Rent Increase for Expired Contracts or Those Reaching 12 Months: Rules of Law 820 in Colombia

Every start of the year, the same misunderstanding repeats across cities and municipalities in Colombia: owners send informal messages requesting an immediate increase in rent, and tenants—confused—agree to pay more without checking their contract dates. Popular belief assumes that with the arrival of January 1st, the rent automatically goes up for everyone. However, Colombian legislation establishes a completely different principle based on the individual term of each agreement.

The myth of the January increase: the strict 12-month continuous rule

The legal framework governing urban housing leases in the country is Law 820 of 2003. Its Article 20 sets a decisive temporal condition: the landlord may only increase the rental value every twelve months of contract execution at the same price.

This means that if you signed a lease agreement that started on September 1st, the rent must remain exactly the same until August 31st of the following year. The owner does not have the legal authority to demand an adjustment in January with the argument that the calendar year has changed or that inflation has risen. Attempting to apply an increase before completing the agreed-upon year openly violates the tenant's rights.

This frequency applies to both the initial contract and each of its renewals. If the rent has already been adjusted on a specific date, that new value is legally frozen for another twelve continuous months before it can be modified again.

Legal caps: the CPI limit and the commercial value lock

When a contract finally completes its twelve continuous months at the same rent, the landlord acquires the right to apply an adjustment, but this is not left to their own discretion. Law 820 imposes two insurmountable limits that protect the economic balance of the agreement:

• Accumulated CPI cap: The increase cannot exceed 100% of the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the calendar year immediately preceding the year in which the adjustment is made, as officially certified by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE).
• Commercial value cap (Article 18): The resulting monthly rent may never exceed 1% of the commercial value of the property or the part of it that is being leased. At the same time, the rule dictates that the commercial estimate for these purposes cannot exceed twice the current cadastral appraisal of the property.

Any contractual agreement that attempts to evade these caps—such as setting automatic increases based on minimum wages or arbitrary fixed percentages—is considered void by operation of law, as is analyzed in depth when reviewing abusive clauses in lease contracts in Colombia.

Formal notification requirements: the unenforceability of the increase

Having the right to an increase does not mean collecting it by surprise. Article 20 of Law 820 requires the landlord to communicate to the tenant both the specific amount of the increase and the exact date from which it will take effect.

Notification must be carried out compulsorily through the authorized postal service or through the personal notification mechanism that the parties have expressly and mutually stipulated in the text of the contract, a fundamental provision that is always worth reviewing within a well-structured urban housing lease contract template.

If the owner does not perform this prior formal notification, the legal consequence is categorical: the increase is unenforceable against the tenant. In practical terms, this means the tenant is not legally obligated to pay a single additional peso and fully complies with their obligation by depositing the amount they were habitually paying.

Retroactive and late charges: what happens if the landlord forgets to notify on time?

It is very common for an owner or administrator to miss the twelve-month expiration date and remember to apply the adjustment several months later (for example, in the fourteenth or fifteenth month). In this scenario, complex discussions often arise when attempts are made to collect the accumulated value of the months that passed without an increase.

The jurisprudence and the doctrine of Fedelonjas have been uniform in interpreting the legal regime: rent increases are not retroactive. If the landlord did not notify the adjustment on the date the annual term was completed, they lose the opportunity to collect the increase corresponding to the past months in which they accepted payment without raising an issue.

The adjustment will only begin to have economic effects in the future, starting from the period following the date on which valid notification is served. If a tenant is pressured to pay non-notified retroactive amounts, they have the right to reject that extraordinary charge.

What to do in case of improper charges or overcharging

The final paragraph of Article 20 of Law 820 contains an explicit lifebuoy for the tenant: the effective payment of a rent adjusted in excess or without the legal formalities does not deprive the tenant of the right to demand the reimbursement of the sums improperly collected.

That pressure is also seen in the market: according to active listings on Colombia Move (September 2026), there are 140 active housing listings, 46 of them apartments (26 for rent), and that section has accumulated more than 27,500 views.

If you paid an increase higher than the certified CPI, an increase before completing twelve months, or an unjustified retroactive charge, you can proceed through the following channels:

1. Direct written claim: Send a formal communication requesting the recalculation of the rent and the compensation or refund of the credit balance generated by the payment of what was not due.
2. Conciliation hearing: Go to an authorized conciliation center, notary, or municipal ombudsman's office (personería) to settle the economic dispute and establish a payment agreement or account offsetting.
3. Administrative complaint: In the case of landlords professionally dedicated to real estate activity or property managers who engage in practices contrary to the regulations, an administrative complaint can be filed with the department in charge of housing inspection, surveillance, and control of the local mayor's office (or its district equivalent).

Knowing these limits allows for maintaining healthy and predictable rental relationships, free from unnecessary disputes at the end of each contractual period.

Frequently asked questions

❓ Can the landlord raise the rent in January if my contract started in September?

No, the landlord cannot raise the value in January. In accordance with Article 20 of Law 820 of 2003, currently in force, the adjustment of urban housing rent only proceeds when twelve continuous months of contractual execution are completed, so they must wait until September to apply any increase.

❓ What happens if the owner forgot to raise the rent and charges me 3 months retroactively?

The owner cannot demand retroactive payment for previous months. The adjustment applies exclusively to the future from the moment a valid formal notification is made to the tenant, according to Article 20 of Law 820 of 2003, currently in force; periods charged and paid at the previous rate are considered fully settled.

❓ Is a rent increase notification sent via WhatsApp or email valid?

No, WhatsApp or email alone are not enough. They are only binding if the written contract expressly authorized those channels; otherwise, Law 820 of 2003, currently in force, requires authorized postal service.

❓ Can they raise the rent above the CPI if the apartment was remodeled?

Not during the term of the same contract. The legal cap of 100% of the CPI accrued the previous year applies to any ongoing urban housing contract, according to Article 20 of Law 820 of 2003, currently in force; remodeling works only allow for free renegotiation of the value if the parties decide to terminate the current agreement and sign a new one.

❓ What can I do if I already paid an illegal increase higher than authorized?

You retain the right to request the reimbursement or compensation of the sums paid in excess. Article 20 of Law 820 of 2003, currently in force, expressly establishes that having paid an improper rent does not validate the abusive charge nor does it extinguish the possibility of claiming a refund of the money.

❓ Do these rent increase rules also apply to commercial premises or offices?

They do not apply to properties for commercial use. Commercial spaces, warehouses, and offices are governed by commercial regulations and by the free agreement reached between landlord and tenant in the contract, without being subject to the CPI cap or the strict urban housing rule of Law 820 of 2003, currently in force.