How to become a landlord in Oregon

Before handing over keys, bring the property, application process, lease and management records into one workable plan. Use the detailed topics in this guide for Oregon’s specific requirements and check the rules for the property’s city before advertising (ORS 90.220(4)).

• Build the budget before choosing an asking rent. Compare similar homes by location, size, condition and included services, then list the costs you will actually pay: taxes, insurance, utilities, repairs, turnover and vacancy. Keep an allowance for unexpected work and distinguish a listing’s asking rent from collected income. Review Oregon’s rent-increase rules before assuming future increases will cover a shortfall (ORS 91.225).See Rent increases on the Oregon page
• Check local rental registration, inspections and safety requirements for the address. Finish habitability work, check required alarms and locks, arrange a repair contact and document the starting condition with dated photos. Tell the resident how to report routine maintenance and urgent problems, and retain requests, responses and completion records (ORS 90.320; ORS 90.325).See Repairs and habitability on the Oregon page
• Before charging for screening, prepare the written criteria, process, charges and required applicant disclosures described above. Review the permitted records, refund duties and any applicable local screening rules. Prepare the lease with clear rent, deposits, utilities, smoking policy, manager and notice contacts; provide required disclosures and copies. Keep the application fee record separate from the security deposit accounting (ORS 90.295; ORS 90.220(4); ORS 479.305; ORS 90.305).See Application and screening fees on the Oregon page
• Set up a ledger and a secure place for signed agreements, receipts, condition photos, notices and communications. Explain the available payment methods and record each payment consistently. Calendar rent-review dates, lease events and notice deadlines from the applicable guide sections. Organizing the workflow with software still requires you to review decisions and follow through on repairs (ORS 90.260; ORS 90.320).See Required disclosures and lease language on the Oregon page

The rental agreement must state the smoking policy: smoking prohibited on the premises, allowed on the entire premises, or allowed only in named areas. In writing at or before the start of the tenancy, disclose the manager and owner or agent with their addresses, and any utility the tenant pays that also serves you or other units. Give the tenant a copy of the agreement and every amendment (ORS 90.220(4); ORS 479.305; ORS 90.305; ORS 90.315(2); ORS 90.220(3)).

• For premises with four or fewer units, disclose in writing before signing any notice of default or trustee's sale, pending foreclosure, forfeiture or tax lien foreclosure. If the tenant moves because of an undisclosed proceeding, the tenant may recover twice the actual damages or twice the monthly rent, whichever is greater, and all prepaid rent (ORS 90.310).
• An agreement that requires renter's liability insurance must describe your own comparable insurance and your duty to show proof on request; the requirement cannot apply to low-income households or publicly subsidized units the statute describes (ORS 90.222).
• Give written testing instructions for smoke alarms and, where required, carbon monoxide alarms when the tenant first takes possession (ORS 479.270(1); ORS 90.317(2)).
• Each fee must be described in the written agreement, and a written agreement must list any deposit (ORS 90.302(1); ORS 90.300(3)).
• With five or more units in an area with multifamily recycling service, notify new tenants of the opportunity to recycle and give yearly notice (ORS 90.318).
• Charges for common-area utilities must be described separately from unit charges, with how they are assessed and split (ORS 90.315(4)).
• From January 1, 2027, smoking in the disclosure means inhaling or possessing a lit tobacco product. A landlord of a unit that shares a wall with another may change the policy to bar smoking inside units and indoor common areas on 180 days' written notice, if the unit is not an accessible unit, a posted smoking area remains on the premises, and a fixed term is not changed until it ends (Or. Laws 2026, ch. 60, § 1; Or. Laws 2026, ch. 60, § 2).

At or before the start of the tenancy, tell the tenant in writing the name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises, and of an owner or a person authorized to accept legal papers and notices for the owner. Keep the information current (ORS 90.305).

• A manager who fails to make the disclosure becomes the landlord's agent for legal papers and notices (ORS 90.305(3)).
• Keep a copy of each rental agreement at the manager's office or disclosed address, let the tenant inspect it within a reasonable time, and provide a copy for no more than 25 cents a page or the actual copying cost, whichever is less (ORS 90.305(4)).
• The duty binds any later landlord, owner or manager (ORS 90.305(2)).

