{ "_meta": { "dataset": "Landlord Atlas 50-State Landlord-Tenant Law Dataset", "dataset_version": "1.28.1", "published_at": "2026-09-05T13:40:00Z", "license": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/license/", "attribution": "Landlord Atlas (https://landlordatlas.com) — cite by name, link the relevant page, and carry the record's verification date.", "disclaimer": "Landlord Atlas is not a law firm. This dataset provides general information about state landlord-tenant statutes for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Use of this data does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws change: rely on the citations and verification dates carried in each record, and confirm against the cited statute before acting.", "schema": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/schema.json", "changelog": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/changelog.json", "version_manifest": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/version.json", "contact": "contact@landlordatlas.com", "state": "California", "state_code": "CA", "canonical_page": "https://landlordatlas.com/laws/california/", "per_state_url": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/states/ca.json" }, "record": { "state": "California", "state_code": "CA", "last_verified": "2026-07-07", "verified_by_method": "Web verification against leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (Civ. Code 1950.5, 827; AB 12 bill text) with corroborating county/city government sources (SF.gov, LA County DCBA, San Mateo County) for AB 1482 and Civ. Code 1954 operation.", "pending_legislation": [], "security_deposits": { "max_deposit": { "months_rent": 1, "conditions": "The limit is the same whether the unit is furnished or not, and it aggregates every security-functioning charge. A small-landlord exception allows up to two months.\n\nAB 12 sets the cap for leases from July 1, 2024. Small-landlord exception: up to two months if the landlord is a natural person (or all-natural-person LLC) owning no more than two rental properties totaling no more than four units — the exception does not apply to service-member tenants. The charges that aggregate into the cap include pet deposits, prepaid last month's rent, and refundable fees." }, "return_deadline_days": 21, "return_deadline_conditions": "The clock runs in calendar days from the day the tenant vacates. The landlord must deliver an itemized statement of deductions together with any refund due.\n\nIf repairs cannot be completed in 21 days, a good-faith estimate is required within the window, with the final statement and receipts within 14 days of completion.", "itemization_required": true, "itemization_rules": "Itemized statement of deductions with copies of receipts/invoices for repairs and cleaning (documentation requirement subject to the statutory small-deduction and waiver provisions). Tenant has a right to request an initial pre-move-out inspection with an itemized list of fixable issues.", "separate_account_required": false, "interest_required": false, "interest_rules": "No California statute requires interest on a residential security deposit, but local law can. Some rent-control jurisdictions require interest by ordinance.\n\nCities with such an ordinance include San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Berkeley.", "pet_deposit_rules": "No separate category; refundable pet deposits count fully toward the one-month cap. No deposits may be charged for service/assistance animals.", "nonrefundable_fees_allowed": false, "penalty_for_violation": "A landlord who retains or demands a deposit in bad faith owes statutory damages of up to twice the deposit amount, in addition to actual damages (Civ. Code 1950.5(l)).\n\nThe landlord bears the burden of proving that the deductions were reasonable.", "tenant_forwarding_address_duty": null, "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1950.5&lawCode=CIV", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c), (g), (l), (m), (n)" }, { "statute": "AB 12 (2023), Stats. 2023", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB12", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "California caps security deposits at one month's rent for leases signed on or after July 1, 2024, whether the unit is furnished or not — with a narrow small-landlord exception allowing two months. Landlords have 21 days after move-out to return the deposit with an itemized statement and repair receipts, leases may not label any deposit 'nonrefundable,' and bad-faith withholding can cost the landlord up to twice the deposit in statutory damages on top of the refund. Recent amendments (AB 2801) also require photo documentation of claimed damage at move-out.", "notes": [ { "label": "The one-month cap does not rewrite old leases", "text": "Leases signed before July 1, 2024 retain their original deposit amounts until renewal or material modification." }, { "label": "Photo-documentation rules are phasing in", "text": "AB 2801 (2024) added photographic-documentation requirements that phase in during 2025." } ] }, "rent_increase_notice": { "notice_days_month_to_month": 30, "notice_varies_by_increase_size": "The notice period depends on the size of the increase. An increase that, combined with all increases in the prior 12 months, totals 10% or less takes 30 days' written notice; a cumulative 12-month increase above 10% takes 90 days' written notice.\n\nAdd 5 calendar days if the notice is served by mail (CCP § 1013).", "fixed_term_rules": "Rent may not be increased during a fixed term unless the lease provides for it. The §827 notice mechanics govern month-to-month changes.", "rent_control_state": true, "rent_control_details": "California has a statewide rent cap. The Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) limits annual increases on covered units to the lesser of 5% plus regional CPI or 10%, with at most two increases per 12 months. Many units are exempt, and stricter local rent-control ordinances control where they exist.\n\nThe cap is codified at Civ. Code § 1947.12. It is measured against the lowest rent in the prior 12 months and is in effect through 2030.\n\nExempt: housing with a certificate of occupancy within 15 years (a rolling window); most single-family homes and condos not owned by corporations or REITs, where the exemption requires the statutory written disclosure to the tenant; and owner-occupied duplexes.", "local_control_preempted": false, "rent_regulation_preemption": { "topic_verified": "2026-08-12", "posture": "not_preempted", "posture_qualifier": "statewide_rent_cap", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1954.52 (Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1954.52&lawCode=CIV", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1954.53", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1954.53&lawCode=CIV", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.12 (AB 1482 statewide cap)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1947.12&lawCode=CIV", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1)" } ], "summary_plain": "California cities and counties may adopt rent control, and many have, but state law limits how far local rules can reach — the Costa-Hawkins Act exempts newer buildings and single-family homes and lets landlords reset rent between tenancies, while a separate statewide cap of 5% plus inflation (max 10%) covers most other rentals through 2029 (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1954.50–1954.535, 1947.12)." }, "frequency_limits": "No more than two increases in any 12-month period on AB 1482-covered units.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 827", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=827&lawCode=CIV", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.12 (AB 1482)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1947.12&lawCode=CIV", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "California requires 30 days' written notice for a rent increase of 10% or less over any 12-month window, and 90 days' notice for anything larger — plus five extra days when the notice is mailed. Separately, the statewide Tenant Protection Act caps annual increases on covered units at 5% plus local CPI or 10%, whichever is lower, with at most two increases per year. Many single-family homes and newer buildings are exempt from the cap (but never from the notice rules), and cities with stricter local rent control keep their own limits.", "notes": [ { "label": "Two independent legal layers", "text": "§827 notice mechanics apply to ALL increases; the AB 1482 caps apply only to covered units." }, { "label": "A missed disclosure forfeits the exemption", "text": "Exemption from the AB 1482 cap requires serving the statutory disclosure language on the tenant — skip the disclosure and the exemption is lost." } ] }, "late_fees": { "statutory_cap": null, "grace_period_days": null, "must_be_in_lease": true, "daily_fees_allowed": "California law does not specifically authorize daily late fees. Any fee structure must survive the liquidated-damages test.", "reasonableness_standard": "California sets no statutory cap and no mandated grace period. A late fee is enforceable only as valid liquidated damages under Civ. Code § 1671, meaning a reasonable estimate of actual damages from late payment rather than a penalty.\n\nLocal ordinances may impose additional limits.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1671", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1671&lawCode=CIV", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" } ], "summary_plain": "California has no statutory dollar cap or mandatory grace period for residential late fees, but that does not make them a free-for-all: a late fee must be in the lease and is enforceable only as 'liquidated damages' — a genuine pre-estimate of what the late payment actually costs the landlord. Fees that function as penalties are void, and courts have struck down charges in the range of 5-6% of rent where unjustified.", "notes": [ { "label": "An empty cap means no statute — not no limit", "text": "The cap and grace-period answers come up empty because no statute sets them, not because anything goes." }, { "label": "§1671(d) presumes the clause void", "text": "Residential late-fee clauses are presumed void unless damages are impracticable to fix, placing the justification burden on the landlord." } ] }, "entry_notice": { "notice_hours": 24, "notice_standard": "The standard is reasonable written notice, and 24 hours is presumed reasonable. The notice must state the date, the approximate time, and the purpose of the entry.\n\nEntry must be during normal business hours unless the tenant agrees otherwise. Six days' mailed notice is presumed reasonable when notice is mailed.", "permitted_reasons": "A landlord may enter for an emergency, for agreed or necessary repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements, to show the unit, for a pre-move-out inspection, under a court order, or after abandonment or surrender.\n\nThe showing category covers showings to prospective tenants, buyers, lenders, or contractors.", "emergency_exception": true, "time_of_day_restrictions": "Entry must be during normal business hours unless the tenant consents at the time of entry or otherwise agrees.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1954", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1954&lawCode=CIV", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "California landlords must give reasonable written notice before entering an occupied unit — 24 hours is presumed reasonable — stating the date, approximate time, and purpose, and entry must happen during normal business hours unless the tenant agrees otherwise. Entry without notice is allowed only in emergencies, with the tenant's at-the-door consent, or after abandonment.", "notes": null }, "eviction_process": { "topic_verified": "2026-07-21", "notice_nonpayment_days": 3, "notice_nonpayment_rules": "Those days are business days: the statute excludes Saturdays, Sundays, and other judicial holidays. The written notice must demand the rent and state the amount due plus payment and contact details for the landlord or designated recipient. Paying within the notice period preserves the tenancy.\n\nThe requirement is CCP 1161(2), which calls for written 'three days' notice, excluding Saturdays and Sundays and other judicial holidays' demanding the rent. The weekend/holiday exclusion sits in the statute text itself (AB 2343, 2019). Under the CCP 12/12a general counting rule the service day is excluded and a last day landing on a holiday rolls forward.\n\nService is under CCP 1162(a): personal delivery; if the tenant is absent, substituted service on a person of suitable age at residence or work PLUS mailing; failing both, post-and-mail.\n\nCure ladder: paying the demanded rent within the notice period preserves the tenancy as of right; once the notice expires the statutory cure right ends. Post-filing and post-judgment, reinstatement runs through discretionary relief from forfeiture (CCP 1179) — available on verified petition 'at any time prior to restoration of the premises to the landlord,' conditioned on full payment of rent due — plus CCP 1174(c): where the lease has not by its terms expired and the notice did not declare a forfeiture, the court MAY (and for a written lease of more than one year containing no forfeiture clause SHALL) order that no writ issue until 5 days after entry of judgment, during which the tenant or any interested party may pay the rent, interest, damages, and costs into court, satisfying the judgment and restoring the tenancy.\n\nA separate defense runs alongside that ladder until January 20, 2029. Under Civil Code section 1946.3, the Social Security Tenant Protection Act of 2025 (in force January 1, 2026), a tenant may assert Social Security hardship as an affirmative defense in an unlawful detainer based on nonpayment. The tenant must show the court that Social Security benefits the household typically receives were terminated, delayed, or reduced through no fault of the tenant, and that the loss prevented payment of the rent the landlord sued on. On that showing the court stays the case until the earlier of 14 days after the benefits are restored or six months after the stay issues. The rent is still owed: within 14 days of restoration the tenant must pay all past due rent or agree to a payment plan with the owner, and a tenant who does is restored to the tenancy, with the case dismissed with prejudice or the judgment set aside. The defense reaches nonpayment cases only, and it covers a dwelling in a mobilehome park as well as a conventional unit.", "notice_lease_violation_days": 3, "notice_lease_violation_rules": "Those days are business days here too, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and other judicial holidays. The written notice must require the tenant to perform the breached condition or covenant or deliver possession, and performance within the period cures the breach.\n\nThe requirement is CCP 1161(3). A second layer applies to tenancies covered by the Tenant Protection Act (Civ. Code 1946.2 — generally 12+ months' continuous lawful occupancy in non-exempt housing): before serving a termination notice for a curable just-cause violation, the owner 'shall first give notice of the violation to the tenant with an opportunity to cure the violation pursuant to paragraph (3) of Section 1161' — a cure-first prerequisite many notices flunk.\n\nBreaches falling under 1161(4) are not curable.", "unconditional_quit_grounds": "CCP 1161(4): assigning or subletting or committing waste contrary to the conditions or covenants of the lease, maintaining/committing/permitting a nuisance upon the premises, or using the premises for an unlawful purpose 'terminates the lease' and entitles the landlord to restitution 'upon service of three days' notice to quit' — no cure right. This paragraph LACKS the weekend/holiday exclusion of paragraphs (2)-(3), so its three days are calendar days under CCP 12/12a (service day excluded; a last day on a holiday extends to the next non-holiday). Specified offenses (Civ. Code 3482.8 public nuisances, 3485(c) and 3486(c) offenses) are statutorily deemed nuisances committed on the premises.", "court_and_action": "California's eviction is an 'unlawful detainer' action (CCP 1161 et seq.), a summary proceeding heard in superior court — ordinarily as a limited civil case where the demand is $35,000 or less. The summons follows the general civil form (CCP 412.20) but with the shortened response clock of CCP 1167 in place of the usual 30 days.", "filing_to_hearing": "The tenant's response is due within 10 days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and other judicial holidays, after service of the complaint (CCP 1167(a) — extended from 5 days by AB 2347, operative 2025-01-01), plus an additional 5 court days if service was completed by mail or through the Secretary of State's address confidentiality program (1167(b)). If no response is filed, the clerk — on the plaintiff's written application and proof of service — SHALL enter default and judgment for restitution of the premises, issuing a writ of execution immediately on request (CCP 1169), with no hearing. If the tenant answers, trial must be held no later than the 20th day after either party requests trial setting (CCP 1170.5(a)); extension beyond party agreement requires a hearing with findings and may be conditioned on the tenant paying accruing rental value into court, with trial within 15 days of any missed payment.", "writ_and_lockout": "The possession judgment is enforced by a 'writ of possession of real property' (CCP 715.010, issued pursuant to 712.010). There is no general waiting period between judgment and issuance — on a default the clerk issues it with the judgment (CCP 1169); the only statutory delay is the CCP 1174(c) five-day pay-into-court window (discretionary where the lease is unexpired and no forfeiture was declared; mandatory for a written lease over one year with no forfeiture clause). The sheriff or marshal serves or posts the writ, and if the property 'is not vacated within five days from the date of service of a copy of the writ on the occupant' (or, where posted, five days from service on the judgment debtor), the levying officer removes the occupants and places the landlord in possession (715.010(b)(2)). Personal property left behind (except a mobilehome) is stored and disposed of under CCP 1174 unless the owner pays reasonable storage costs and reclaims it within 15 days of the landlord taking possession (715.010(b)(3)). Relief from forfeiture (CCP 1179) remains available until possession is actually restored.", "appeal_window_days": 30, "timeline_uncontested": "Roughly 25–30 calendar days from notice to lockout in an uncontested nonpayment case, about four weeks. That is a floor built from the statutory minimums, not a promise. Sheriff scheduling in large counties routinely adds one to several more weeks on top.\n\nThe steps behind that span: a 3-business-day pay-or-quit notice (≈3–5 calendar days), then the complaint is filed and the summons served, then a 10-court-day response window (≈14 calendar days), then a clerk-entered default judgment and writ of possession on written application (CCP 1169), then the sheriff serves the writ, then a 5-day vacate period, then lockout.\n\nA contested case adds the 20-day trial-setting window and trial; appeal (30 days, no automatic stay) extends further.", "self_help_prohibited": true, "self_help_rules": "Locking a tenant out, cutting utilities, or hauling out their belongings is illegal in California. It costs the landlord actual damages PLUS up to $100 for each day or part of a day of violation, with a $250 minimum per separate cause of action, and the tenant's attorney's fees.\n\nThe rule is Civ. Code 789.3. It reaches a landlord who, with intent to terminate the occupancy, willfully interrupts or terminates utility service (water, heat, electricity, gas, telephone, and similar), changes locks or uses bootlocks, removes exterior doors or windows, or removes the tenant's property without written consent. The prevailing tenant recovers reasonable attorney's fees, and injunctive relief is available against ongoing violations.\n\nThe only lawful route to possession is the unlawful detainer judgment enforced by the levying officer under the writ of possession.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1161", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1161", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(2)-(4)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1162", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1162", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1167", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1167", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1169", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1169", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1170.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1170.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1174", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1174", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1176", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1176", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1179", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1179", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 715.010", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=715.010", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(2)-(3)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 789.3", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=789.3", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.2", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1946.2", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)-(c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.822", "url": "https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/eight/rule8_822", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.3 (Social Security Tenant Protection Act of 2025; Stats. 2025, ch. 337 (AB 246), effective January 1, 2026, repealed January 20, 2029)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1946.3", "official": true, "pinpoint": "§ 1946.3(a)-(j)" } ], "summary_plain": "California evictions run through an 'unlawful detainer' lawsuit, and the famous three-day notices now count business days: the pay-or-quit and cure-or-quit notices exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and judicial holidays, while the no-cure three-day quit notice for waste, nuisance, unlawful use, or prohibited subletting still runs in calendar days. A tenant who pays everything demanded within the notice period keeps the tenancy as of right; after that, saving it takes the court's discretionary relief from forfeiture, which stays available until the sheriff actually returns possession. Once the case is filed the tenant has 10 court days — roughly two calendar weeks — to respond, a 2025 doubling from five days that many guides still miss; silence lets the clerk enter judgment and issue the writ of possession on application, while an answer forces trial within 20 days of a trial-setting request. The sheriff then serves the writ and occupants get five days to leave before lockout, putting the statutory best case around four weeks from notice to lockout — sheriff backlogs and contested cases stretch it well beyond. Layered on top, the Tenant Protection Act requires just cause to end most tenancies past 12 months and a cure-opportunity notice before terminating over a curable breach, and many cities add stricter rules of their own. Self-help is flatly illegal: cutting utilities, changing locks, or removing doors costs the landlord actual damages plus up to $100 a day (minimum $250 per cause of action) and the tenant's attorney fees.", "notes": [ { "label": "Three days does not always mean three calendar days", "text": "Day counting is mixed by design: the pay-or-quit and cure-or-quit notices (CCP 1161(2)-(3)) exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and judicial holidays in the statute text itself (AB 2343, 2019), while the no-cure quit notice under 1161(4) and the five-day vacate period after the writ (CCP 715.010) carry no exclusion and run in calendar days under the CCP 12/12a general rule — service day excluded, and a last day landing on a holiday rolls forward. Secondary sources routinely flatten all of these to a bare 'three days.'" }, { "label": "The response clock doubled in 2025 — most older guides still say 5 days", "text": "The tenant's response to the complaint is due within 10 court days (CCP 1167(a), AB 2347, operative January 1, 2025)." }, { "label": "No general five-day wait between judgment and writ", "text": "CCP 1174(c) is a conditional carve-out that sources overgeneralize: its five-day pay-into-court delay is discretionary generally, and mandatory only for a written lease over one year without a forfeiture clause." }, { "label": "The 30-day appeal window is rule-based — and appeal does not stay the eviction", "text": "The 30 days comes from CRC rule 8.822(a)(1), not the unlawful-detainer chapter: the earliest of 30 days after clerk or party service of notice of entry, with a 90-day backstop, for limited civil cases — the ordinary residential posture. Appeal does NOT stay enforcement; a stay under CCP 1176(a) requires an extreme-hardship/no-irreparable-injury finding and typically monthly rental value paid into court in advance." }, { "label": "COVID-era protections have expired", "text": "The COVID-era protections (CTRA) are not current law — but some circulating notice forms still reference them." }, { "label": "Two layers flagged here but not covered by the figures", "text": "Civ. Code 1946.2 (Tenant Protection Act) adds a just-cause requirement and a cure-first notice prerequisite for curable breaches on covered tenancies, plus relocation-assistance duties for no-fault terminations. Many cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and others) layer stricter local just-cause/eviction ordinances — their existence is flagged, but local law is not covered by the figures on this page." }, { "label": "Mobilehome parks are out of scope", "text": "Mobilehome parks are governed by the separate Mobilehome Residency Law (Civ. Code 798 et seq.), whose 60-day termination scheme sits at 798.55. Those figures do not apply to the rules on this page." }, { "label": "A Social Security hardship defense runs to January 20, 2029", "text": "Civil Code section 1946.3 took effect January 1, 2026 and repeals itself on January 20, 2029. It applies only to unlawful detainer actions based on nonpayment of rent, and the Judicial Council has until January 1, 2027 to adopt or modify forms for it." }, { "label": "The sources behind these figures", "text": "The eviction figures on this page rest on CCP 12, 12a, 1161, 1162, 1167, 1169, 1170.5, 1174, 1176, 1179, and 715.010; Civ. Code 789.3, 1946.2, and 1946.3; and California Rules of Court rule 8.822 — the law as it stood on 2026-07-21." } ] }, "lease_termination": { "topic_verified": "2026-09-02", "verified_by_method": "Direct reading of the Civil Code's hiring-of-real-property chapter, division 3, part 4, title 5, chapter 2, sections 1940 through 1954.071, on the Legislative Counsel's own site: the whole-chapter text read in full with all 90 sections and their credit lines enumerated, then sections 1632, 1671, 1945, 1945.5, 1946, 