one month) under a standard residential tenancy,
- a second increase before 6 months have passed since the previous one took effect,
- ignoring a written request for the calculation — the sanction is invalidity of the increase,
- lumping rising utility charges into the "rent increase", when Art. 8a does not apply to them at all (Art. 8a(8)); changing those charges requires a written statement of charges together with the reasons (Art. 9(2)).

_Based on the Act of 21 June 2001 on the Protection of Tenants' Rights, the Municipal Housing Stock and on Amendments to the Civil Code (consolidated text: Dz.U. 2023 item 725) and the Civil Code. This article is informational and does not replace legal advice._

## FAQ

### Can I raise the rent under a fixed-term lease?

The Act does not distinguish between lease types here, and the prevailing view in legal writing is that notice terminating the rent level is available for fixed-term agreements too — because it does not end the tenancy, it only changes the rate. To avoid any dispute, the safest course is to write the rent-change mechanism into the agreement. Under an occasional lease a contractual clause is in fact the only basis for an increase (Art. 19c(2)).

### How much can I raise the rent without justification?

As long as the annual rent after the increase does not exceed 3% of the property's replacement value, the Act requires no reasons. Above that threshold the increase must fall within the cases listed in Art. 8a(4a)–(4b) or stay within the average annual inflation rate for the previous year (Art. 8a(4e)).

### What if the tenant does not agree to the increase?

They have two months to refuse in writing — the lease then dissolves at the end of the notice period — or to sue for a ruling that the increase is unjustified. Until the case is decided they pay the previous rate, and it is the landlord who must prove the increase is justified (Art. 8a(5) and (6a)).

### Does a rent increase require an amendment to the lease?

Under a standard tenancy, no — unilateral notice terminating the rent level under Art. 8a is enough. An amendment is needed when you change the rate by mutual agreement, or when the agreement (typically an occasional lease) contains no increase mechanism.

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PL: https://smartrentier.com/blog/podwyzka-czynszu-najmu-zasady-i-wzor.md