Joe DownsCEO & Co-Founder, Belrose Storage Group. Founder, Storage Moguls.

Exact language for framing a rate increase as ‘market'

21 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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A landlord gets a script to announce rent increases: cite market rates, use dollar amounts not percentages, and name an effective date. The framing makes the increase feel inevitable and harder to challenge.

Chapters

Provide some brief context for the change. Something like you don't owe a lengthy or you don't owe a lengthy explanation, but a sentence helps. Something like this adjustment aligns our rates with the current market for covered storage in this area. That sentence frames the increase as market-driven and not as being arbitrary. It's harder to argue with that than just silence. Use dollar framing as well, not percentage. Tell tenants their new monthly rate, not the percentage increase. So an example is, your rate will be 195 effective October 1st, is more digestible than rates are increasing 8.3%.