1946.1, 1946.2, 1946.5, 1946.7, 1946.9, 1941.5, 1941.6, 1947.10, 1951.2 through 1951.8, 1952, 1952.2 and 1953 read again section by section. The Code of Civil Procedure's summary-proceedings sections 1161, 1161.3, 1162, 1174 and 1174.27 and the Military and Veterans Code's protections chapter, sections 400 through 409.15, read the same way, the military chapter in full with all 25 sections enumerated. The Family Code's Domestic Violence Prevention Act, division 10, part 4, chapters 2 through 4, read in full for any tenancy provision. Currency established from the credit parentheticals inside the governing chapter rather than a site-wide banner: the newest is the 2025 act chaptered as Chapter 547, effective January 1, 2026, and the chapter text carries no 2025-session credit line later than that. Because the code text cannot yet reflect the 2026 session, which adjourned on August 31, 2026, the session's measures were enumerated directly through the Legislature's own bill-search route with 29 section-indexed queries covering every Civil Code, Code of Civil Procedure and Military and Veterans Code section this record relies on, validated by a control query against an independently documented roster, and each hit typed from its own dated action lines rather than from the site's status label. Two 2025 chaptered acts were read against the code text and matched it. Two decisions read in full from the official reporter text: Losornio v. Motta, 67 Cal.App.4th 110 (1998), and Danner v. Jarrett, 144 Cal.App.3d 164 (1983). The federal 30-day notice picture read across the Supreme Court of California, the Courts of Appeal and the appellate divisions of the superior courts on September 2, 2026. Verification date September 2, 2026.", "governing_law_plain": "Three bodies of law carry California's residential termination rules and each supplies a different piece. The Civil Code's hiring-of-real-property chapter, division 3, part 4, title 5, chapter 2, sections 1940 through 1954.071, holds the notice periods, the just-cause statute, the survivor and lock-change rights, the abandonment procedure and the landlord's damages formula after an early departure; section 1946.1 opens with the words \"Notwithstanding Section 1946\" and so displaces the older general notice rule for residential dwellings, though section 1946 still governs waiver, lodgers and the tenant's route for serving the owner's rent-collecting agent. The Code of Civil Procedure's summary-proceedings chapter, sections 1159 through 1179a, supplies the service methods a termination notice must use and the damages a court may award against a tenant who stays on. The Military and Veterans Code's protections chapter, sections 400 through 409.15, carries the service member's right to end a lease. Section 1946.1 was widened in 2024 to cover qualified commercial tenants as well as dwellings, so every residential figure in this record comes from the subdivisions that name a residential dwelling; sections 1951 through 1952 do not reach a lease executed before July 1, 1971.", "applicability": { "coverage_plain": "The just-cause answer differs by city. A property covered by a local just-cause ordinance adopted on or before September 1, 2019, or by a later ordinance that qualifies as more protective, is governed by that ordinance instead of the state statute, and a property is never subject to both. Everywhere else the state statute in section 1946.2 supplies the ground requirement for tenants who have lived there long enough. Separately, in a city or county that runs a rent-control system with rent registration, an owner who ends a tenancy to move in must actually live there for at least six continuous months under section 1947.10; outside those places that duty does not exist. The notice periods, holdover, mitigation, fee, survivor, military and abandonment answers are the same everywhere in the state.", "switch_plain": "The switch is the local ordinance and its adoption date. An ordinance adopted on or before September 1, 2019 applies of its own force. An ordinance adopted or amended after that date applies only if it is consistent with the state statute, is more limiting on the reasons for termination or more generous on relocation or tenant protections, and carries a binding finding in the ordinance itself that it is more protective; a later ordinance that is less protective cannot be enforced. A reader finds out by checking the city or county's own rent-stabilization or just-cause ordinance and whether it registers rents. The city-by-city detail is carried on the locality pages, not here.", "affects": [ "just_cause" ] }, "periodic_notice": { "landlord_days": 60, "landlord_days_null_reason": null, "tenant_days": 30, "tenant_days_null_reason": null, "counting_anchor": [ "effective_date_named_in_notice", "from_service", "before_period_end" ], "anchor_plain": "The residential rule in section 1946.1 works from the termination date backwards: the notice names the date the tenancy is to end and must be given at least 60 days, or 30 days on the short tiers, before that date. Nothing requires the date to fall at the end of a rental period. The older general rule in section 1946 says a month-to-month tenancy may be ended \"at any time\" on at least 30 days' written notice, with rent \"due and payable to and including the date of termination\", so that count runs forward from delivery and the last month's rent is prorated. The one place a period boundary matters is a periodic tenancy shorter or longer than a month under section 1946: there the notice must be given as long before the end of the current period as the period itself, capped at 30 days, so a week-to-week tenancy takes seven days and ends when the week ends. A tenant who receives an owner's notice may answer with a notice of the tenant's own ending the tenancy earlier, so long as the tenant's notice runs at least one full rental period.", "alignment_required": "not_required", "notice_ceiling_plain": null, "tiers_plain": "The owner's period turns on how long the household has been there. Sixty days is the rule. It drops to 30 days if a tenant or resident has lived in the dwelling, or occupied the property, for less than one year — the test is per person, so one occupant under a year takes the whole household to 30 days. It also drops to 30 days on a sale tier that has six conditions, all of which must hold: the unit is separately sellable; the owner has contracted to sell it to a good-faith buyer and opened escrow with a title insurer; the buyer is a natural person; the notice is given no more than 120 days after escrow opened; no notice under the section was given to the tenant before; and the buyer in good faith intends to live there for at least one full year. The tenant's period does not tier at all: a tenant gives notice for at least as long as the rental period, which is 30 days on a month-to-month tenancy however long the tenant has lived there. Under the older general rule a periodic tenancy that is not month-to-month takes a notice as long as its own period, capped at 30 days, and a single lodger in an owner-occupied home follows the same lengths, with the lodger's right to stay ending by operation of law when the notice period runs out.", "tier_conditions": [ "tenure", "landlord_portfolio_action", "tenancy_length" ], "waivable": "different_period", "waivable_plain": "The older general rule in section 1946 lets the parties agree, and only at the time the tenancy is created, that notice may be given as little as seven days before the end of the term; that is the one express shortening California allows, and it runs both ways. Section 1946.1, which supplies the 60-day and 30-day residential tiers, contains no agreement clause and no anti-waiver clause, so it says nothing either way. A second statute, section 1953, makes void any provision of a dwelling lease by which the tenant gives up a right to a notice required by law, and voids a waiver of other statutory rights unless the lease was handed to the tenant before the tenant took possession. No California appellate decision reconciles the seven-day agreement clause with that bar, so a shortened period agreed at the start of a tenancy is on uncertain ground.", "mechanism": "standalone_statute", "common_law_fill_plain": null, "symmetry_mandate": false, "rules_plain": "An owner ending a month-to-month tenancy gives written notice at least 60 days before the termination date the notice names, or at least 30 days if any tenant or resident has been there less than a year, or 30 days on the six-condition sale tier described above. A tenant gives notice for at least as long as the rental period, which is 30 days on a month-to-month tenancy, and a tenant who has received the owner's notice may give a notice of the tenant's own for an earlier date. The periods are set out in section 1946.1, which opens with the words \"Notwithstanding Section 1946\" and, since 2024, covers both residential dwellings and qualified commercial tenants; the residential figures come from the subdivisions that name a residential dwelling. The older section 1946 still supplies the flat 30-day rule for a month-to-month tenancy ended \"at any time\", the period-length rule capped at 30 days for other periodic tenancies, and the lodger rule. Neither section requires the notice to state a reason, but where the just-cause statute covers the tenancy the notice must state the ground as well. Neither a landlord nor an agent may charge a tenant a fee for serving, posting, or otherwise delivering the notice. The notice does not have to end the tenancy at the close of a rental period; rent is owed to and including the termination date." }, "just_cause": { "posture": "conditional", "coverage_route": "tenancy_length", "coverage_plain": "The ground requirement attaches once a tenant has continuously and lawfully occupied the home for 12 months. Where extra adult tenants joined the lease before an existing tenant reached 24 months, it attaches only if all of the tenants have been there 12 months or more, or one has been there 24 months or more. Nine classes are exempt: transient hotel occupancy; a nonprofit hospital, religious facility, extended care facility, licensed residential care facility for the elderly, or adult residential facility; school and college dormitories; a share of a home where the tenant shares a bathroom or kitchen with the owner living there; an owner-occupied single-family residence where the owner rents no more than two units or bedrooms, including a granny flat, and a mobilehome; a two-unit building where the owner has lived in one unit since the tenancy began and still does; housing issued a certificate of occupancy within the previous 15 years, which is a rolling test a building can age out of; a separately sellable home whose owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or a limited liability company with a corporate member, but only if the owner gave the tenant the exact statutory exemption notice; and deed-restricted or subsidized affordable housing. The statute reaches a mobilehome tenancy but not a mobilehome owner who rents only the lot.", "no_fault_grounds_plain": "Four grounds let a covered tenancy end without any fault by the tenant. The first is move-in by the owner or the owner's spouse, domestic partner, child, grandchild, parent or grandparent, who must occupy the home as a primary residence for at least 12 continuous months, move in within 90 days after the tenant leaves, and be named in the notice with their relationship to the owner and a statement that the tenant may ask for proof; for a lease signed on or after July 1, 2020 the ground works only if the tenant agrees in writing or the lease allows it, and it is unavailable if the intended occupant already lives on the property or a similar unit is vacant. If the intended occupant does not move in or does not stay the 12 months, the owner must offer the home back to the tenant at the old rent and terms and reimburse the tenant's reasonable moving costs above any relocation payment; a death in that period is not a violation. \"Owner\" is defined narrowly for this ground, reaching a natural person with at least a quarter of the recorded ownership, or the whole ownership divided among named relatives, or a person holding through a company in which they hold at least a quarter. The second ground is taking the property off the rental market. The third is a government or court order, or a local ordinance, requiring the home to be vacated; if the tenant is found at fault for the condition behind it, no relocation payment is owed. The fourth is demolition or a substantial remodel, meaning permit-requiring replacement or substantial modification of a structural, electrical, plumbing or mechanical system, or abatement of hazardous materials such as lead paint, mold or asbestos, that cannot be done safely with the tenant in place and forces the tenant out for at least 30 consecutive days; painting, decorating and minor repairs never qualify, and the notice must carry a statement of intent, a verbatim paragraph offering the tenant the right to re-rent at the old rate, a description of the work with a copy of the permit, or the signed contractor contract where no permit is needed. A separate and older statute adds a fifth condition in cities and counties that control rents and register them: an owner who ends a tenancy for a move-in by the owner or an immediate relative must keep living there for at least six continuous months, and a court that finds the eviction rested on fraud may order three times the cost of moving the tenant back, three times any rent increase the tenant has paid, or three times one month's rent, plus fees and costs.", "relocation_payment_plain": "On any no-fault ground the owner must, regardless of the tenant's income, either pay the tenant a relocation sum equal to one month of the rent in effect when the notice issued, delivered within 15 calendar days of serving the notice, or waive the final month's rent in writing before it comes due, with the notice stating the amount waived and that no rent is due for that month. The payment counts against any relocation assistance another law requires. Failure to comply strictly with the payment rule makes the termination notice void, and so does failure to comply with any other part of the statute.", "local_preemption": "local_option_authorized", "local_preemption_plain": "California expressly leaves room for local just-cause rules and says which one governs. A property covered by a local just-cause ordinance adopted on or before September 1, 2019 is governed by that ordinance and the state statute does not apply to it. An ordinance adopted or amended after that date governs only if it is more protective, which the statute defines by three tests that must all hold: its ground requirement is consistent with the state statute; it further limits the reasons for termination, raises relocation amounts, or adds tenant protections; and the local government has made a binding finding in the ordinance itself that it is more protective. A property is never subject to both, and a later ordinance that is less protective cannot be enforced while the state statute stands. Two further savings clauses keep local authority intact: the residential notice section says it does not affect a public entity's existing authority to regulate or monitor the basis for eviction, and the landlord-harassment section says it neither enlarges nor diminishes local authority over harassment. The separate question of how far a city may regulate the amount of rent is answered on the rent-increase page, where California is not preempted and also carries a statewide cap; that answer does not change the just-cause rules described here.", "sunset_date": "2030-01-01", "rules_plain": "For a tenancy the statute covers, an owner may not end it, or decline to renew it, without a just cause stated in the written termination notice. The statute sets no notice period of its own: the days come from the notice sections, so a covered month-to-month tenancy takes the 60-day or 30-day period plus a stated ground. At-fault grounds include a tenant's refusal, after a written request from the owner, to sign a renewal or extension of a written lease that ended on or after January 1, 2020 on similar terms of similar length; a curable violation must be met with a cure notice first. The no-fault grounds and the relocation payment are described above. Any waiver of the tenant's rights under the statute is void as contrary to public policy. Non-compliance with any provision voids the termination notice, and an owner who tries to recover possession in material violation is liable for the tenant's actual damages, in the court's discretion reasonable fees and costs, and up to three times actual damages where the owner acted wilfully or with oppression, fraud or malice; the Attorney General and a city attorney or county counsel may seek an injunction. The owner must also give the tenant a written notification that the statute applies, in the lease, as an addendum, or as a separate notice the tenant signs, in at least 12-point type. The statute is operative from April 1, 2024 and repeals itself on January 1, 2030. Outside the covered set, no reason is needed to end a periodic tenancy or to let a fixed term expire, though a landlord may not act because a tenant is a crime or abuse survivor, because a tenant asked for the locks to be changed, or because someone called for police or emergency help." }, "fixed_term": { "expiry_default": "ends_without_notice", "notice_days": null, "notice_plain": null, "conversion_mechanism": "presumption_on_rent_acceptance", "conversion_plain": "A holdover becomes a new tenancy only if the landlord accepts rent. Section 1945 says that where a tenant stays after the hiring expires and the landlord accepts rent, the parties are presumed to have renewed on the same terms and for the same time, but never more than one month where rent is payable monthly and never more than one year in any case. So a monthly-rent lease that is held over with rent accepted becomes a month-to-month tenancy on the old terms and the old rent. If the landlord does not accept rent, no new tenancy arises and the tenant is holding over unlawfully.", "auto_renewal_reminder": { "days_before": null, "rules_plain": "California requires no reminder before an automatic-renewal clause takes effect; it regulates the clause itself instead. A term in a residential lease providing that the lease renews or extends automatically if the tenant stays on, or fails to give notice of an intent not to renew, may be voided by whichever party did not draft the lease unless the clause appears in at least eight-point boldface type in the body of the agreement and a recital saying so appears in at least eight-point boldface type immediately before the tenant's signature line. Where the clause is voided, the ordinary rent-acceptance renewal presumption applies instead. Any waiver of this protection is void as against public policy." }, "rules_plain": "A fixed-term lease ends on its own end date and neither side has to give notice. A tenant who stays on after the term expires without the landlord's permission is in unlawful detainer from that moment, so the landlord may go straight to court; a tenancy at will, by contrast, has to be ended by notice first. If the landlord accepts rent from the holdover tenant, the lease is presumed renewed on the same terms for the rent period, capped at one month on a monthly lease and at one year in any case. Where the just-cause statute covers the tenancy, declining to renew is itself a termination and needs a stated ground, so in practice a covered fixed term cannot simply be allowed to lapse. Where the parties fix no length, the tenancy is presumed to run for the period used to set the rent, and monthly if nothing was agreed. California has no statute requiring notice of non-renewal before a fixed term ends; the automatic-renewal type rule described above is a form requirement, not a reminder duty." }, "holdover": { "status_plain": "A tenant who stays after a fixed term expires without the landlord's permission, or after a valid termination notice has run, is guilty of unlawful detainer and the landlord may file for possession without any further notice. A tenancy at will is different: it has to be ended by notice under the Civil Code before the tenant can be in unlawful detainer. A holdover becomes a month-to-month tenancy only where the landlord accepts rent.", "damages_measure": "other", "damages_qualifiers": [ "wilfulness_or_bad_faith_trigger" ], "damages_plain": "California has no double-rent or other multiplier for a holdover. The court or jury assesses the damages the holdover actually caused the landlord and finds the amount of rent due, and where the tenant is found guilty of unlawful detainer and malice is shown the landlord may be awarded statutory damages of up to six hundred dollars on top of actual damages, including the rent found due; the trier of fact decides whether to award actual damages, the statutory sum, or both. A good-faith holdover carries no enhancement at all. One limit runs the other way: on a nonpayment case where the lease has not expired by its terms and the notice did not declare a forfeiture, the court may, and on a lease longer than a year without a forfeiture clause must, hold the writ for five days after judgment so the tenant can pay the rent, interest, damages and costs and be restored to the tenancy. The court process itself is covered on the eviction page.", "converts_to_plain": null }, "mitigation": { "posture": "statutory", "posture_basis": "damages_offset_only", "trigger": "general", "duty_attaches_on_plain": "The damages formula applies from the moment the lease terminates, which section 1951.2 says happens when the tenant breaches and abandons the property before the end of the term, or when the landlord ends the tenant's right to possession for a breach. It is not limited to a formal abandonment procedure and it does not wait for a court finding.", "burden": "tenant", "standard_plain": "The measure is the part of the loss that could reasonably have been avoided, and the tenant is the one who has to prove it. The landlord may recover the unpaid rent earned before the tenancy ended, plus the rent that would have been earned between then and the award to the extent it exceeds the loss the tenant proves could reasonably have been avoided, plus any other amount needed to make good the harm the tenant's failure caused. Rent for the period after the award is recoverable only if the lease says so or if the landlord actually re-rented before the award and proves the re-renting was done reasonably and in a good-faith effort to reduce the loss, and that future sum is discounted. Efforts to re-rent do not waive the landlord's damages claim.", "displaced_by_fee": false, "acceleration": "permitted_with_limits", "waivable_by_lease": "unstated", "rules_plain": "California does not tell a landlord to go out and re-rent. It writes the rule into the damages formula instead, and it puts the proof on the tenant: the landlord's recovery is reduced by whatever part of the rental loss the departing tenant proves could reasonably have been avoided. That is the state's headline fact on this question, and it is the reverse of the usual arrangement. A landlord who wants the rent for the balance of the term after judgment must either have a lease clause providing for it or have actually re-rented and prove the re-renting was reasonable and in good faith, and that sum is discounted at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's discount rate plus one percent. A landlord may also decline to end the tenancy at all: where the lease contains the statutory clause naming this remedy and either permits subletting and assignment, permits it subject to standards that were reasonable when the lease was signed, or permits it with the landlord's consent not to be unreasonably withheld, the lease continues and the landlord may sue for the rent as it falls due; maintenance work, efforts to re-rent, appointing a receiver and withholding consent to a sublet do not count as ending the tenancy, and this route is lost once the landlord takes possession under a judgment. A landlord who ends the lease this way owes one notice duty: where the tenant paid more than one month's rent up front and asked in writing to be told, the landlord must send written notice of the first re-renting, naming the new tenant, the length of the new lease and the rent, within 30 days of the new tenant taking possession. The scheme does not reach a lease executed before July 1, 1971. No published California decision applies the formula to a residential lease; the appellate cases on it arise from commercial leases, so the posture rests on the statute." }, "early_termination_fees": { "posture": "barred_or_void", "statutory_cap_plain": null, "damages_cap_plain": null, "rules_plain": "California voids early-termination charges in a dwelling lease outright, and the rule is easy to miss because it takes two sections to state. Section 1951.5 says that section 1671, on liquidated damages, applies to a lease of real property. Section 1671 then says that where liquidated damages are sought from a party to a lease of real property used as a dwelling by that party or their dependents, the clause is void, with one narrow exception: the parties may agree in advance on an amount presumed to be the damage where, from the nature of the case, it would be impracticable or extremely difficult to fix the actual damage. A commercial lease gets the opposite treatment, where such a clause is valid unless shown to be unreasonable. So a flat buy-out fee or a months-of-rent early-termination charge in a residential lease starts void, and the landlord's route to money is the actual-damages formula described under the duty to reduce losses. Three narrower bans sit alongside it: no fee may be charged for serving, posting, or delivering a termination notice; no early-termination charge may be imposed on a service member's termination; and a survivor who ends a lease may not be made to forfeit the deposit or advance rent, nor charged lease termination fees after a court removes only the perpetrator. Two figures in California law are not fee caps and should not be read as such: the six-hundred-dollar holdover award and the survivor's 14-day rent liability. This answer rests on the statutes rather than on California's administrative regulations; the state publishes them through a commercial service rather than a state host, and the rules above rest on the statutes." }, "tenant_early_termination": { "dv": { "mechanism": "right_to_terminate", "qualifying_plain": "A tenant may end the lease where the tenant, a household member, or an immediate family member was the victim of any of eight things: domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, abuse of an elder or dependent adult, a crime that caused bodily injury or death, a crime involving the exhibiting, drawing, brandishing or use of a firearm or other deadly weapon, or a crime involving force or a threat of force against the victim. The last three make California's list the broadest in the country: it is a general violent-crime right, not only a domestic-violence right. A household member is a family member living in the same unit; an immediate family member is a parent, stepparent, spouse, child, child-in-law, stepchild or sibling, or anyone who was living in the household when