Yes, landlords in North Carolina can raise rent on a month-to-month tenant, since there's no statewide rent control in North Carolina limiting how much or how often rent can be increased. The main legal requirement is providing proper written notice before the increase takes effect — North Carolina generally requires at least seven days' notice for a month-to-month tenancy, though it's common and often advisable to provide more notice than the legal minimum, both as good practice and to give tenants reasonable time to plan. The notice should be clear and in writing, specifying the new rent amount and the effective date, which should align with the start of a new rental period under the month-to-month agreement. Verbal notice alone isn't sufficient and can create disputes about whether proper notice was actually given if the increase is later challenged. While there's no legal cap on how much rent can be increased in North Carolina, landlords should be cautious about dramatic increases, both from a practical retention standpoint (a large increase may simply prompt the tenant to move rather than pay it) and to ensure the increase isn't structured or timed in a way that could be seen as retaliatory — for example, immediately after a tenant makes a legitimate complaint or requests a repair, which can raise legal concerns under retaliation protections even without a specific rent control law being violated. For landlords managing multiple month-to-month tenants, it's worth having a consistent approach to timing and amount of rent increases across similar units, both for fair housing consistency and to maintain a coherent overall rental strategy rather than making ad hoc decisions unit by unit that could appear inconsistent or arbitrary if ever scrutinized.