If the unit is in a 100-year flood plain as mapped by the National Flood Insurance Program, the rental agreement must say so. If you leave the notice out and the tenant suffers an uninsured flood loss, the tenant may recover the actual loss or two months' rent, whichever is less (ORS 90.228).

Supply, install and maintain the required smoke alarms or detectors, with working batteries, before every new tenancy, and give the tenant written testing instructions when the tenant first takes possession. During the tenancy, your duty to maintain them arises when the tenant gives written notice of a problem other than dead batteries (ORS 479.270; ORS 90.320(1)(j)).

• Where the unit contains a carbon monoxide source, or connects by a door, duct or shaft to a room that does, you may not start a new tenancy without working carbon monoxide alarms, and you must supply batteries and written testing instructions and repair a reported deficiency (ORS 90.316; ORS 90.317).
• The tenant must test alarms at least every six months, replace batteries as needed and report problems in writing (ORS 90.325(1)(f)).
• You may charge a fee of up to $250 for removing or tampering with a working alarm, unless the State Fire Marshal assesses a civil penalty for it (ORS 90.302(2)(c)).
• Supplying and maintaining the alarms is part of keeping the unit habitable (ORS 479.270(3); ORS 90.320(1)(j)).

Provide working locks on all dwelling entrance doors and latches on all windows through which the unit can be reached, and a means of unlocking them and of reaching every common area the tenant may use, such as a code, fob, key card or key. Since June 5, 2026, at least one of those means must be something other than a tenant portal (ORS 90.320(1); Or. Laws 2026, ch. 23, § 6).

• Locks for exterior doors and window latches are essential services, so failing to supply them triggers the tenant's essential services remedies (ORS 90.100(15); ORS 90.365).
• A tenant who gives actual notice of being a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, bias crime or stalking may ask you to change the locks, with no proof needed. Change them promptly at the tenant's expense or let the tenant do it; if you do not act promptly, the tenant may change them and must give you a key (ORS 90.459).
• Chapter 90 does not require rekeying between tenants (ORS 90.320).

Oregon state law does not cap the amount of a security deposit. A written rental agreement must list any deposit the tenant paid or the landlord requires, and you must give the tenant a receipt for it. A last month's rent deposit counts as a security deposit (ORS 90.300).

• You may not charge a pet deposit for a service or companion animal that a tenant with a disability needs as a reasonable accommodation (ORS 90.300(4)).
• During the first year of the tenancy you may not change the agreement to require a new or larger deposit, except an added deposit tied to an agreed change such as allowing a pet. After the first year, give the tenant at least three months to pay a new or increased deposit (ORS 90.300(5)).
• Apply a last month's rent deposit to the last month's rent when either side gives a termination notice (other than a nonpayment notice), when you both agree to end the tenancy, or when a fixed term ends under the written agreement (ORS 90.300(9)).
• Portland limits deposits to one month's rent, or half a month on top of a last month's rent deposit, plus up to half a month more when you conditionally approve an applicant, which the tenant may pay in installments over up to three months (Portland City Code 30.01.087(A)).See Rent control and local rules on the Oregon page

Oregon state law does not require you to keep deposits in a separate account or to pay interest on them. You must hold the deposit for the tenant, and the tenant's claim to it comes ahead of your creditors, including a bankruptcy trustee (ORS 90.300(2)(a)).

• A deposit or prepaid rent in the landlord's hands cannot be garnished by the landlord's creditors (ORS 90.300(17)).
• Portland requires deposits in a separate account within two weeks, pays any interest earned to the tenant, and requires the rental agreement to name the bank (Portland City Code 30.01.087(B)).See Rent control and local rules on the Oregon page

Oregon's residential landlord and tenant law does not require a move-in inspection or a written condition checklist. Because you may deduct only for damage the tenant caused beyond ordinary wear and tear, a dated record of the home's condition at move-in is your best evidence (ORS 90.300(7); ORS 90.320).