the act happened and whose relationship with the tenant is substantially like a family member's. There is no requirement that the tenant hold a protective order, and no requirement that the act have happened at the home, except in one situation: where the victim is an immediate family member who did not live in the household at the time and no part of the act happened in the unit or within 1,000 feet of it, the tenant must add a written statement that the family member was a victim, that the tenant intends to relocate because of it, and that the move is to increase the safety, physical, emotional, psychological or financial well-being of the tenant or that family member.", "separate_regimes_plain": null, "documentation_plain": "The written termination notice must have one of four things attached, and any one of them is enough. The first is a temporary restraining order, emergency protective order, or protective order. The second is a copy of a written report by a peace officer acting in an official capacity stating that the tenant, household member, or immediate family member has filed a report alleging the act. The third is a statement on the two-part form the statute reproduces word for word, signed by a sexual-assault counselor, a domestic-violence counselor, a human-trafficking caseworker, a victim of violent crime advocate, or a California-licensed physician and surgeon, osteopathic physician and surgeon, registered nurse, psychiatrist, psychologist, clinical social worker, marriage and family therapist, or professional clinical counselor; for the counselor, caseworker and advocate routes the form must be on the letterhead of the office, hospital, institution, center or organization that employs them. The fourth is any other form of documentation that reasonably verifies the act occurred, which makes the list open-ended, but a tenant who uses only that fourth route cannot recover the statutory damages the section otherwise provides. The landlord may not pass what the tenant supplies to anyone else.", "documentation_is_cumulative": false, "recency_window_days": 180, "recency_window_kind": "deadline_to_act", "recency_window_plain": "The tenant has 180 days to give the notice, counted from whichever of three events the tenant relies on: the date a protective order was issued, the date a written police report was made, or the date the act or crime happened. The statute adds a fourth alternative, allowing the notice within the time period the general notice section describes. It is a deadline for the tenant to act, not a limit on how old the incident may be, and the landlord has no power to extend it. A different 180-day rule appears in the separate section that lets a tenant defend an eviction on the same grounds: there the documents themselves must be no more than 180 days old. The two windows measure different things and should not be merged.", "notice_days": 0, "notice_days_kind": "lead_time", "notice_days_plain": "There is no waiting period. The written notice with its documentation ends the tenancy, and California states no number of days between giving it and the tenancy ending. What the statute does instead is cap what the tenant owes afterwards at 14 days' rent. That 14-day figure is a liability cap and is not a notice period, and reading it as one overstates how long a survivor must stay on the hook.", "rent_liability_plain": "The tenant is responsible for rent for no more than 14 calendar days after giving the notice, or for a shorter period if the general notice section or the lease provides one, and is then released without penalty from any further rent or other payment obligation under the lease. If the home is re-rented to someone else before that period runs out, the rent owed for it is prorated.", "tenant_cost_plain": "The landlord may not require the tenant to forfeit any security deposit money or advance rent because of the termination, and the tenant is not to be treated, for any purpose, as having breached the lease by ending it this way. In every other respect the ordinary deposit rules apply, and those are covered on the deposits page. A landlord who violates the section owes the tenant actual damages plus statutory damages of at least one hundred and at most five thousand dollars, except where the tenant relied only on the open-ended fourth documentation route.", "cotenant_effect": [ "cotenants_remain_bound", "victim_liability_waived_if_cotenant" ], "cotenant_plain": "The release reaches the tenant who is, or whose household member or immediate family member is, the victim, and it reaches the members of that tenant's household. Everyone else on the lease stays bound by it. Nothing in the section conditions the release on the remaining tenants' ability to pay or requires a new lease or new screening. A separate remedy in an eviction case lets a court remove only the person who committed the abuse, keeping the tenancy in place for everyone else.", "lock_change": "tenant_may_require", "lock_change_plain": "California gives the survivor a lock change at the landlord's cost, and it runs on a 24-hour clock. Where the person responsible is not a tenant of the same unit, the landlord must change the locks of the tenant's unit at the landlord's own expense within 24 hours of a written request supported by documentation, and give the tenant a key. If the landlord does not, the tenant may change the locks without permission whatever the lease says, provided the work is done in a workmanlike manner with locks of similar or better quality, the landlord is told within 24 hours and given a key; the landlord must then reimburse the tenant within 21 days. That rule reaches leases signed on or after January 1, 2011. Where the person responsible is a tenant of the same unit, the same 24-hour, landlord-expense, 21-day structure applies but the trigger is a copy of a court order excluding that person from the unit, issued within the last 180 days; the landlord is not liable to the excluded person for the lock change, and the excluded person stays liable under the lease along with the other tenants. The documentation accepted for a lock change mirrors the termination list, including the open route of any documentation that reasonably verifies the abuse or violence, and the tenant chooses which form to supply. Locks means any exterior lock giving access to the unit.", "screening_shield": "denial_bar", "adverse_action_bar_plain": "A dedicated screening statute, added in 2024, bars a landlord or agent from taking an adverse action in tenant screening on any of four grounds: an allegation that the applicant breached a lease where the alleged breach stemmed from an act of abuse or violence against the applicant, an immediate family member or a household member and the applicant is not alleged to have committed it; the applicant having previously asked for the locks to be changed, whether or not the request was granted; the applicant, or an immediate family or household member, having been a victim of abuse or violence; and the applicant or a guest having previously called for police or emergency help as, or for, a victim or a person in an emergency. Adverse action means denying the application or approving it on different and less favorable terms, and a violation costs the landlord actual damages plus statutory damages of one hundred to five thousand dollars. The termination section adds its own bar: an owner or agent may not refuse to rent to an otherwise qualified applicant, or refuse to keep renting to an existing tenant, solely because that tenant has used the termination right or has previously ended a tenancy for these reasons. A separate section makes the actual or threatened termination or non-renewal of a tenancy a forbidden penalty for summoning law enforcement or emergency assistance, voids any lease term limiting that right, and gives the tenant a rebuttable presumption where the landlord files for eviction within 30 days of such a call.", "confidentiality_duty": true, "quit_deadline_plain": null, "revocability_plain": null, "landlord_side_rights_plain": "The landlord may contact the qualified third party who signed a statement to confirm what it says, and that contact is not a disclosure. A landlord who has received documentation of abuse or violence may not end or refuse to renew the tenancy because of the act, with two exceptions: where the person responsible is a tenant in residence of the same unit, and where that person's words or actions have threatened the physical safety of other tenants, guests, invitees or licensees and the tenant keeps letting them onto the premises after a three-day notice to stop. A landlord who complies with those rules is not liable to any other tenant for doing so, and a landlord who changes the locks under a court exclusion order is not liable to the excluded person. In an eviction case a landlord may ask the court for a partial eviction removing only the person responsible; the court then orders that person out, does not end the tenancy, and orders the landlord to change the locks and give the remaining occupants a key.", "statutory_lease_disclosure_plain": null, "rules_plain": "A tenant may end the lease by giving the landlord written notice that the tenant, a household member, or an immediate family member was the victim of one of eight listed acts, ranging from domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking and elder abuse to any crime causing bodily injury or death, any crime involving a firearm or other deadly weapon, and any crime involving force or a threat of force. One of four kinds of documentation must be attached, and the last of the four is any documentation that reasonably verifies the act, though relying only on that route costs the tenant the statutory damages remedy. The notice must be given within 180 days of the protective order, the police report, or the act itself. There is no waiting period: the tenancy ends on the notice, the tenant owes rent for no more than 14 calendar days afterwards, prorated if the home is re-rented sooner, and no deposit or advance rent may be forfeited. The victim's household is released; other tenants on the lease are not. The landlord must keep what the tenant supplies confidential, must change the locks at the landlord's own expense within 24 hours of a documented request, and may not use victim status, a past termination on these grounds, a lock-change request, or a call for emergency help against an applicant or tenant. California requires no notice of this right in the lease itself." }, "military": { "state_extension": "state_active_duty", "extension_limbs": [], "rights_attach_plain": "The right reaches a lease of a home occupied, or meant to be occupied, by a service member or their dependents where the tenant either enters a period of military service during the lease term, or, already in service, signs the lease and then receives orders for a permanent change of station or to deploy for at least 90 days. California's definition of military service is what makes this more than a restatement of the federal act: for a member of the state militia it includes full-time active state service as well as full-time active federal service, and for anyone else full-time active duty for more than seven days in any 14-day period. Dependents do not have a right of their own to start a termination; the service member's termination ends a dependent's obligation under the same lease, and a dependent may claim the chapter's other benefits only by applying to a court.", "rules_plain": "A service member may end the lease at any time after entering military service or after the date of the orders, by delivering written notice and a copy of the orders to the landlord or the landlord's agent, by hand, by private carrier, or by mail with return receipt requested. On a monthly-rent lease the termination takes effect 30 days after the first rent due date following delivery of the notice; on any other lease it takes effect on the last day of the month after the month the notice was delivered. Rent for the period before that date is prorated, no early-termination charge may be imposed, and rent paid in advance for any period after the termination must be refunded within 30 days. Taxes, fines and other obligations already due, including reasonable charges for excess wear, still have to be paid. The landlord may apply to a court before the termination date to have the relief modified as justice and equity require. Anyone who seizes or holds the departing tenant's belongings, furniture or deposit to press a claim for rent accruing after the termination commits a misdemeanor. California also bars any eviction of a service member's spouse, children or other dependents from a home occupied mainly as a dwelling until 120 days after the service member is released from active duty, except by leave of court, with no rent ceiling on the protection; that rule belongs to the eviction page." }, "tenant_death": { "posture": "none", "rules_plain": null }, "other_grounds_plain": "California adds one further statutory route out and lacks several that other states have. The route it has is the lodger rule: where a single lodger rents a room in a dwelling the owner occupies, either side may end the arrangement on the same notice the general section requires, and when the notice period runs out the lodger's right to remain ends by operation of law, with removal handled under the Penal Code rather than by an eviction case. There is no early-termination right for a job transfer or a change of employment, none for a move into a care facility, senior housing or a nursing home, and none for landlord harassment, though a tenant harassed into leaving has a civil penalty claim of up to two thousand dollars for each violation and separate remedies for a lockout or a utility shutoff. Ending a lease because the home is not habitable, and protection against retaliation, are covered on the habitability page." }, "abandonment": { "trigger": [ "notice_and_response" ], "notice_days": 15, "rebuttal_window_plain": "The lease ends on the date the landlord's notice names unless, before that date, the tenant gives the landlord written notice saying the tenant does not intend to abandon the home and stating an address at which the tenant may be served by certified mail in an eviction case. Four things defeat the abandonment even after the date passes: the rent was not in fact due and unpaid for 14 consecutive days when the notice was given; it was not reasonable for the landlord to believe the home had been abandoned, and knowing that the tenant left belongings behind does not by itself show the belief was unreasonable; the tenant did give the written notice in time; or the tenant paid all or part of the unpaid rent at any time from 14 days before the notice through the date the lease would have ended.", "rules_plain": "California ends the tenancy through a notice of belief of abandonment rather than by presuming the tenant is gone. The landlord may give the notice only where rent has been due and unpaid for at least 14 consecutive days and the landlord reasonably believes the tenant has abandoned the home. The date the notice names must be at least 15 days after it is served personally, or at least 18 days after it is deposited in the mail. The statute reproduces the notice word for word, so the form itself is prescribed. It is served by personal delivery or by first-class mail to the tenant's last known address and, where there is reason to think that address will not reach the tenant, to any other address the landlord knows of where the tenant might reasonably receive it. If the tenant does not answer as described above, the home is deemed abandoned and the lease ends, which is what starts the landlord's damages formula. The procedure is not exclusive, so either side may still prove abandonment another way, and it does not stand in for the notice that begins an eviction case. This section covers homes only; a differently worded twin with different periods covers commercial property and should never be read across. What the landlord may do with property the tenant leaves behind is covered separately." }, "notice_service": { "methods_plain": "A termination notice is delivered in the manner the Code of Civil Procedure prescribes for an eviction notice, or by certified or registered mail. The prescribed manner is a hierarchy, not a menu: first, hand a copy to the tenant; only if the tenant is absent from both home and usual place of business, leave a copy with a person of suitable age and discretion at either place and mail a copy to the tenant's home; and only if neither home nor business can be found, or no suitable person is there, post a copy in a conspicuous place on the property, hand a copy to anyone residing there who can be found, and mail a copy to the property. Certified or registered mail is the extra route the Civil Code adds, and it is not available for an eviction notice, so California's termination service rules are the eviction rules plus a mail option. A tenant may also serve the owner's agent, by delivering a copy in person or sending it by certified or registered mail to the agent the tenant paid rent to for the month before the notice. Where the tenancy is a single lodger in an owner-occupied home, the notice goes by certified or registered mail with restricted delivery and a return receipt. Anyone may serve the notice; no sheriff or marshal is required. A separate looser list applies to commercial tenants and does not reach dwellings.", "documents_plain": null, "electronic_permitted": "no", "mail_added_days": 0, "mail_rule_is_cap": false, "mail_addon_plain": "Mailing a termination notice adds nothing to the notice period. California's general five-day extension for service by mail does not reach these notices: the Court of Appeal held in 1998 that the service and notice provisions of the eviction statutes and the general mail-extension rule are mutually exclusive, so the mail rule does not extend a notice period that is a prerequisite to filing. A 30-day or 60-day notice therefore runs from the day it is properly served, however it was served, and a landlord who counts extra days is giving the tenant more time than the law requires rather than curing a defect. The one place California does add days for mailing is the abandonment notice, where the date named must be at least 15 days out if served in person and at least 18 days out if mailed.", "officer_service_required": false, "content_requirements_plain": "Four content rules apply, and they stack. Every landlord's termination notice must carry, word for word, the statutory paragraph telling the former tenant that state law lets them reclaim property left behind, that costs may apply depending on storage and delay, and that costs are lower the sooner they get in touch; a tenant's notice carries nothing. Where the just-cause statute covers the tenancy, the notice must state the ground. Where the ground is a no-fault one, the notice must also state the relocation election, and where the owner elects to waive the last month's rent it must state the amount waived and that no rent is due for that month. Where the ground is a move-in, the notice must name the intended occupant and their relationship to the owner and tell the tenant they may ask for proof; where it is demolition or a substantial remodel, the notice must state the intent, reproduce the statutory paragraph offering the tenant the right to re-rent at the old rate, describe the work and attach a copy of the permit or, where no permit is needed for hazardous-materials work, the signed contractor contract, and give notice of the tenant's interest in reoccupying. Failing any provision of the just-cause statute voids the notice, and California courts require strict compliance with the service rules for a notice to be valid at all.", "language_requirement_plain": "The termination notice itself does not have to be translated. The written notification an owner must give a covered tenant that the just-cause statute applies is different: it must be in at least 12-point type and is subject to the state's foreign-language contract statute, which requires a business that negotiates primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean, in speech or writing, to deliver a translation of every term and condition before a dwelling lease longer than one month is signed. So where the tenancy was negotiated in one of those five languages, the coverage notification must be translated too.", "alternate_address_rule_plain": "There is no general right for a tenant to name an address for termination notices. One narrow rule works this way in the abandonment procedure: the landlord must send the notice of belief of abandonment to the tenant's last known address and, where there is reason to think it will not reach the tenant there, to any other address the landlord knows of where the tenant might reasonably receive it, and the tenant's written answer must state an address at which the tenant may be served by certified mail in an eviction case." }, "federal_overlay": { "federal_overlay_note": "California layers its own protections on top of the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act instead of copying it. Its definition of military service reaches a militia member on full-time active state service, which the federal act does not; its lease-termination section bars any early-termination charge and requires advance rent to be refunded within 30 days; and it bars eviction of a service member's spouse, children or dependents until 120 days after release from active duty, with no rent ceiling on the protection. The federal Violence Against Women Act gives no right to end a lease early; California's survivor termination right is state law and should not be attributed to it.", "cares_30day_notice": { "status": "no_state_appellate_authority", "authority_plain": "No California appellate court has decided whether the federal CARES Act's 30-day notice for covered dwellings still applies. California is therefore neither an expired jurisdiction like Iowa or Arizona nor a nonpayment-only jurisdiction like Washington: the question is simply open here, and a landlord of a federally backed or subsidized property should expect to meet it unresolved.", "as_of": "2026-09-02" } }, "provenance": { "published_text_differs_from_enacted": false, "kinds": [], "basis": "none", "plain": null }, "future_versions": [], "pending_legislation": [ { "bill": "AB 1157, SB 522, AB 924, AB 2755 and SB 436 (2025–2026 Regular Session)", "summary": "Five measures of the 2025–2026 Regular Session would have changed a rule on this page. Three touched the Civil Code: AB 1157 and SB 522 would have amended the just-cause statute, and AB 924 the survivor termination right. Two touched the Code of Civil Procedure section that defines when a tenant is holding over unlawfully. None became law and no other measure of the session amended a section this page relies on.", "status": "The Legislature adjourned its 2025–2026 Regular Session on August 31, 2026. AB 1157 and AB 924 had already died in January 2026 under the constitutional deadline; SB 436 failed passage in committee in June 2025 and moved no further; SB 522 was placed on the inactive file in September 2025 and stayed there; AB 2755 was never referred out of first reading. California bills do not carry over, so all five are dead. The Legislature's own status labels still described three of them as active shortly after adjournment; the dated action lines and the session calendar are what settle it.", "checked": "2026-09-02", "lifecycle": "dead", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null } ], "notable_failed_legislation_plain": null, "negative_basis": { "landlord_tenant_chapter": "Civil Code division 3, part 4, title 5, chapter 2 (hiring of real property), sections 1940 through 1954.071, read in full from the whole-chapter text on the Legislative Counsel's site, all 90 sections enumerated with their credit lines, plus per-section reads of sections 1632, 1671, 1945, 1945.5, 1946, 1946.1, 1946.2, 1946.5, 1946.7, 1946.9, 1947.10, 1951.2 through 1951.8, 1952, 1952.2 and 1953. Terms run across the raw chapter text: double, treble, twice, holding over, holdover, penalty, death of, deceased, decedent, dies, care facility, nursing home, convalescent, senior citizen, assisted living, retirement, job transfer, transferred by, employment relocation, change of employment, disclos, electronic, e-mail, email, text message, periodic rental date, early termination, liquidated, accelerat, lock, confidential. Code of Civil Procedure part 3, title 3, chapter 4 (summary proceedings), sections 1159 through 1179a, with sections 1161, 1161a, 1161.3, 1162, 1174 and 1174.27 read section by section for the service methods, the holdover damages measure and the survivor provisions. Civil Code section 3345 checked and excluded as a consumer treble-damages statute rather than a landlord holdover remedy.", "dv_title": "Family Code division 10 (Domestic Violence Prevention Act), part 4, chapters 2, 3 and 4, read as whole-chapter raw text. Terms run: lease, rental agreement, tenanc, landlord. Four hits in chapter 2, all false positives (an animal \"leased, kept, or held\", a records release clause, a child-support clause, and a batterer-program termination-reports clause); nothing in chapters 3 or 4. The Act's dwelling remedy is an exclusive-possession or move-out order against the restrained party, not a lease-termination right; the lease right is Civil Code section 1946.7, and the Act supplies the protective orders that section accepts as documentation.", "military_title": "Military and Veterans Code division 2, part 1, chapter 7.5 (Protections), sections 400 through 409.15, read as one whole-chapter raw text with all 25 sections enumerated, and corroborated by per-section reads of sections 400, 408, 409 and 409.1 through 409.9. Terms run: lease, landlord, tenanc, dwelling, evict. Only two sections touch a tenancy — section 406 (the eviction and distress stay) and section 409 (lease termination). The remainder cover interest rates, mortgages, insurance, taxes, general relief, health insurance, dependents, fraudulent transfers, evidence of service, and procedure.", "administrative_code": "The California Code of Regulations was not consulted. The state publishes it through a commercial service that refused access and is not among the official publishers this record cites, and the Office of Administrative Law's own page carries no regulation text. The fee posture rests on the Civil Code sections read on the Legislative Counsel's site; a regulation could only add a rule, not remove the statutory one, so the reading behind the fee answer is complete on its own terms and this leg is recorded as open rather than claimed." }, "leading_cases": [ { "case_name": "Losornio v. Motta", "reporter_cite": "67 Cal.App.4th 110, 78 Cal.Rptr.2d 799 (1998)", "court": "California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division One", "year": 1998, "holding_plain": "A month-to-month residential tenant was served with a 30-day termination notice by posting it on the premises and mailing a copy, and the landlord filed on the thirty-first day. The court held that the service and notice provisions of the eviction statutes and the general five-day mail-extension rule are mutually exclusive, so the mail rule does not extend a notice period that must run before an eviction case may be filed. The court also restated that a 30-day or 3-day notice is valid and enforceable only where the landlord has strictly complied with the statutory service requirements.", "url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2301650/losornio-v-motta/", "residential_scope": "residential", "applies_to": "notice_service" }, { "case_name": "Danner v. Jarrett", "reporter_cite": "144 Cal.App.3d 164, 192 Cal.Rptr. 535 (1983)", "court": "California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Two", "year": 1983, "holding_plain": "A landlord who ends a defaulting tenant's right to possession, and obtains an eviction judgment declaring the lease forfeited, is not barred from later suing for damages under the statutory formula for a tenant who leaves before the end of the term. The case arose from a commercial lease of more than ten years, so it decides the statute's reach rather than any residential question, and the statutory formula itself is what governs a dwelling.", "url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2163542/danner-v-jarrett/", "residential_scope": "commercial", "applies_to": "mitigation" } ], "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1946", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1946.