The first lease year locks the number. The second year is where you ask.
Contract rent is the full monthly rent on the Housing Assistance Payments contract, the HAP contract. It is not the housing assistance payment alone, and it is not the tenant portion. Your PHA can change it only after a written request and a rent reasonableness pass. Rent reasonableness means the PHA checks your number against unassisted rents for similar units in your market. Approval is not automatic. Silence is not a raise.
You can send the request during year one. The new rent cannot take effect until the initial lease term is over. HUD allows the ask early. It does not allow the increase itself inside that first term. Most PHAs want the request about 60 days before the date you want it to start. Your administrative plan can set a different window. Read that plan, not a screenshot from another city.
Pull three documents before you write anyone. The HAP contract, the current lease, and the payment standard schedule for your PHA. The payment standard is the subsidy cap for the voucher bedroom size, not a ceiling on what you may charge. If the new contract rent plus the utility allowance sits above that standard, the family pays the gap. The utility allowance is the PHA’s estimate of tenant-paid utilities for that unit size. Email the caseworker and ask which form they want and which inbox gets it. Do not mail a packet you invented.
Build the ask in one email. Subject line: owner rent increase request, tenant name, unit address, requested effective date. Body: current contract rent, requested contract rent, and an effective date on the first of a month after the initial term. State that you are also giving the tenant written notice under your state rules. Attach the PHA form if they have one. Attach three unassisted comps from active or recently leased rentals in the same area: same bedroom count, similar age and condition, utilities called out. Your realtor can pull those listings. You do not need to be on the porch.
Price it off the comps, not off a round number you like. If unassisted units of that size nearby are leasing in a band, ask inside that band. A request the PHA can defend moves. A request that only matches your note payment stalls. If the unit has no unassisted twin on the same lot, say so. The second test, rent versus other units you own on the premises, only bites when those units exist.
Copy the tenant on a separate notice the same week you email the PHA. Your state sets how that notice must read and how many days it needs. Look up the landlord-tenant statute for your state. Do not borrow another state’s form. The PHA notice and the tenant notice are two different letters. One missing letter is how a clean request slides a month.
Then wait on email. A caseworker will approve, counter, or ask for more comps. If they counter, reply with the comps you already have or a revised number. Do not argue the payment standard. Argue the unassisted rent. If they deny, ask what failed rent reasonableness and send a tighter set. An open inspection fail will freeze the request at a lot of PHAs. Cure that with your contractor, from photos and a punch list, before you chase the raise.
Log the approval when it lands: new contract rent, new tenant portion, new HAP, effective date. The HAP amount is whatever is left after the tenant portion. File the email. That file is what you use on the next door when a seller asks if rents actually move.
Actionable Takeaway: Email your PHA today and ask for the owner rent-increase form, the required notice days, and the inbox. Put a calendar hold 70 days before your HAP anniversary so the packet leaves your laptop on time.