• To deduct carpet cleaning, the carpet must have been cleaned or replaced before this tenant took possession (ORS 90.300(7)(c)(A)).
• The buildings and grounds must be safe, clean and free of debris, rodents and vermin when the rental agreement begins (ORS 90.320(1)(f)).
• Portland requires a signed condition report with photos before move-in, a seven-day window for the tenant to add to it, and a final walk-through within a week after the tenancy ends (Portland City Code 30.01.087(D)).See Rent control and local rules on the Oregon page

You may charge an applicant screening charge only to cover the cost of screening, no more than your average actual cost or the customary amount screening companies charge, and only one charge in any 60-day period no matter how many of your units the applicant applies for. Before accepting it, adopt written screening criteria and tell the applicant in writing the amount, your criteria and process, the rent and deposits, any renter's insurance requirement, the applicant's dispute and refund rights, and your nondiscrimination policy (ORS 90.295; ORS 90.297; ORS 90.303; ORS 90.304).

• Give a receipt for the charge, and promptly after a screening company or credit agency screens the applicant, give confirmation with a copy of its receipt (ORS 90.295(1)(a)).
• Refund the charge within 30 days if you fill the unit before screening the applicant, or if the applicant withdraws in writing before you screen. Do not take a charge when you know no unit is or soon will be available. A violation costs twice the charge plus $250 (ORS 90.295(4); ORS 90.295(5); ORS 90.295(6)).
• A deposit to hold a unit may be taken only after you approve the applicant and before the rental agreement is signed, with a written statement of the terms. If the agreement is not signed because of your failure or because of habitability defects, return it within five business days (ORS 90.297).
• When evaluating an applicant you may not consider an eviction case that was dismissed or won by the applicant, or a judgment against the applicant entered five or more years earlier; criminal history is limited to convictions and certain pending charges in listed categories, and marijuana possession convictions and medical marijuana status are off limits (ORS 90.303).
• If you deny an application after screening, give a written statement of reasons within 14 days. Before denying for criminal history, let the applicant submit supplemental evidence and make an individualized assessment. A violation costs $100. The statement must identify reporting companies not already disclosed, explain why any supplemental evidence considered did not overcome the reasons for rejection, and describe any available appeal right. The state statement does not replace applicable federal consumer-report notices (ORS 90.304).
• You may not ask about immigration or citizenship status, and if you verify identity you must accept the documents the statute lists, including expired government identification (ORS 90.306; ORS 90.303(6)).
• Since June 5, 2026, a landlord who takes applications through a tenant portal must also offer a printable application, process applications made outside the portal, and not force an applicant who asks in writing to use the portal alone to verify identity or sign documents (Or. Laws 2026, ch. 23, § 2).
• Through January 1, 2028, the current version of ORS 90.303 also excludes possession judgments on claims arising April 1, 2020 through February 28, 2022, and unpaid rent accrued during that period, including collection referrals and judgments. Check the accrual or claim date rather than treating every collection entry alike. The Legislature publishes a different version operative January 2, 2028; do not apply that future version early (ORS 90.303(1), (5) and operative-date note).
• For a covered Portland application, first identify whether the landlord uses low-barrier criteria or more restrictive criteria. The low-barrier criminal criteria include three-year misdemeanor and seven-year felony sentencing windows and exclude the listed juvenile, invalidated and other records. These are not universal permission to reject everything within those windows. More restrictive criteria require the city individual assessment before denial on any proposed basis, alongside the state protections. Check the section G exemptions and any conflicting funding requirements for the actual tenancy (Portland City Code 30.01.086(D)-(G)).
• Portland requires a 30-day opportunity to appeal a covered application denial and to correct, refute or explain negative information. If the appeal is approved, the city rule provides three months of prequalification for the landlord's Portland properties and a screening-fee waiver for that period, subject to the permitted self-certification that conditions have not materially changed. Keep the appeal route and decision record separate from a reporting company's dispute process (Portland City Code 30.01.086(D)(8)).
• Licensed property managers and managing principal brokers have a separate professional-record duty under ORS 696.280. Covered rental-management records must be kept for at least six years after expiration, replacement, termination or otherwise ceasing to be in effect; other record categories have different starting dates. Identify the applicable record category and licensing rules. This provision does not by itself establish a six-year rule for every private owner's rejected application (ORS 696.280(1), (4)).