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.1", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1946.1.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)–(i)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.2", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1946.2.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(n)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1946.5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.7", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1946.7.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(l)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.9", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1946.9.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1941.5, 1941.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=3.&title=5.&part=4.&chapter=2.&article=", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1945", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1945.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1945.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1945.5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.10", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1947.10.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1951.2", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1951.2.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1951.3", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1951.3.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(h)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1951.4", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1951.4.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1951.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1951.5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1671", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1671.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)–(d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1953", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1953.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(3), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1632", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1632.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(3)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1161", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1161.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(1)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1161.3", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1161.3.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b), (c), (e)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1162", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1162.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1174", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1174.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b), (c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 1174.27", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=1174.27.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(e), (f)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Mil. & Vet. Code § 400", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=MVC§ionNum=400.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c), (d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Mil. & Vet. Code § 406", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=MVC§ionNum=406.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Mil. & Vet. Code § 409", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=MVC§ionNum=409.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(h)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Mil. & Vet. Code § 409.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=MVC§ionNum=409.5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "A California landlord ending a month-to-month tenancy gives 60 days' written notice, dropping to 30 days if any tenant or resident has lived there less than a year, while the tenant gives 30 days whatever their tenure. Mailing the notice adds no days. Once a tenant has been there 12 months the landlord also needs a stated ground, chosen from the just-cause statute's list, and a no-fault ground costs the landlord one month's rent in relocation money or a written waiver of the final month; in cities with their own qualifying just-cause ordinance that ordinance governs instead. A fixed term ends on its date without notice, and becomes month-to-month only if the landlord accepts rent afterwards. There is no double-rent holdover penalty, only actual damages plus up to six hundred dollars where malice is shown. A landlord suing a tenant who left early is not required to re-rent, but recovery is cut by whatever loss the tenant proves could reasonably have been avoided, and an early-termination or buy-out fee in a residential lease is void by default. Survivors of domestic violence and of a wide range of violent crimes may end the lease at once with documentation, owing no more than 14 days' rent, and may have the locks changed at the landlord's expense within 24 hours.", "notes": [ { "label": "Sixty days is the rule, thirty is the exception", "text": "The landlord's period drops to 30 days if a tenant or resident has been in the home less than a year, and the test is per person, so one occupant under a year takes the whole household to 30 days. A second 30-day track exists for a sale in escrow to a buyer who will live there, but it has six conditions and all of them must hold." }, { "label": "The tenant's period does not tier", "text": "A month-to-month tenant gives notice as long as the rental period, which is 30 days, no matter how long they have lived there. The 60-day figure binds the owner only; treating it as mutual is the most common mistake made about this rule." }, { "label": "Mailing adds no days", "text": "California's general five-day extension for service by mail does not apply to a termination notice. The period runs from the day the notice is properly served, however it was served." }, { "label": "Just cause depends on the city", "text": "Where a city or county adopted a just-cause ordinance on or before September 1, 2019, or a later one that qualifies as more protective, that ordinance governs and the state statute does not apply to the property. A property is never subject to both. The city-by-city detail is on the locality pages." }, { "label": "The just-cause statute repeals itself in 2030", "text": "It has been operative since April 1, 2024 and by its own terms is repealed on January 1, 2030 unless the Legislature acts." }, { "label": "No holdover multiplier", "text": "California has no double-rent or treble-rent statute for a tenant who stays on. The landlord recovers the damages the holdover caused plus the rent found due, and where malice is shown the court may add statutory damages of up to six hundred dollars." }, { "label": "Early-termination fees start void", "text": "A liquidated early-termination or buy-out charge in a lease of a home is void unless the actual damage would be impracticable or extremely difficult to fix. The rule takes two sections to state, which is why it is so often missed. This answer rests on the statutes rather than on the state's administrative regulations." }, { "label": "No duty to re-rent, but a real limit", "text": "California does not require a landlord to find a new tenant. It reduces the landlord's recovery by whatever loss the departing tenant proves could reasonably have been avoided, and rent for the period after judgment is recoverable only through a lease clause or a proven good-faith re-renting." }, { "label": "No tenant-death termination", "text": "No California statute lets an estate or a representative end a residential lease when the tenant dies. The tenancy survives the tenant, and the eviction statute names the executor or administrator of the estate as a defendant, so it is ended the ordinary way." }, { "label": "Automatic-renewal clauses are a form rule", "text": "California requires no reminder before an automatic-renewal clause takes effect. Instead the clause may be voided by whichever party did not draft the lease unless it appears in at least eight-point boldface in the body of the agreement with a matching boldface recital immediately before the signature line." }, { "label": "The federal 30-day notice question is open here", "text": "No California appellate court has decided whether the federal CARES Act's 30-day notice for covered dwellings still applies, so a landlord of a federally backed or subsidized property will meet the question unresolved." }, { "label": "Where the other termination rules live", "text": "Notices for nonpayment or a lease breach and the court process are on the eviction page; a rent-increase notice is on the rent-increase page; ending a lease because the home is not habitable, and protection against retaliation, are on the habitability page; local just-cause ordinances are on the locality pages; and what happens to property a tenant leaves behind is covered separately from this page." }, { "label": "Legislation", "text": "Five measures of the 2025–2026 Regular Session would have changed rules on this page — three on just cause or the survivor termination right, two on when a tenant is holding over unlawfully. All five died, and the session adjourned on August 31, 2026 without enacting any change to the sections here." } ] }, "mobile_home_parks": { "topic_verified": "2026-08-18", "verified_by_method": "Direct read of the Mobilehome Residency Law, Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798–798.88 (Articles 1 through 8), section by section on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, together with Civil Code § 1942.5, Chapter 2.6 (Recreational Vehicle Park Occupancy Law) for the coverage boundary, Government Code § 65863.7, Health and Safety Code § 18214 and §§ 18800–18806 (Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program), and the Legislature's bill pages for AB 2782 (Stats. 2020, Ch. 35), AB 2373 (Stats. 2024, Ch. 395), AB 456 (Stats. 2025, Ch. 59), AB 1170 (Stats. 2025, Ch. 67), AB 391 (Stats. 2025, Ch. 339), SB 610 (Stats. 2025, Ch. 547), AB 1543, AB 1128 and AB 768. Researched in two halves (scope, rent and lease; termination, closure, park sale and home sale) and merged after a second read of the operative sections (§§ 798.18, 798.30, 798.55, 798.56, 798.70, 798.72, 798.73.5, 798.74, 798.80).", "tier": 1, "act_name": "Mobilehome Residency Law", "act_citation": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798–798.88", "fallback_act": null, "fields": { "enforcement_agency": { "status": "regulated", "value": "Department of Housing and Community Development, through the Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program", "detail": "The department takes homeowner complaints about violations of the Mobilehome Residency Law and refers the most severe to contracted nonprofit legal services providers, which may bring enforcement actions at no charge to the homeowner. The department does not arbitrate, mediate, negotiate or give legal advice in park rent disputes. The program is paid for by a $10 annual registration fee for each permitted lot, which management may pass on to homeowners only as a separate line item and not folded into rent. The program is set to end on January 1, 2027 unless the Legislature extends it.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code § 18800", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=18800", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code § 18802", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&division=13.&title=&part=2.2.&chapter=&article=", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code § 18804", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&division=13.&title=&part=2.2.&chapter=&article=", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code § 18806", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&division=13.&title=&part=2.2.&chapter=&article=", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "private_right_of_action": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A homeowner or former homeowner may sue management to enforce rights under the act, including in small claims court. The prevailing party in any action arising out of the act is entitled to reasonable attorney's fees and costs, and a prevailing homeowner may be awarded up to $2,000 for each willful violation, at the court's discretion, or punitive damages instead of that penalty. A homeowner must give management 30 days' written notice before starting an action over a failure to maintain common-facility improvements or a reduction in service, but that step does not apply to personal injury or wrongful death claims.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.85", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=8.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.86", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=8.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.84", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=8.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (f)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "min_park_size_lots": { "status": "regulated", "value": 2, "detail": "A mobilehome park is an area of land where two or more mobilehome sites are rented, or held out for rent, to accommodate mobilehomes used for human habitation. The parallel definition in the Health and Safety Code uses the same two-lot test and also reaches land formerly held out for rent that was later converted to a subdivision, cooperative, condominium or other form of resident ownership.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.4", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=1.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code § 18214", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=18214", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "secondary_thresholds": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "No lot-count threshold switches additional rules on. The two-space definition is the only size test in the general, rental-agreement, rules and fee articles; the one narrower class the act creates is defined by where the park sits, not by how many spaces it has.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.4", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=1.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(h)(4)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "covers_park_owned_rental_homes": { "status": "regulated", "value": "general_landlord_tenant_law", "detail": "The act runs to a homeowner's tenancy, which it defines as the right to use a site within a park on which to locate, maintain and occupy a mobilehome, site improvements and accessory structures. A rental of a home owned by the park is not that relationship and is governed by ordinary residential landlord and tenant law.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.12", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.12", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.9", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.9", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "covers_rv_park_model": { "status": "regulated", "value": "included_after_period", "detail": "Recreational vehicles are outside the definition of a mobilehome, with one exception: a trailer or recreational vehicle is treated as a mobilehome once it has occupied a park site for nine or more continuous months beginning on or after November 15, 1992. An older group is also covered — vehicles that occupied a site on November 15, 1992 under a rental agreement of one month or longer and had occupied a site before January 1, 1991. Trailers and recreational vehicles in parks governed by the separate recreational vehicle park occupancy law are excluded.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.3", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.3", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)(1)–(2)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "local_mhp_rent_regulation": { "status": "regulated", "value": "exists", "detail": "State law leaves lot-rent regulation to cities and counties and says so expressly: nothing in the state's own narrow rent limit affects the authority of a local government to adopt or keep an ordinance, rule, regulation or initiative measure setting a maximum rent, and where a local measure is stricter it controls. Local mobilehome rent ordinances are in force in many California cities and counties. Two limits on those ordinances sit in the act itself. A space that is not the homeowner's principal residence, and that the homeowner has not rented to anyone else, is exempt from any local maximum-rent ordinance. And the long-standing exemption for leases longer than 12 months ended: that section was repealed on January 1, 2025, so a lease of any length is now subject to a local ordinance.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(i)(1), (e)(3)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.21", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.21", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Stats. 2020, Ch. 35 (AB 2782)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2782", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rent_increase_notice_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 90, "detail": "Management must give a homeowner written notice of any rent increase at least 90 days before the date of the increase. The same 90-day notice applies to an increase taken under the state's narrow rent limit.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rent_increase_frequency_limit": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "State law sets no general limit on how often lot rent may be raised; the only statewide constraint is the 90-day notice before each increase. A limit of two increases in any 12-month period applies to the narrow class of parks that lie within, and are governed by, two or more incorporated cities. Where a city or county has adopted a mobilehome rent ordinance, that ordinance may set its own frequency limit.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(2), (h)(4)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": "Two increases in any 12-month period, in parks located within and governed by the jurisdictions of two or more incorporated cities (§ 798.30.5(a)(2), (h)(4)). Local mobilehome rent ordinances may impose their own limits." }, "rent_increase_cap": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "There is no general statewide limit on lot-rent increases. One narrow limit exists: in a park located within and governed by the jurisdictions of two or more incorporated cities, rent may not rise over any 12-month period by more than 3 percent plus the change in the cost of living, or 5 percent, whichever is lower, measured against the lowest rent charged in the previous 12 months, and that limit ends on January 1, 2030. It does not reach a new tenancy in which no homeowner from the prior tenancy remains, deed-restricted affordable spaces, student housing spaces, resident-owned parks, or spaces already covered by a stricter local measure. For most California parks the limit on increases, if any, comes from a city or county mobilehome rent ordinance.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1), (b), (e), (h)(4), (i)(1), (j)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": "Percentage limit of 3 percent plus the change in the cost of living, or 5 percent, whichever is lower, on the lowest rent charged in the prior 12 months, in parks located within and governed by two or more incorporated cities; ends January 1, 2030 (§ 798.30.5). Elsewhere, city and county mobilehome rent ordinances set the limit where they exist." }, "rent_increase_challenge_mechanism": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "No state body reviews or approves a lot-rent increase. The state housing department's complaint program is expressly barred from arbitrating, mediating, negotiating or advising in park rent disputes. A homeowner's route is the local rent ordinance where one has been adopted, or the courts.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code § 18802", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&division=13.&title=&part=2.2.&chapter=&article=", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(i)(1)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "entrance_fee_prohibited": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A homeowner may not be charged a fee for entry, installation, hookup or landscaping as a condition of tenancy. The one exception is an actual fee or cost imposed by a local ordinance or requirement that relates directly to occupancy of the specific site, and that was not incurred as part of developing the park as a whole. Management may not require a homeowner or prospective homeowner to buy, rent or lease landscaping, remodeling or maintenance goods or services from a named supplier.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.37", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.37", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "exit_fee_prohibited": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "No section of the act bars a fee for removing a home from the park or for leaving the tenancy. What the act does bar is close by: management may not charge a transfer or selling fee as a condition of a sale within the park unless it performs a requested service, may not charge a buyer a fee as a condition of approval, and may charge a homeowner only rent, utilities and incidental reasonable charges for services actually rendered, so a fee for leaving that buys no service has no footing in the act.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.72", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.72", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.31", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.31", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "undisclosed_fees_uncollectible": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A homeowner may be charged only rent, utilities and incidental reasonable charges for services actually rendered. A charge for a service that is not listed in the rental agreement may not be imposed unless management has given at least 60 days' written notice, and every such fee must be stated separately on the billing, with an expiration date shown if the charge is time-limited. A change to the park rules that creates a new fee not expressly agreed in the written rental agreement is void and unenforceable.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.31", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=3.5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.32", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.32", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.25", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.25", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(e)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "utility_billing_regulated": { "status": "regulated", "value": "Management may bill utilities separately from rent, but must reduce rent by the average amount it was charged for that service for that space over the preceding 12 months, and detailed billing, disclosure and pricing rules apply.", "detail": "Separately billed gas, electricity, water, cable television, refuse and sewer charges are not counted as rent or as a rent increase under a local rent ordinance, provided rent is reduced at the same time by the average amount management was charged for that service for that space in the preceding 12 months. Where management provides master-meter and submeter service it must show the charge with the opening and closing meter readings and post the serving utility's current residential rate schedule or its web address, and must name any third-party billing company on the bill. Submetered water billing is limited to volumetric usage calculated in one of the listed ways, a share of the purveyor's fixed charges, and an administrative fee capped at the lower of $4.75, adjusted annually for inflation, or 25 percent of the usage charge. Management must disclose a meter on a homeowner's site that also measures common-area service and either pay for that share or stop using the meter for it. At least 72 hours' written notice is required before a non-emergency utility interruption of more than two hours. A master-meter park must notify homeowners each year by February 1 about the California Alternate Rates for Energy discount and must pass the discount through in full. Where residents may not buy liquefied petroleum gas elsewhere, management may not sell it above 110 percent of the price it actually paid, and must post that price.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.41", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.41", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.40", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.40", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.42", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.42", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.43", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.43", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.43.1", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.43.1", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.44", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.44", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "submetering_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "Meters are not required, but the act regulates how a separately billed or submetered utility may be charged. The act does not require management to submeter any utility. It sets the rules that apply when management chooses to bill a utility separately or to provide master-meter and submeter service, and it says expressly that nothing in those sections requires a rental agreement to provide for separate billing.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.41", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.41", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.40", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.40", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "security_deposit_rules": { "status": "regulated", "value": "A deposit may be demanded only on or before initial occupancy and may not exceed two months' rent, on top of the first month's rent; it must be refunded after 12 consecutive months of prompt payment or on resale of the home.", "detail": "No further deposit may be demanded after initial occupancy. For deposits collected on or after January 1, 1989, once the homeowner has paid all rent, utilities and reasonable service charges within five days of the due date for any 12 consecutive months, or once the home is resold, whichever comes first, management must refund the deposit within 30 days of a written request. Management need not hold the deposit in an interest-bearing account or pay interest on it. Older deposits carry their own refund and escrow rules when the park is sold.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.39", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.39", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (f)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "written_lease_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": "required", "detail": "The rental agreement must be in writing and must contain the term of the tenancy and the rent, the park rules, a copy of the text of the act as an exhibit, the responsibility for maintaining common facilities and the timeframes for repair, a description of the physical improvements to be provided, a list of the services included in the rent and their fees, any provision allowing a reasonable maintenance charge after 14 days' written notice, all other terms of the tenancy, and a prescribed notice. Management must return a signed copy to the homeowner within 15 business days. A waiver of rights under the act is void as contrary to public policy.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.15", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.15", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(i)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.16", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=2.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.19", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=2.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "min_lease_term_offer_months": { "status": "regulated", "value": 12, "detail": "A homeowner must be offered a rental agreement for a term of 12 months, a shorter period if the homeowner asks for one, or a longer period if both sides agree. During the first 12 months the rent, utility and incidental service charge terms may not differ from what would be offered on a month-to-month basis, and an agreement of 12 months or less may not automatically extend beyond 12 months at the sole option of either side.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.18", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.18", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "nonrenewal_notice_days": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "There is no notice period to end a lot tenancy without cause, because there is no route to end one without cause. Management may not terminate or refuse to renew a tenancy except for one of the seven reasons listed in the act. The act also bars ending a tenancy in order to free the space for someone who is buying or renting a home from the park owner. The 60-day notice that accompanies a termination is part of the for-cause process, not a no-cause notice period.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.55", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.55", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.58", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=6.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rules_change_notice_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 180, "detail": "Before amending the park rules, management must give all homeowners at least 10 days' written notice of a meeting and then meet and consult with them. After that meeting the amendment may be applied to a homeowner with that homeowner's consent, or without consent on written notice of not less than six months, shown here as 180 days. Two shorter periods apply: rules for recreational facilities, and rules amended because a statute, ordinance or government regulation changed, take not less than 60 days' written notice. A rule adopted unilaterally without the required consent or notice is void and unenforceable, and a rules change that creates a new fee not expressly agreed in the written rental agreement is void.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.25", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.25", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (d), (e)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.25.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=3.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "disclosure_document_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": "state_prescribed_document", "detail": "Management must give a prospective homeowner a written Mobilehome Park Rental Agreement Disclosure Form, whose contents are set out in the statute, at least three days before a rental agreement is signed, and must keep it current each year or after a material change in park conditions. Separately, the rental agreement itself must carry a notice in wording the act prescribes and must attach a copy of the text of the act, and management must tell all homeowners and prospective homeowners the nature of the zoning or use permit the park operates under, including any renewal or expiration date, with written notice within 30 days of a change.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.75.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.75.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.15", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.15", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c), (i)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.27", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.27", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "assembly_rights_protected": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "No rental agreement, rule or regulation may deny residents the right to assemble peacefully in the park at reasonable hours for any lawful purpose, to invite public officials and candidates in, or to canvass and distribute materials on mobilehome living. Political campaign signs of up to six square feet are protected. A resident prevented from exercising these rights may sue to stop enforcement of the rule or policy. Management must also meet and consult with homeowners within 30 days of a written request on park rules, maintenance standards, services, rental agreements offered to existing residents, utility billing and common area hours.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.51", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1), (e)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.52", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.53", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.53", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "entry_rule": { "status": "regulated", "value": "No right of entry to the home or an enclosed accessory structure without the resident's prior written consent, which the resident may revoke in writing at any time; entry onto the land is allowed for limited purposes at reasonable times.", "detail": "Management may come onto the land the home sits on to maintain utilities, trees and driveways, to maintain the premises under the park rules where the resident has failed to do so, and to protect the park, at any reasonable time, but not in a manner or at a time that interferes with the resident's quiet enjoyment. Management may enter the home or an enclosed accessory structure without prior written consent only in an emergency or where the resident has abandoned it.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.26", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.26", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "retaliation_prohibited": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "The Mobilehome Residency Law has no retaliation section of its own. The retaliation rule comes from the general residential statute in the same code, Civil Code § 1942.5, which bars a lessor from raising rent, cutting services or seeking to recover possession within 180 days after a tenant's good-faith complaint about habitability, a complaint to a public agency, or a lawful organizing activity, and which California courts have applied to park space tenancies. The act's own just-cause list separately confines the reasons a tenancy may be ended, and the act protects the right to meet and organize.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1942.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1942.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.55", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.55", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.51", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.51", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "just_cause_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A tenancy may be ended only for one or more of seven listed reasons. Management must state the reason with specific facts showing the date, place, witnesses and circumstances; citing a section number or repeating the words of the statute is not enough. Any agreement by which a homeowner gives up rights under the act is void.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.55", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.55", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.57", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=6.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "just_cause_grounds": { "status": "regulated", "value": [ "Failure to comply with a local ordinance or a state law or regulation on mobilehomes, within a reasonable time after the homeowner receives a notice of noncompliance from the government agency", "Conduct on the park premises that is a substantial annoyance to other homeowners or residents", "Conviction for prostitution, for certain assault, lewd conduct or arson offenses under the Penal Code, or for a felony controlled substance offense, where the act was committed on the park premises", "Failure to comply with a reasonable park rule that is part of the rental agreement", "Nonpayment of rent, utility charges or reasonable incidental service charges", "Condemnation of the park", "Change of use of the park or any part of it" ], "detail": "A conviction ground does not end the tenancy if the convicted person permanently leaves the home and does not move back in. For the nonpayment and change-of-use grounds, the park must hold a valid permit to operate.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1)–(7), (c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "nonpayment_notice_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 3, "detail": "The amount must first have been unpaid for at least five days from its due date, not counting the due date. Only then may management serve a three-day written notice to pay or vacate. That notice must carry a warning in 12-point boldface type at the top saying which numbered three-day notice it is within the last 12 months. Paying before the three days run out cures the default. A copy goes to the legal owner, each junior lienholder and the registered owner within 10 days, and any of them may cure within 30 days of that mailing, though not more than twice in a 12-month period. The three-day notice may be served at the same time as the 60-day termination notice.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(5)(A)–(D)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.55", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.55", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1), (c)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "rule_violation_notice_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 7, "detail": "Nothing a homeowner or resident does counts as failing to comply with a park rule unless management has given written notice of the alleged violation and the homeowner has not corrected it within seven days. Management still has to show that the rule was in fact violated.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(4)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "repeat_violation_rule": { "status": "regulated", "value": "After written notice of violating the same park rule on three or more occasions within a 12-month period, no further written notice is required before management acts on a later violation of that same rule. Separately, after three notices to pay rent or vacate within a 12-month period, no further three-day notice is required for a later nonpayment.", "detail": "Where the three-notice threshold is passed on nonpayment, each of the earlier notices must have carried the required boldface warning, and management then gives written notice to remove the home within not less than 60 days, with copies to the legal owner, each junior lienholder and the registered owner by certified or registered mail within 10 days. Even then a legal owner, junior lienholder or registered owner who has not been sent such a notice in the preceding 12 months, has not already cured a default in that period, and is not a financial institution or mobilehome dealer may cure within 30 days, which cancels the removal notice.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(4), (a)(5)(E)–(F)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "home_removal_or_sale_period_days": { "status": "regulated", "value": 60, "detail": "A termination notice must give the homeowner not less than 60 days to sell or remove the home, and the choice between the two belongs to the homeowner. Management may not require the home to be taken out of the park when it is sold to a third party during the rental agreement term or within those 60 days. The homeowner pays past due rent and utilities on the sale, and a resident who stays in the park after the notice remains subject to the act and to park rules, including maintenance of the space.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.55", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.55", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1), (b)(2), (e)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.73", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.73", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "abandonment_procedure_exists": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A home counts as abandoned only if all four things are true: no rent has been paid for the site for the preceding 60 days, it is unoccupied, a reasonable person would believe it abandoned, and it is not permanently affixed to the land. Management must post a notice of belief of abandonment on the home for not less than 30 days and mail copies by registered or certified mail to the homeowner, any known registered owner and any known holder of a security interest. After that, management petitions the superior court for a judgment of abandonment. Only with a judgment may management sell the home at public sale or dispose of it, each on its own notice and accounting steps, and anyone with a right to possession may recover the home by paying the rent and charges due.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.61", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.61", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1), (b), (c)–(f)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "mandatory_mediation": { "status": "regulated", "value": "On a homeowner's written request, management must meet and consult within 30 days, individually, collectively, or with a representative the homeowners have chosen, about park rule interpretation and enforcement, maintenance standards for trees, driveways and improvements, changes to services or facilities, rental agreements offered to existing residents, utility billing and charges, and common area hours.", "detail": "The meeting may be held in person or remotely. Management must offer in-person and telephone options and must use the method the homeowners asked for if it offered that method. A collective meeting needs 10 days' notice to everyone who requested it, and language interpreters must be allowed. This is a consultation duty, not a dispute-resolution step that gates an eviction: no mediation or similar process is required before management ends a tenancy or brings an unlawful detainer action. The only step the act puts ahead of a court case runs the other way, requiring a homeowner to give 30 days' notice before suing over common-facility maintenance or a reduction in service.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.53", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.53", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)–(d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.60", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=6.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.84", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=8.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "change_of_use_notice_months": { "status": "regulated", "value": 6, "detail": "Six months or more written notice of termination is required once all needed permits for the change of use have been approved by the local board, commission or body. Where the change of use needs no local permits, the notice is 12 months or more before management determines that the change will occur, and it must describe the nature of the change in detail. Separately, management must give homeowners at least 60 days' written notice before appearing before the local body to request the permits. A change of use may not be used to end a tenancy unless the park holds a valid permit to operate.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(7)(B)(i)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "change_of_use_variants": { "status": "regulated", "value": [ { "trigger": "Change of use that requires local permits", "notice": "At least 60 days before management appears before the local body, then six months or more after the permits are approved", "detail": "Management must also tell anyone moving in before the change that a permit request is pending or has been granted, and must follow the act's ordinary termination notice rules if the change actually happens." }, { "trigger": "Change of use that requires no local permits", "notice": "12 months or more before management determines that the change of use will occur", "detail": "The notice must disclose and describe in detail the nature of the change of use." }, { "trigger": "Condemnation of the park", "notice": "Not less than 60 days to sell or remove the home", "detail": "Condemnation is a separate ground for ending a tenancy and does not carry the six-month or 12-month change-of-use periods." }, { "trigger": "Closure, cessation or change of use caused by a disaster", "notice": "The same six-month or 12-month periods, with the impact report still required", "detail": "The impact report requirement still applies and a technical inspection report is added, but the duty to pay a displaced resident the in-place market value of the home does not apply where the closure follows damage or destruction by a disaster. Where a destroyed park is rebuilt on the same site, management must offer previous homeowners a renewed tenancy on substantially the same terms, by certified mail at least 240 days before reopening, with 60 days for the homeowner to accept." } ], "detail": "A change-of-use notice given before January 1, 1980 that met the requirements then in effect remains valid.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(6), (a)(7)(A)–(E)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Gov. Code § 65863.7", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=65863.7", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(k)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.62", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.62", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "relocation_payment_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "The duty is conditional but it is set by state law, not left to local choice: if a displaced resident cannot obtain adequate housing in another mobilehome park, the person or entity proposing the change of use must pay that resident the in-place market value of the home. It does not apply where the closure, cessation or change of use follows damage or destruction of the park by a disaster. The local body may also require other steps to mitigate the effect of the closure as a condition of approving the change.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Gov. Code § 65863.7", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=65863.7", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(2)(A), (e)(2), (k)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "relocation_payment_amounts": { "status": "regulated", "value": [ { "label": "In-place market value of the home, where the resident cannot obtain adequate housing in another park", "amount": "The home's in-place market value, set by a state-certified appraiser experienced in valuing mobilehomes; there is no fixed sum or state schedule", "basis": "Paid by the person or entity proposing the change of use, who also pays for the appraisal. The appraisal is based on the home's current in-place location and assumes the mobilehome park continues, so it is not discounted for the closure itself." } ], "detail": "This is the only money figure the state sets, and it is a valuation rather than a fixed amount. A local government may impose more stringent requirements.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Gov. Code § 65863.7", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=65863.7", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(2)(A)–(C), (l)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "relocation_payer": { "status": "regulated", "value": "park_owner", "detail": "The statute puts the cost on the person or entity proposing the change in use, which is normally the park owner, and that person also pays for the appraisal. Two situations shift who that is: where the closure results from a local government not renewing a permit or from another zoning or planning decision, the local government is treated as the party proposing the change; where an enforcement agency suspends the park's permit to operate, the park owner is.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Gov. Code § 65863.7", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=65863.7", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(2)(A), (i), (j)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "government_notice_on_closure_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "Before a park is converted, closed or taken out of use, the party proposing the change must file a report with the local advisory agency or legislative body on the effect of the change, including a replacement and relocation plan that adequately mitigates the effect on displaced residents' ability to find adequate housing in a mobilehome park. A copy goes to a resident of each home at least 60 days before the hearing, and where the report is filed before closure it goes out at the same time as the change notice. Management must also give homeowners at least 60 days' written notice before appearing before the local body to request change-of-use permits. Residents may ask for a hearing on whether the report is sufficient. The requirement does not apply where the closure results from an order for relief in bankruptcy.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Gov. Code § 65863.7", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=65863.7", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1)(A), (b), (c), (d), (f)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(7)(A), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "park_sale_notice_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "The duty is real but conditional, and residents must switch it on themselves. It is owed only to a resident organization the homeowners have formed as a nonprofit corporation, stock cooperative corporation or similar entity for the purpose of converting the park to condominium or stock cooperative ownership and of buying the park. The owner need not give notice unless that organization has first given the owner or manager the names and addresses of its president, secretary and treasurer, told the owner or manager in writing that residents are interested in buying the park before any listing or offer and once each year after that, and given written notice within five days of any change in those officers. Where no qualifying organization has registered, no notice is owed.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.80", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.80", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "park_sale_notice_trigger": { "status": "regulated", "value": "Not less than 30 days and not more than one year before the owner enters a written listing agreement with a licensed real estate broker for the sale of the park, or offers to sell the park to any party.", "detail": "The window is both a floor and a ceiling. An offer counts only if the park owner or the owner's agent started it, so an unsolicited approach from a buyer does not trigger the notice. Notice goes by first-class mail or personal delivery to the president, secretary and treasurer of the resident organization.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.80", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.80", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "resident_purchase_right": { "status": "regulated", "value": "notice_only", "detail": "California gives residents advance notice of an intended sale and nothing more. There is no right to match a third-party offer, no exclusive period to negotiate, no deadline for residents to respond, and no duty on the owner to consider or answer a resident offer. A separate rule points the other way and is sometimes confused with a purchase right: a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2006 may not give management a right of first refusal over the homeowner's own home when it is offered for sale, although the parties may still agree to one separately for separate consideration.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.80", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.80", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.19.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.19.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "resident_response_days": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "The section that sets the park-sale notice rules contains no response window. Because the mechanism is notice only, there is nothing residents must answer within a fixed time. The 30-day to one-year window in the statute limits when the owner may list or offer the park, not how long residents have. What governs instead is ordinary contract negotiation between the owner and any resident organization that wants to make an offer.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.80", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.80", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "association_threshold_pct": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "No share of homeowners is specified. The park-sale notice section sets requirements about the form of the organization rather than its size: it must be formed by homeowners in the park as a nonprofit corporation, a stock cooperative corporation or a similar entity for the purpose of converting the park to condominium or stock cooperative ownership and of buying it, and it must have registered its officers with the owner. How many homeowners must join is left to the organization's own formation documents.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.80", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.80", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "park_sale_exceptions": { "status": "regulated", "value": [ "Sale or other transfer by a park owner who is a natural person to a relative within the Probate Code's intestate succession list", "Transfer by gift, devise or operation of law", "Transfer by a corporation to an affiliate", "Transfer by a partnership to any of its partners", "Conveyance resulting from judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure of a mortgage or deed of trust on the park, or a deed given in lieu of foreclosure", "Sale or transfer between or among joint tenants or tenants in common who own the park", "Purchase of the park by a government entity under its powers of eminent domain" ], "detail": "The corporate exception is broad: an affiliate means any shareholder of the transferring corporation, any entity it owns or controls directly or indirectly, or any entity controlled directly or indirectly by any of its shareholders.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.80", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.80", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(e)(1)–(7)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "assignment_right": { "status": "not_regulated", "value": null, "detail": "The park-sale notice section is the provision that would carry a right to hand the purchase opportunity to a nonprofit or a local government, and it contains none, nor does any other section of the transfer article. Because residents receive notice only and not a purchase opportunity, there is nothing to assign. A resident organization may of course bring in a nonprofit or public partner on its own terms.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.80", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.80", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "violation_penalty": { "status": "regulated", "value": "A sale made without the required notice cannot be undone: the statute expressly preserves the validity of title. The remedy is a civil action against the seller by homeowner residents or the resident organization, which carries reasonable attorney's fees and costs to the prevailing party and up to $2,000 for each willful violation at the court's discretion, or punitive damages instead of that penalty.", "detail": "The listing broker's right to a commission under a signed contract with the park owner is also preserved.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.80", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.80", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c), (d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.85", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=8.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.86", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=8.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "sale_in_place_protected": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "Management may not require a home to be taken out of the park when it is sold to a third party during the rental agreement term, or within the 60 days following a termination notice. Management may also not prohibit the listing or sale of a used home in the park by the homeowner, an heir, a joint tenant or a personal representative, or their agent. Removal may be required only in the narrow upgrade situations the act lists, and management must give notice specifying the condition that permits it.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.73", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.73", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.81", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.81", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "sale_commission_prohibited": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "Management may not charge a transfer or selling fee as a condition of a sale within the park unless it performs a service in the sale, and it may not perform such a service unless the homeowner asks for it in writing. It may not charge a buyer a fee as a condition of approval for residency unless it performs a specific service in the sale, and may not charge for an interview beyond a credit check. Management may also not require the seller to appoint management, or any named broker or dealer, as agent as a condition of resale or of approving the buyer.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.72", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.72", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.81", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.81", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "buyer_approval_allowed": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "Management may require the right of prior approval of a prospective buyer of a home that will remain in the park. The selling homeowner or their agent must tell management about the sale before it closes.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.74", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.74", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)(1)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "buyer_approval_standard": { "status": "regulated", "value": "Approval may be withheld only on three grounds: management reasonably determines from the buyer's prior tenancies that they will not comply with park rules; the buyer does not have the financial ability to pay the rent, estimated utilities and other park charges; or the buyer committed fraud, deceit or concealment of material facts during the application. Management has 15 days from notice of the sale to give the seller and the buyer its customary approval standards, including the minimum credit score it requires, and a list of every document it will need, and 15 business days after receiving all requested information to accept or reject in writing. If it misses that deadline the application counts as approved.", "detail": "Management may ask a buyer to document the amount and source of gross monthly income or means of support, but may not demand documents beyond the list it disclosed, and may not require copies of personal income tax returns. A buyer rejected for financial ability may submit further asset information, including savings, certificates of deposit, stock portfolios, trust interests, real property and similar assets that can be sold, which management must weigh alongside gross monthly income, though it may also consider liabilities. A credit-report fee is credited toward the first month's rent, refunded in full within 30 days if the buyer is rejected, and partly retainable for administrative costs if the buyer is approved but does not go ahead. Management may be liable to the selling homeowner for damages caused by not following these rules. Age-based rules for housing for older persons remain permitted where they comply with the federal Fair Housing Act.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.74", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.74", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(2), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.75", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=7.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "age_size_style_rejection_prohibited": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "Age and width appear in the statute, but never on their own. Each removal ground pairs an age threshold, and in two cases a width, with a separate finding that the home does not meet the health, safety or construction standards of the Health and Safety Code, confirmed by an inspection by the appropriate enforcement agency. The remaining ground, that the home is significantly rundown or in disrepair, is judged on its general condition and its acceptability to the health and safety of occupants and the public, and the statute says expressly that this is decided exclusive of the home's age. Management bears the burden of showing the condition and must give notice specifying it. Style is not a ground at all.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.73", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.73", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b), (c), (d), (e)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "presale_repairs_may_be_required": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "Repairs may be required, but only within tight limits. They must concern the home, its appurtenances or an accessory structure that management does not own or install; they must rest on a local ordinance, a state statute or regulation, or a park rule implementing one of those; and they must relate to the exterior. Management may not require repairs or improvements to the park space or to property it owns, except for damage caused by the homeowner or the homeowner's agent. On request, management must give a written summary of the required repairs within 15 business days, with specific references to the park rules, local ordinances and state provisions it relies on, and if it does not, it gives up the right to require repairs other than those a local ordinance or statute requires on health and safety grounds.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.73.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=7.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.83", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.83", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null }, "for_sale_sign_protected": { "status": "regulated", "value": true, "detail": "A homeowner, or an heir, joint tenant or personal representative who takes ownership on the owner's death, or their agent, may advertise a sale or exchange with one sign in the home's window, one on the side of the home facing the street, or one in front of the home facing the street. The sign must state the owner's or agent's name, address and telephone number, and its face may not exceed 24 inches wide by 36 inches high. Permitted designs are H-frame, A-frame, L-frame or the generally accepted yard-arm type, set perpendicular to but not extending into the street, and management may require a step-in L-frame. Leaflet tubes or holders may be attached. One open house sign is also allowed where the park permits open houses, and the park may set reasonable rules on how they are run. Advertising a rental is permitted unless the rental agreement prohibits it.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.70", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.70", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ], "effective_from": null, "sub_state_variation": null } }, "fhfa_protections": { "p1": { "meets": true, "basis": "A homeowner must be offered a rental agreement for a term of 12 months, a shorter term on request, or a longer term by agreement, and a tenancy may be ended by management only for the reasons the act lists.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.18", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.18", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ] }, "p2": { "meets": true, "basis": "Management must give written notice of any rent increase at least 90 days before it takes effect, more than the 60 days this protection asks for.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.30", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.30", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ] }, "p3": { "meets": "partial", "basis": "The right to cure is there: rent must be unpaid for at least five days from its due date before management may serve the three-day notice to pay or vacate, and payment before the three-day period expires ends the matter. The act sets no grace period before a late charge may be added, so the five-day-grace half of the protection is not met by statute.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(5)" } ] }, "p4": { "meets": true, "basis": "Management may not require a home to be removed from the park when it is sold to a third party during the rental agreement term or within the 60 days after a termination notice, and the listed exceptions require an enforcement agency inspection finding or a demonstrated rundown condition (Cal. Civ. Code § 798.73).", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.73", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.73", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ] }, "p5": { "meets": true, "basis": "A termination notice must give the homeowner not less than 60 days to sell or remove the home at the homeowner's own election, and a sale in place during that window is protected, which exceeds the 30 days the protection calls for (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.55(b)(1), 798.73).", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.55", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.55", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)(1)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.73", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.73", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ] }, "p6": { "meets": "partial", "basis": "California does not give a right to assign the unexpired lease term to the buyer; it reaches a similar result by a different route, limiting refusal of a buyer to three grounds and treating management's silence past the decision deadline as approval, with the buyer signing a new rental agreement rather than taking an assignment (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.74(c), 798.74(e)(3), 798.75).", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.74", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.74", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c), (e)(3)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.75", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=7.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ] }, "p7": { "meets": true, "basis": "A homeowner may display one for-sale sign in the window, on the side facing the street, or in front of the home, of a stated size and design, plus one open house sign where the park permits open houses (Cal. Civ. Code § 798.70(a)).", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.70", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.70", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" } ] }, "p8": { "meets": "partial", "basis": "Closure notice far exceeds 60 days, at six months after permits are approved or 12 months where no permit is needed, plus 60 days before the permit hearing; but notice of a planned sale can be as little as 30 days and is owed only to a resident organization that has registered its officers and stated its interest in writing, so residents in a park without one receive no sale notice (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.56(a)(7), 798.80).", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(7)(A)–(B)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.80", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.80", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" } ] } }, "pending_legislation": [ { "bill": "AB 1543 (2025–2026)", "summary": "Would have extended the state's rent limit from parks located within two or more incorporated cities to any mobilehome park, operative January 1, 2027, keeping the 3 percent plus cost-of-living or 5 percent formula and the January 1, 2030 end date. It did not become law and the rent limit still reaches only parks in two or more incorporated cities.", "status": "Referred to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on February 2, 2026 and never heard. The 2025–2026 Regular Session has ended and California bills do not carry over, so the bill is dead.", "checked": "2026-09-05", "lifecycle": "dead", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null }, { "bill": "AB 1128 (2025–2026)", "summary": "Would have amended the same rent-limit section as it applies to the City of Torrance. It did not become law and the section is unchanged.", "status": "Passed the Assembly on June 2, 2025. The Senate amended the bill and passed it on August 26, 2026, but the Assembly refused to concur in the Senate's amendments by 28 votes to 18 in the session's closing hours, an action recorded September 1, 2026. The two houses never passed the same text, the bill was never sent to the Governor, and California bills do not carry over, so it is dead.", "checked": "2026-09-05", "lifecycle": "dead", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null }, { "bill": "AB 768 (2025–2026)", "summary": "Would have reworked the exemption from local rent ordinances for a space that is not the homeowner's principal residence, replacing the residence test with a permanent-housing test, requiring management to explain its determination, and giving a homeowner's written statement a rebuttable presumption. It did not become law and the principal-residence test still governs.", "status": "Passed the Assembly on January 20, 2026. In the Senate Judiciary Committee its first hearing was set and then canceled at the author's request on June 26, 2026, and it took no further action. The 2025–2026 Regular Session has ended and California bills do not carry over, so the bill is dead.", "checked": "2026-09-05", "lifecycle": "dead", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null } ], "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798–798.14 (Article 1, General)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=1.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.15–798.22 (Article 2, Rental Agreement)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=2.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.23–798.29.6 (Article 3, Rules and Regulations)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=3.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.30–798.39.5 (Article 3.5, Fees and Charges)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=3.5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.40–798.44.2 (Article 4, Utilities)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=4.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code §§ 18800–18806", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&division=13.&title=&part=2.2.&chapter=&article=", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code § 18214", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=18214", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.55", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.55", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.56", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.56", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.50–798.53", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.70–798.83", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=7.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code §§ 798.84–798.88", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&division=2.&title=2.&part=2.&chapter=2.5.&article=8.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Gov. Code § 65863.7", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=65863.7", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.3", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.3", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "California's Mobilehome Residency Law, Civil Code sections 798 to 798.88, governs tenancies in parks of two or more spaces where the resident owns the home and rents the space beneath it: management must give 90 days' written notice of a lot-rent increase, must offer every homeowner a rental agreement with a 12-month term, may end a tenancy only for one of seven listed reasons, and must give six months' notice of a closure once the local permits are approved, plus an impact report that can require paying a displaced resident the in-place market value of the home. There is no general statewide cap on lot rent; a narrow limit of 3 percent plus the change in the cost of living, or 5 percent, whichever is lower, reaches only parks that lie within and are governed by two or more incorporated cities, and it ends on January 1, 2030. Cities and counties may regulate lot rents, and many do. A rule violation carries a seven-day cure period and a three-day notice to pay may be served only after rent has been unpaid for five days. Residents have strong rights around the home itself: it may be sold in place, management may not take a commission or force the seller to use its agent, a for-sale sign is protected, and a buyer may be refused only on three grounds, with silence past the decision deadline counting as approval. When the park itself is sold, residents get advance notice but no right to buy, and only if they have first formed and registered a resident organization; the state housing department runs a complaint program for violations of the act, though it may not take part in rent disputes.", "notes": [ { "label": "What counts as a park", "text": "Two or more mobilehome sites rented or held out for rent. The parallel Health and Safety Code definition also reaches land formerly held out for rent that was later converted to a subdivision, cooperative or condominium, and excludes certain permitted employee housing and manufactured-home accessory dwelling units." }, { "label": "Rent limits are mostly local", "text": "The statewide limit reaches only parks that lie within and are governed by two or more incorporated cities, and it ends January 1, 2030. Elsewhere any limit comes from a city or county mobilehome rent ordinance. AB 1543, pending in 2026, would extend the statewide limit to every park from January 1, 2027." }, { "label": "The long-lease exemption is gone", "text": "The section that exempted leases longer than 12 months from local rent ordinances was repealed as of January 1, 2025 by the 2020 act that put a sunset on it. Two surviving sections still refer to it by number." }, { "label": "Spaces that are not a principal residence", "text": "A space that is not the homeowner's principal residence, and that the homeowner has not rented to anyone else, is exempt from local maximum-rent ordinances, subject to a records test and a 90-day window for the homeowner to respond before rent or terms may change. The exemption does not apply where subletting is barred, where the home is actively held for sale, or where the legal owner has taken possession." }, { "label": "Rules changes", "text": "Six months' written notice for most rules changes, but 60 days for rules on recreational facilities and for changes required by a change in the law, and 10 days' notice of the meeting that must precede any amendment." }, { "label": "The state complaint program has an end date", "text": "The Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program at the state housing department is funded by a $10 annual fee per permitted lot, which may be passed to homeowners only as a separate line item, and is repealed on January 1, 2027 unless extended." }, { "label": "Electronic notices", "text": "From January 1, 2026 certain annual notices may be sent by email where the homeowner has given separate written consent, which may be revoked at any time without penalty." }, { "label": "Section numbers changed in 2026", "text": "Sources published before 2026 cite subdivisions (d), (e) and (g) of Civil Code section 798.56 for the rule-violation, nonpayment and change-of-use grounds. A reorganization of the codes effective January 1, 2026 moved those rules to paragraphs (4), (5) and (7) of subdivision (a). The rules themselves did not change, only where they sit. The Government Code section on park closure still points to the former numbering." }, { "label": "Notice of a park sale has to be switched on by residents", "text": "The park owner owes no notice of an intended sale unless homeowners have formed a resident organization as a nonprofit or stock cooperative corporation for the purpose of buying or converting the park, given the owner the names and addresses of its president, secretary and treasurer, said in writing that residents are interested in buying before any listing or offer and again once each year, and reported any change of officers within five days." }, { "label": "A sale made without notice cannot be undone", "text": "The statute expressly preserves the validity of title to a park transferred in violation of the notice rule. Residents or the resident organization may sue the seller for damages, reasonable attorney's fees and costs, and up to $2,000 for each willful violation at the court's discretion." }, { "label": "Relocation money is a valuation, not a set figure", "text": "Where a displaced resident cannot obtain adequate housing in another park, the party proposing the change of use must pay that resident the home's in-place market value, set by a state-certified appraiser at the payer's expense and assuming the park continues. There is no dollar schedule. This payment does not apply where the closure follows damage or destruction by a disaster, and a local government may impose more stringent requirements." }, { "label": "Recreational vehicles come under the act after nine months", "text": "A trailer or other recreational vehicle used for human habitation, other than a motor home, truck camper or camping trailer, counts as a mobilehome once it has occupied a mobilehome site in the park for nine or more continuous months, except for the section on removing a home when it is sold. Recreational vehicle parks are governed by a separate chapter that does not apply to mobilehomes or manufactured homes." }, { "label": "The act's last article is about a different kind of community", "text": "Civil Code sections 799 through 799.13 govern subdivisions, cooperatives, condominiums and resident-owned parks, where residents hold an ownership interest. Those communities fall outside what this page covers, which is the relationship between a community owner and a resident who owns the home and rents the lot." }, { "label": "The park's own permit is a precondition", "text": "A tenancy may not be ended for nonpayment or for a change of use unless the park holds a valid permit to operate issued by the enforcement agency. This requirement was added in 2024 and took effect on February 1, 2025." } ] }, "application_screening_fees": { "topic_verified": "2026-08-25", "verified_by_method": "Direct read of California Civil Code sections 1950.6, 1950.1, 1950.5, 1770, 1761, 1785.3, 1785.11, 1785.20, 1785.31, 1786.16, 1786.40 and 1786.50 on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, together with the section list for Civil Code Division 3, Part 4, Title 5, Chapter 2; the Department of Real Estate landlord-tenant guidebook page on the rental application and the Attorney General's Honest Pricing Law page for state-published figures and agency-stated scope; and a 2025-2026 session sweep taking each enacted-law claim from the legislature's own bill status and history pages for AB 1170 (Chapter 67, Statutes of 2025), AB 1248, SB 381 and SB 681, plus AB 2493 (Chapter 966, Statutes of 2024) and SB 611 (Chapter 287, Statutes of 2024), and confirmation on the code itself that sections 1950.2 and 1950.3 do not exist.", "application_fee_cap": "Two limits apply at once: the fee may not exceed the landlord's actual out-of-pocket cost of gathering the applicant's information, and in no case may it exceed a base of $30 per applicant, which the landlord may raise annually in line with increases in the Consumer Price Index running from January 1, 1998.\n\nCalifornia sets no single published dollar maximum. The statute fixes a $30 base and allows the landlord or their agent to adjust it each year in line with increases in the Consumer Price Index, so the ceiling rises over time and no state office is directed to calculate or publish a yearly amount. The most recent figure published by a California state agency is $62.02, given as of December 2023 in the Department of Real Estate's landlord-tenant guidebook. Whatever the ceiling, the actual out-of-pocket cost limit still applies, and that cost may include the reasonable value of the time the landlord or their agent spent obtaining the information.", "fee_limited_to_actual_cost": true, "screening_fee_rules": "A fee may not be charged when the landlord knows or should know no unit is available or will become available within a reasonable time, and it may be collected only while the landlord is offering one of two set application processes.\n\nThe first permitted process considers completed applications in the order received under the landlord's established screening criteria, gives those criteria to the applicant in writing together with the application form, approves the first applicant who meets them, and charges no fee unless and until an application is actually considered. The second returns the entire fee to any applicant not selected, for any reason, within seven days of selecting a tenant or thirty days of the application, whichever comes first. The landlord must be offering one of the two at the moment the money is collected. Guarantors and cosigners count as applicants and may each be charged. A landlord may accept and rely on a consumer credit report an applicant brings, but is not obliged to. The fee is not treated as security under the security deposit statute and is not an advance fee under Section 10026 of the Business and Professions Code.", "receipt_required": true, "refund_required": true, "refund_rules": "Any unused portion must be returned where the promised reference check or credit report was not done; a fee taken inadvertently from an applicant whose application is not considered must be refunded within seven days; and under the second permitted process the entire fee returns to every applicant not selected within seven days of choosing a tenant or thirty days of the application, whichever comes first.\n\nWhere multiple applications arrive at once and a fee is collected from someone whose application is then not considered, the landlord may offer, as an alternative to the seven-day refund, to apply the money to an application for another unit the landlord offers, and that choice belongs to the applicant. Under the first permitted process there is no refund duty toward an applicant who was actually considered and then denied for not meeting the landlord's established screening criteria. Separately, a landlord who accepts reusable tenant screening reports may not charge a screening fee at all to an applicant who supplies one.", "disclosure_rules": "A landlord using the first-qualified-applicant process must give the applicant the established screening criteria in writing together with the application form, and any landlord seeking an investigative consumer report about an applicant must notify them in writing within three days of first requesting it.\n\nThe written screening criteria duty rides on the first of the two permitted application processes; a landlord using the process that refunds the fee to everyone not selected is not required by the fee statute to hand over written criteria. The investigative consumer report notice is separate and must name the agency preparing the report, state that the report will cover the applicant's character, general reputation, personal characteristics, and mode of living, and summarize the applicant's inspection rights under Section 1786.22. The applicant must also be given a box to check to request a copy of the report, which must then be sent within three business days of the landlord receiving it.", "adverse_action_rules": "California imposes its own denial-notice duties where a rental decision rests on a consumer credit report, and it separately requires the applicant to receive a copy of that report within seven days whenever a screening fee was paid, whatever the outcome.\n\nState law defines an adverse action to include a determination on an application for the hiring of a dwelling unit that is adverse to the applicant, and it treats rental screening as a permissible purpose for obtaining a consumer credit report. Anyone taking such an action based in whole or in part on a consumer credit report must give written notice of it, identify the reporting agency by name, address, and telephone number, state that the decision rested in whole or in part on the report, and give written notice of the applicant's right to a free copy of the report within sixty days and to dispute its accuracy or completeness. A defense is available to a landlord who shows they maintained reasonable procedures to comply. Where the decision rests on an investigative consumer report, the landlord must advise the applicant and supply the agency's name and address. The seven-day copy of the consumer credit report is owed whenever a screening fee was paid, without the applicant asking and regardless of whether they were approved. Federal fair credit reporting duties run alongside these state duties.", "reusable_report_rules": "A landlord may choose to accept reusable tenant screening reports but is never required to; a landlord who does accept one may charge the applicant neither a fee to access the report nor an application screening fee.\n\nTo qualify, the report must have been prepared within the previous thirty days by a consumer reporting agency at the applicant's own request and expense, must be available to the landlord at no cost to access or use, and must be supplied directly to the landlord or through a third-party service that regularly provides such reports. It must prominently state the date through which its information is current and must cover the applicant's name, contact information, verification of employment, last known address, and the results of an eviction history check. A landlord may require the applicant to state that nothing in the report has materially changed.\n\nWhere a city, county, or city and county policy conflicts with the reusable report statute, the policy giving applicants greater protection applies, so local rules may go further than the state rule.", "holding_deposit_rules": null, "junk_fee_limits": null, "penalty_for_violation": "The application screening fee statute and the reusable report statute each set duties without attaching any penalty of their own; the penalties in this area come from the state's credit reporting laws and attach to the disclosure and denial-notice duties.\n\nFor the state denial-notice duties tied to a consumer credit report, a negligent violation exposes the landlord to the applicant's actual damages including court costs, lost wages, attorney's fees, and where applicable pain and suffering, while a willful violation adds punitive damages of not less than one hundred dollars and not more than five thousand dollars. Obtaining a report under false pretenses or without a permissible purpose carries an award of not less than two thousand five hundred dollars. For the notice duties tied to an investigative consumer report, a landlord who fails to comply is liable for the applicant's actual damages or ten thousand dollars, whichever is greater, outside class actions, plus the costs of the action and reasonable attorney's fees, with punitive damages available where the violation was grossly negligent or willful. A landlord who shows they maintained reasonable procedures to comply has a defense to the denial-notice duty.", "pending_legislation": [ { "bill": "SB 681 (2025-2026, Wahab)", "summary": "Would have removed the reasonable value of the landlord's own time from what an application screening fee may cover, leaving only the actual out-of-pocket costs of conducting the screening. The same bill would have added a new section barring fees not specified in the rental agreement, pet fees and parking fees, capping late fees at 2 percent of the monthly rental rate and only once rent is seven or more days overdue, and capping total fees at 5 percent of the monthly rental amount. It did not become law and the screening-fee section is unchanged.", "status": "Passed the Senate on June 4, 2025 by 28 votes to 10. In the Assembly it was referred to the Housing and Community Development and Judiciary Committees on June 16, 2025, its July 2 hearing was postponed on June 27, 2025, and it took no further action in either committee. The 2025–2026 Regular Session has ended and California bills do not carry over, so the bill is dead.", "lifecycle": "dead", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null, "checked": "2026-09-05" }, { "bill": "AB 1248 (2025-2026, Haney)", "summary": "Would have added a new Civil Code section limiting a tenant in a new tenancy to paying rent and a set list of charges, and requiring anyone advertising or offering residential property for rent to include all required fees in the advertised price. It did not become law and the section it would have added does not exist.", "status": "Ordered to the inactive file at the author's request on June 3, 2025 and recorded as having died on the inactive file on February 2, 2026.", "lifecycle": "dead", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null, "checked": "2026-08-25" } ], "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.6", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "California Department of Real Estate, Landlord-Tenant Guidebook, The Rental Application", "url": "https://www.dre.ca.gov/publications/ResourceGuidebook/gb05_lookingfor.html", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.6", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)(1), (c)(2)(A)(i)-(iii), (c)(2)(B), (a), (j), (k)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.6", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.6", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(e), (c)(2)(A)(iv), (c)(2)(B)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.1", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.1", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.6", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)(2)(A)(i)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1786.16", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1786.16", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(3), (b)(1)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1785.20", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1785.20", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1785.3", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1785.3", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.6", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(f)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1786.40", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1786.40", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.1", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.1", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b), (c), (d), (e)(6), (h)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.6", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(g)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.5", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.6", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(k)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1770", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1770", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (a)(29)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1761", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1761", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "California Attorney General, Hidden Fees and the Honest Pricing Law", "url": "https://oag.ca.gov/hiddenfees", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1785.31", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1785.31", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1)-(3), (d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1786.50", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1786.50", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1), (a)(2), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1785.20", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1785.20", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.6", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.6", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.1", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.1", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1785.20", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1785.20", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1786.16", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1786.16", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "California limits a rental application screening fee to the landlord's actual out-of-pocket screening costs and, on top of that, to a base of $30 per applicant that the landlord may raise each year in line with the Consumer Price Index, and it surrounds the fee with rules on when it may be collected, what must be refunded, and what the applicant must receive. No fee may be taken when the landlord knows no unit is available, and a fee may be collected only while the landlord offers one of two processes: considering completed applications in the order received under written screening criteria handed out with the application form and approving the first qualified applicant, or returning the entire fee to everyone not selected within seven days of choosing a tenant or thirty days of the application, whichever comes first. Whenever a fee is paid, the applicant is owed an itemized receipt and a copy of any consumer credit report within seven days of the landlord receiving it, and state credit reporting law adds its own denial-notice duties on top of the federal ones. A landlord need not accept a reusable tenant screening report, but one who does accept a qualifying report may charge neither a fee to access it nor an application screening fee. California does not regulate holding deposits and does not require advertised rent to include mandatory fees.", "notes": [ { "label": "There is no official current-year dollar figure", "text": "The statute sets a $30 base and lets the landlord or their agent raise it each year in line with increases in the Consumer Price Index since January 1, 1998. It does not direct any state office to calculate or publish an annual maximum, and none does. The most recent amount published by a California state agency is $62.02, given as of December 2023 in the Department of Real Estate's landlord-tenant guidebook. Higher current-year figures in circulation come from industry groups rather than the state, and they disagree with one another." }, { "label": "The actual-cost limit binds even when the indexed ceiling is higher", "text": "The indexed figure is a ceiling, not an entitlement. A landlord whose screening costs less than that ceiling may charge only what the screening actually cost, and that amount may include the reasonable value of the time spent gathering the information." }, { "label": "The written screening criteria duty applies to only one of the two processes", "text": "Screening criteria must be given to the applicant in writing with the application form where the landlord uses the process that considers applications in the order received and approves the first qualified applicant. A landlord using the process that returns the whole fee to everyone not selected is not required by the fee statute to provide written criteria." }, { "label": "Denial after real consideration does not trigger a refund", "text": "Under the first-qualified-applicant process, no refund is owed to an applicant whose application was actually considered and then denied for not meeting the landlord's established screening criteria. The seven-day refund rule covers a fee collected inadvertently from someone whose application was never considered." }, { "label": "Guarantors and cosigners are applicants", "text": "The definition of applicant covers anyone who asks to rent a unit and anyone who agrees to act as a guarantor or cosigner, so each may be charged a separate fee subject to the same limits and duties." }, { "label": "Reusable reports are optional for the landlord on both sides", "text": "Nothing requires a landlord to accept a reusable tenant screening report, and nothing requires a landlord to accept a credit report an applicant simply brings along. The no-fee rule applies only once a landlord has chosen to accept reusable reports and is given a qualifying one, meaning a report prepared within the previous thirty days at the applicant's expense and available to the landlord at no cost." }, { "label": "The fee is neither a deposit nor an advance fee", "text": "The application screening fee is not counted as security under the security deposit statute and is not an advance fee under Section 10026 of the Business and Professions Code, so the security deposit limits and return deadlines do not reach it." }, { "label": "Local rules can go further", "text": "The application screening fee statute contains no clause displacing local regulation, and the reusable report statute states that where a local policy conflicts with it the policy giving applicants greater protection applies. Some California cities regulate screening fees directly, so a local rule may be stricter than the state rule." }, { "label": "How the cost limit works", "text": "The fee may not be greater than the actual out-of-pocket costs of gathering information about the applicant. The statute names the cost of a tenant screening service or a consumer credit reporting service as examples, and it also counts the reasonable value of the time the landlord or their agent spent obtaining the information as part of that amount." }, { "label": "What the receipt duty covers", "text": "The landlord or their agent must give the applicant a receipt for the fee, delivered personally or by mail, itemizing the out-of-pocket expenses and the time spent obtaining and processing the applicant's information. The landlord and the applicant may agree instead to have the receipt sent to an email account the applicant provides." }, { "label": "When money must come back", "text": "At least three separate circumstances force a return of money. Any unused part of the fee must go back if the landlord does not perform a personal reference check or obtain a consumer credit report. A fee collected inadvertently from someone whose application is never considered must be refunded within seven days. Under the second permitted application process, the entire fee goes back to every applicant not selected." }, { "label": "Money to hold a unit", "text": "The chapter of the Civil Code covering the hiring of real property contains no holding deposit provision. The section that would carry one is the security deposit statute, whose definition of security reaches payments imposed at the beginning of the tenancy and expressly sets the application screening fee to one side; the fee statute likewise states that a screening fee is not security. What governs a holding deposit instead is the agreement between the landlord and the applicant, read under general contract law. The Department of Real Estate's landlord-tenant guidebook describes the customary practice, saying a holding deposit only guarantees that the landlord will not rent the unit to someone else for a stated period and does not give the applicant a right to move in, but that description is agency guidance rather than a statutory rule." }, { "label": "Advertising and fee transparency", "text": "California's all-in pricing rule sits inside the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, which reaches transactions resulting in the sale or lease of goods or services to a consumer. That Act limits goods to tangible chattels bought or leased mainly for personal, family, or household purposes and limits services to work and labor for other than commercial use, and the Attorney General's page on the law describes its reach through examples such as event tickets, short-term rentals, hotels, and food delivery without naming residential tenancies. Nothing in the state's own materials applies it to renting a home. A 2024 law does bar a landlord from charging a tenant for serving, posting, or delivering tenancy notices and from charging a fee to pay rent by check, but those are charges during a tenancy rather than rules about advertising a unit or charging an applicant." } ] }, "deposit_interest": { "topic_verified": "2026-08-28", "verified_by_method": "Direct read of California Civil Code § 1950.5 in the Legislative Counsel's official published text — all eighteen subdivisions, (a) through (r), read in full, with each of the twenty-six occurrences of the word 'interest' examined in context and the section searched for every escrow, trust-account, separate-account, segregation and interest-bearing term. The operative version was established twice over: from the section's own credit line (Stats. 2025, ch. 340, § 1 (AB 414), effective January 1, 2026) and from the Legislature's own status record for AB 414, chaptered October 6, 2025. Civil Code § 798.39 of the Mobilehome Residency Law, subdivisions (a) through (g), read in full for the separate park rule.", "interest_required": "no_silent", "rate_mechanism": null, "current_rate_plain": null, "rate_rules": null, "accrual_payment_rules": null, "coverage_conditions": null, "segregation_required": null, "interest_bearing_account_required": null, "custody_rules": null, "penalty_for_violation": null, "local_rules": "California's answer is a state-level answer only, and a tenant in a rent-regulated city needs the local rule instead. Seven local regimes carry a live duty. San Francisco (Administrative Code ch. 49) owes interest on any deposit held a year or more, at a rate the Rent Board announces each year from a federal commercial-paper average. Los Angeles (Municipal Code § 151.06.02) lets the landlord pay either the rate the Rent Adjustment Commission adopts each year — published by the Housing Department in its Bulletin #44 — or the account's actual earnings shown by bank statements. Berkeley (Municipal Code § 13.76.070 with Regulations 701 through 706) fixes the rate by regulation and publishes a city calculator for it. West Hollywood (Municipal Code § 17.32.020) sets the rate from a survey of five online, federally insured banks under Regulation 42000, due each year by September 1. Watsonville (Municipal Code ch. 5-40) is conditional: the Council sets a rate annually, but whenever the figure falls below one-half of one percent the ordinance makes payment optional for the landlord — which it has been every published year since 2011. Unincorporated Santa Cruz County (County Code § 8.42.010) runs its own annual rate. East Palo Alto splits: its general rental stock carries no duty, while mobilehome park space deposits earn the account's actual earnings each December under the city's 1988 ordinance and implementing regulations. Two cities often listed alongside them no longer belong there — Santa Monica's Rent Control Board suspended the interest parts of Regulation 14001 effective June 22, 2002, and Hayward repealed its ordinance in 2019 and now leaves the question to state law. And two California cities are named in circulating claims that are simply false: neither San Jose nor Richmond requires deposit interest, and each is answered in its own record.", "rate_tables": null, "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5 (security deposits; the section is silent on interest)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1950.5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "subdivisions (a)-(r); (d) for the creditor-priority rule" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 798.39 (Mobilehome Residency Law; the express park rule)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=798.39.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(f)" }, { "statute": "Assembly Bill 414 (2025-2026), chaptered October 6, 2025 — Stats. 2025, ch. 340, the amendment that produced the operative text of § 1950.5", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB414", "official": true, "pinpoint": null } ], "summary_plain": "California's security-deposit statute says nothing about interest — no part of Civil Code § 1950.5 requires a landlord to pay or credit a tenant any interest on a residential deposit. The section is otherwise a thorough deposit code, running from subdivision (a) to subdivision (r): it caps the deposit, governs pre-move-out inspections and photographs, sets the 21-day itemization deadline, and provides damages for a bad-faith retention. It simply never legislates what the money earns, and it never says a tenant is owed nothing either, so the answer rests on the statute's silence rather than on words denying interest. The word 'interest' does appear in § 1950.5 twenty-six times, and every one means a stake in the property — a 'successor in interest,' or the 'termination of the landlord's interest in the premises.' The statute imposes no escrow, trust, or separate-account duty either: its only holding rule, subdivision (d), says the security 'shall be held by the landlord for the tenant' and that the tenant's claim comes ahead of the landlord's creditors, which is a priority rule in insolvency rather than a custody requirement. What sets California apart from other silent states is that the silence leaves room for cities, and several have filled it: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berkeley, West Hollywood, Watsonville, and unincorporated Santa Cruz County all require deposit interest by ordinance, each on its own rate — and East Palo Alto requires it for mobile home park space tenancies only. Mobilehome park spaces are the one corner of California law where the question is answered in words, and the answer is no — Civil Code § 798.39(f) says park management 'shall not be required to place any security deposit collected in an interest-bearing account or to provide a homeowner with any interest on the security deposit collected.'", "notes": [ { "label": "Both of the usual California headlines are wrong", "text": "Charts that put California in the interest-paying column are wrong about the statute, and charts that flatly say 'no interest in California' are wrong for a large share of the state's renters. The accurate statement has two halves: Civil Code § 1950.5 requires nothing, and a handful of cities require a great deal." }, { "label": "Subdivision (d) is a priority rule, not a trust account", "text": "The whole of § 1950.5's holding rule is two sentences: 'Any security shall be held by the landlord for the tenant who is party to the lease or agreement. The claim of a tenant to the security shall be prior to the claim of any creditor of the landlord.' It names no account, no depository, and no institution. The one banking phrase elsewhere in the section, in subdivision (h)(1)(A)(ii)(I), is about returning the money electronically to an account the tenant designates — a delivery channel, not a place of custody." }, { "label": "Mobilehome parks answer the question in words", "text": "Civil Code § 798.39(f), part of the Mobilehome Residency Law rather than § 1950.5, is the only place California state law states the answer rather than leaving it open: park management need not place a deposit in an interest-bearing account and need not pay a homeowner interest on it. A park space and an apartment therefore reach the same result by two different routes, which matters when a reader wants something quotable." }, { "label": "The 2026 text is the operative one, and it added nothing on interest", "text": "The version of § 1950.5 in force was amended by Stats. 2025, ch. 340, § 1 (AB 414), effective January 1, 2026. The amendment left the section with no interest provision, as every earlier version did." } ] }, "habitability": { "topic_verified": "2026-08-29", "verified_by_method": "Direct reading of the California Civil Code provisions on the hiring of real property on the Legislature's official code site: sections 1941, 1941.1, 1941.2, 1941.3, 1941.7, 1941.8, 1941.9, 1942, 1942.1, 1942.3, 1942.4, 1942.5 and 789.3 read in full with their history lines, plus the whole of division 3, part 4, title 5, chapter 2 (sections 1940 through 1954.071) read for the surrounding sections and their history lines; Health and Safety Code sections 17920.3 and 17920.10, which section 1941.1 incorporates, read in full on the same site; the official bill histories for AB 628, SB 610, AB 1414 and AB 1183 on the Legislature's bill site; and the full opinions in Green v. Superior Court (1974) 10 Cal.3d 616 and Knight v. Hallsthammar (1981) 29 Cal.3d 46, with both citations confirmed against the court's own filing dates.", "duty_source": "statutory_and_case_law", "duty_source_plain": "Two duties run side by side. Civil Code section 1941 requires the landlord of a building intended for human occupation to put it into a condition fit for that occupation and to repair later dilapidations that render it untenantable, and section 1941.1 lists the characteristics whose substantial absence makes a dwelling untenantable. Alongside that statute, the California Supreme Court recognized a common-law implied warranty of habitability in Green v. Superior Court (1974), holding the statutory repair-and-deduct provisions were never intended as the exclusive tenant remedy and are complementary to common-law rights. The statutes say the same thing back: the unlawful detainer presumption section expressly preserves any defense based on breach of the implied warranty even where the statutory presumption fails, and the repair-and-deduct, rent-collection-bar and retaliation sections all make their remedies additional to those provided by statutory or decisional law.", "applicability": null, "standards_source": "mixed", "standards_plain": "Three sources do real work. The Civil Code lists eleven characteristics whose substantial absence makes a dwelling untenantable: effective waterproofing and weather protection of roof and exterior walls including unbroken windows and doors; plumbing or gas facilities that conformed to law when installed, kept in good working order; an approved water supply capable of producing hot and cold running water, connected to an approved sewage disposal system; heating facilities that conformed to law when installed, kept in good working order; electrical lighting and wiring that conformed to law when installed, kept in good working order; building, grounds and appurtenances clean, sanitary and free of debris, filth, rubbish, garbage, rodents and vermin at the start of the tenancy and in all areas the landlord controls; adequate garbage and rubbish receptacles; floors, stairways and railings in good repair; a locking mail receptacle in a residential hotel; a stove in good working order able to generate heat safely for cooking; and a refrigerator in good working order able to store food safely. The stove and refrigerator paragraphs were added by AB 628 (Chapter 342, Statutes of 2025) and apply only to a lease entered into, amended or extended on or after January 1, 2026, and only outside four exempt categories: permanent supportive housing, single-room occupancy units, residential hotel units, and units in a housing facility offering shared or communal kitchens, including assisted living. The same section reaches outside itself: a dwelling is also untenantable if it is a substandard building under Health and Safety Code section 17920.3 or contains lead hazards under section 17920.10, and on that route no inspector's notice is needed. Third, the common-law warranty measures the duty by 'bare living requirements,' with substantial compliance with the building and housing code standards that materially affect health and safety normally sufficient. Separate sections add a mold repair duty that starts only once the landlord has notice, dead bolt and window security device standards with their own remedies, and, from January 1, 2026, a disaster remediation duty covering debris removal and mitigation of mold, smoke, smoke residue, smoke odor, ash, asbestos and water damage.", "heat_duty_type": "capability", "heat_plain": "California states no temperature figure and no heating season. The duty is equipment-shaped: heating facilities that conformed with applicable law when installed must be maintained in good working order, and a dwelling lacking that substantially is untenantable. Inadequate heating is separately listed as a condition that makes a building substandard under the Health and Safety Code, which is itself a route to untenantability. A landlord may still qualify for a utility energy savings assistance program for heating or hot water repairs or replacement without that affecting the duty.", "waivability": "delegation_carve_out_broad", "waivability_plain": "Section 1941 says the duty applies 'in the absence of an agreement to the contrary,' but section 1942.1 closes that door for the conditions that matter: any agreement by a tenant waiving or modifying rights under section 1941 or section 1942 is void as contrary to public policy with respect to any condition that renders the premises untenantable. One exception survives, and it is broad in form: landlord and tenant may agree that the tenant will improve, repair or maintain all or stipulated portions of the dwelling as part of the consideration for the rent. The statute attaches no single-family limit, no writing requirement and no separate-consideration formality to that exception, and it contains no arm's-length qualifier despite frequent claims otherwise. The same section also lets the parties agree in writing to arbitrate untenantability disputes, at either party's application, with costs apportioned by the arbitrator. Retaliation rights carry their own bar: any waiver by a tenant of rights under the retaliation section is void as contrary to public policy. At common law the Supreme Court held that public policy requires landlords generally not be permitted to use superior bargaining power to negate the warranty, a formulation that is deliberately qualified rather than absolute. Two narrower shifts exist: a written landlord undertaking to keep the unit clean or remove refuse removes those tenant obligations, and a tenant may agree at lease signing to supply and maintain their own refrigerator on stated terms.", "notice_cure_days": 30, "notice_cure_plain": "For the repair-and-deduct track the standard is a reasonable time after notice, with a rebuttable 30-day presumption: a tenant who acts after the 30th day following notice is presumed to have acted after a reasonable time, and the statute expressly allows acting sooner where all the circumstances require shorter notice. The presumption affects the burden of producing evidence, so it can be rebutted in either direction. Notice may be written or oral, given to the landlord or the landlord's agent as the Civil Code defines that term. Two other clocks belong to different tracks and neither is started by a tenant: an unlawful detainer presumption of breach arises where conditions remain unabated 60 days beyond the date a housing enforcement officer issues a written notice after inspecting, and the bar on demanding or collecting rent arises where conditions remain unabated 35 days beyond the date that notice is served, with service complete on deposit in the United States mail. A stove or refrigerator subject to recall must be repaired or replaced within 30 days of the landlord receiving notice of the recall, and that clock does not displace repair-and-deduct. The mold duty does not arise at all until the landlord has notice.", "repair_deduct": { "posture": "statutory", "cap_plain": "The repair must not require an expenditure more than one month's rent of the premises. That is a per-repair cost ceiling, not an annual total, and the remedy may not be used more than twice in any 12-month period.", "rules_plain": "The tenant gives the landlord or the landlord's agent written or oral notice of dilapidations rendering the premises untenantable that the landlord ought to repair; if the landlord neglects to repair within a reasonable time, the tenant may make the repair and deduct the cost from rent when due, or instead vacate and be discharged from further rent and other conditions as of the vacating date. Nothing in the section requires a licensed contractor, an estimate, a permit, receipts, or written notice, which sets California apart from several states that do. The remedy is unavailable where the condition was caused by the tenant's own violation of the tenant's statutory obligations, which are to keep the occupied part of the premises clean and sanitary, dispose of rubbish and waste in a clean and sanitary manner, properly use and keep clean the electrical, gas and plumbing fixtures, not permit wilful or wanton damage, and use rooms only for the purposes they were designed for. The remedy is in addition to any other remedy under the chapter, the rental agreement, or other statutory or common law, and the recall repair clock for stoves and refrigerators expressly preserves it." }, "withholding_escrow": { "posture": "conditional", "mechanisms": [ "defensive_withholding" ], "rules_plain": "No California statute lets a tenant unilaterally stop paying rent over conditions, and there is no court or agency escrow program for repairs. Withholding becomes lawful only defensively. A tenant who withholds faces a three-day notice to pay rent or quit and an unlawful detainer, in which breach of the implied warranty of habitability is an affirmative defense: if the court finds the breach total and no rent owing, judgment goes to the tenant; if the breach justifies only a partial reduction, the tenant keeps possession only by paying the portion of back rent the court directs, and otherwise the landlord takes judgment for possession. A separate statutory limb works from the other side: where a housing enforcement officer has inspected, notified the landlord in writing, and the substandard or lead-hazard conditions have gone unabated 35 days beyond service without good cause, the landlord may not demand rent, collect rent, issue a rent increase, or serve a three-day pay-or-quit notice at all. Breaking that bar costs the landlord actual damages plus special damages of not less than $100 and not more than $5,000, with fees and costs to the prevailing party, and the tenant need not try any other remedy first. A landlord going out of the rental business under the Ellis Act provisions is not required to comply with that section." }, "termination": { "posture": "statutory", "rules_plain": "The repair-and-deduct section carries the termination right: instead of repairing, a tenant facing dilapidations that render the premises untenantable and a landlord who neglects to repair within a reasonable time may vacate, and is then discharged from further payment of rent and performance of other conditions as of the date of vacating. Disaster rules add two more, both effective January 1, 2026. Where a tenancy ends because the property was destroyed or the tenant terminates on that ground, advance rent covering any period after termination must be returned within 21 days. And where a mandatory evacuation order for a declared disaster keeps a tenant out of the unit, the obligation to pay rent is discharged for the evacuation period; rent already paid for that period must be returned within 10 calendar days after the order is lifted, or the tenant may deduct it from the next month's rent. Unless either party lawfully terminates, the tenancy survives a disaster and the tenant may return at the rent in effect immediately before it, as soon as that is safe and practicable." }, "essential_services": { "posture": "none_stated", "rules_plain": "California gives essential services no separate clock or substitute-housing remedy in this topic. Hot and cold running water, an approved sewage connection, heating facilities and electrical lighting are among the listed characteristics, so their failure makes a dwelling untenantable and runs on the ordinary repair-and-deduct and warranty tracks rather than a faster one. Inadequate sanitation, a lack of hot and cold running water to fixtures, and inadequate heating are also listed conditions that make a building substandard under the Health and Safety Code, which is a direct route to untenantability with no inspector's notice needed. A landlord who deliberately cuts off utility service or locks a tenant out is subject to a different statute with its own penalties, covered with the eviction rules." }, "retaliation": { "posture": "statute_general", "window_days": 180, "window_plain": "The habitability limb bars a landlord from recovering possession, causing an involuntary quit, increasing rent, or decreasing services within 180 days of a protected act, and where more than one protected act occurs the 180 days run from the latest of them, so a complaint followed by an inspection and then a judgment can extend protection well past 180 days from the original complaint. The tenant must not be in default on rent, and this limb may be invoked only once in any 12-month period.", "mechanism_plain": "Inside the window the landlord simply may not take the listed actions, but the landlord may act if the notice of termination, rent increase, or other act, and any pleading or statement of issues in an arbitration, states the ground on which the landlord in good faith seeks to act; if that statement is controverted the landlord must establish its truth at trial or hearing. A second, separate limb operates outside any window: retaliating against a tenant for lawfully organizing or taking part in a tenants' association or an organization advocating tenants' rights, or for lawfully and peaceably exercising any rights under the law, is unlawful whatever the timing, reaches threats as well as acts, requires a retaliatory purpose, and carries no once-a-year limit and no rent-current precondition, but there the tenant bears the burden of producing evidence that the landlord's conduct was in fact retaliatory. Remedies are actual damages plus punitive damages of not less than $100 and not more than $2,000 for each retaliatory act where the landlord acted with fraud, oppression or malice, and the court must award reasonable attorney's fees to the prevailing party if either party requests them when the action begins. Remedies are additional to those provided by statutory or decisional law, and a tenant's waiver of these rights is void.", "protected_acts_plain": "Giving the landlord repair notice under the repair-and-deduct section, giving notice of a suspected bed bug infestation, or making an oral complaint to the landlord about tenantability; filing a written complaint, or an oral complaint recorded in writing, with an appropriate agency to get a tenantability condition corrected; an inspection or citation resulting from such a complaint; commencing a judicial or arbitration proceeding involving tenantability; and a judgment or arbitration award deciding tenantability against the landlord. The organizing limb protects lawfully organizing or participating in a tenants' association or a tenants' rights organization and lawfully and peaceably exercising any rights under the law. Reporting or threatening to report a tenant, or people the landlord knows to be associated with the tenant, to immigration authorities is itself prohibited retaliatory conduct under both limbs, subject to a carve-out for complying with a federal rent-limitation or rental-assistance program." }, "damages_defenses_plain": "The common-law measure is the difference between the fair rental value of the premises as warranted and their fair rental value as they were during the tenant's occupancy in the unsafe or unsanitary condition. The benchmark is fair rental value as warranted, not the agreed rent, which matters wherever the rent sits below market, and the Supreme Court framed the formula as a suggestion of recent decisions and immediately relaxed it, telling trial courts to use all available facts to approximate fair and reasonable damages. The same opinion also blessed a percentage reduction of use approach, reducing the rent obligation by the percentage corresponding to the lost use of the premises, so California has two judicially approved abatement methods rather than one. On the statutory side, the rent-collection bar carries actual damages plus special damages of $100 to $5,000, prevailing-party fees and costs, court-ordered abatement and repair with the court keeping jurisdiction to ensure compliance, and availability in small claims court within that court's limit. Retaliation carries actual plus punitive damages and mandatory fees. Violations of the dead bolt and window security device standards are wired into repair-and-deduct, the rent-collection bar, the retaliation section, breach of contract, injunctive relief, and an unlawful detainer affirmative defense. The landlord's defenses: the duty does not arise where the tenant is in substantial violation of the tenant's own obligations and that violation either contributes substantially to the dilapidation or interferes substantially with the landlord's ability to make the repairs, so blocking access is a defense in its own right; conditions caused by the tenant's want of ordinary care; and, at common law, that the condition does not fall below bare living requirements.", "leading_cases": [ { "case_name": "Green v. Superior Court", "reporter_cite": "10 Cal.3d 616, 111 Cal. Rptr. 704, 517 P.2d 1168 (1974)", "court": "Supreme Court of California", "year": 1974, "holding_plain": "Recognized a common-law implied warranty of habitability in residential leases: a residential landlord covenants that premises leased for living quarters will be maintained in a habitable state for the term, which does not require perfect or aesthetically pleasing condition but does require that bare living requirements be maintained, with substantial compliance with the building and housing code standards that materially affect health and safety normally sufficient. Breach may be raised as a defense in an unlawful detainer action, and the Civil Code repair-and-deduct provisions do not preclude the common-law development because they were never intended as the exclusive tenant remedy.", "url": null }, { "case_name": "Knight v. Hallsthammar", "reporter_cite": "29 Cal.3d 46, 171 Cal. Rptr. 707, 623 P.2d 268 (1981)", "court": "Supreme Court of California", "year": 1981, "holding_plain": "A tenant does not exempt the landlord from the implied warranty by continuing to live in uninhabitable premises, and breach does not depend on the tenant's lack of knowledge of the conditions. Where the landlord has notice of uninhabitable conditions the tenant did not cause, breach exists whether or not the landlord has had a reasonable time to repair, so an unlawful detainer defense does not turn on a cure period. The defense also does not depend on a change in ownership of the building, and tenants are entitled to jury instructions based on the statutory tenantability standards whether or not the repair-and-deduct remedy was used.", "url": null } ], "local_rules": "Local law adds to California's rules rather than being displaced by them. Building and housing codes supply much of the content of the common-law warranty, since substantial compliance with the code standards that materially affect health and safety is normally what the warranty requires. The disaster remediation section says expressly that nothing in it preempts a local ordinance providing additional tenant protections or imposing additional landlord obligations, and the dead bolt and window security section leaves public entities free to impose additional security requirements. The city or county code where the property sits belongs beside the state rules on this page.", "citations": [ { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1941 (landlord's duty to put and keep premises fit)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1941.1 (characteristics of tenantability, as amended by AB 628, Stats. 2025, Ch. 342)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.1.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)(1)-(11), (b), (c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1941.2 (tenant's affirmative obligations)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.2.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1941.3 (dead bolts and window security devices)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.3.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(c), (e)-(g)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1941.7 (mold; notice precondition)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.7.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1941.8 (disaster remediation duty; SB 610, Stats. 2025, Ch. 547)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.8.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(h)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1941.9 (advance rent return; evacuation rent discharge; SB 610)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.9.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a), (b)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1942 (repair and deduct; vacate and be discharged)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1942.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(d)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1942.1 (waiver void; arbitration agreement)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1942.1.", "official": true, "pinpoint": null }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1942.3 (unlawful detainer presumption of breach; 60 days from issuance)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1942.3.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(c)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1942.4 (bar on demanding or collecting rent; 35 days from service)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1942.4.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(f)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Civ. Code § 1942.5 (retaliation)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1942.5.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(l)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code § 17920.3 (substandard building conditions)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=17920.3.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(o)" }, { "statute": "Cal. Health & Safety Code § 17920.10 (lead hazards)", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=17920.10.", "official": true, "pinpoint": "(a)-(e)" } ], "summary_plain": "California landlords must put a rented dwelling into a condition fit for human occupation and repair later dilapidations that make it untenantable, and a dwelling is untenantable if it substantially lacks any of the eleven characteristics the Civil Code lists. Those characteristics now include a working stove and a working refrigerator, but only for leases entered into, amended or extended on or after January 1, 2026, and with four categories of housing exempt. A dwelling is also untenantable if it is a substandard building or carries lead hazards under the Health and Safety Code, and on that route no inspector's notice is needed. Alongside the statute an independent court-made warranty of habitability operates, so a tenant sued for possession may defend on the condition of the premises even where the statutory presumption does not apply. After notice and a reasonable time, presumed at 30 days, a tenant may repair and deduct up to one month's rent per repair, twice in any 12-month period, or vacate and stop owing rent. There is no rent escrow and no right to simply withhold, though a landlord may not demand or collect rent at all once a housing officer's notice has gone unheeded for 35 days. Retaliation over habitability complaints is barred for 180 days, and a separate, windowless rule protects tenant organizing.", "notes": [ { "label": "Twice a year, not once", "text": "Repair-and-deduct may be used twice in any 12-month period. Sources still saying once are quoting law that changed in 1979 — including, awkwardly, the 1974 Supreme Court opinion that recognized the implied warranty, which described the remedy as available only once a year because that was accurate when it was written. The frequency limit also sits in the first subdivision of the repair-and-deduct section, not the second; the second subdivision is the 30-day presumption." }, { "label": "There is no 360-day retaliation window", "text": "A 360-day California retaliation period circulates widely and does not exist. The retaliation section states one period, 180 days, and the rest of the chapter states none. What looks like a longer window is two other things: the 180 days run from the latest of five trigger dates, so a complaint followed by an inspection and then a judgment stretches the protection; and a landlord who wants to act inside the period may do so by stating a good-faith ground, which is a burden shift rather than a time limit." }, { "label": "Stoves and refrigerators arrive with the lease, not the calendar", "text": "The 2026 appliance duties are lease-triggered, paragraph by paragraph: they apply only to a lease entered into, amended or extended on or after January 1, 2026, while the other nine characteristics apply to the whole rental stock as before. Permanent supportive housing, single-room occupancy units, residential hotel units and housing with shared or communal kitchens, including assisted living, are exempt from both. The refrigerator is opt-outable and the stove is not: at lease signing the tenant may agree to supply their own, but only with the statutory acknowledgment printed in the lease, only with a right to give 30 days' written notice and have the landlord install one, and never as a condition of the tenancy. A stove or refrigerator under manufacturer or public-entity recall counts as unsafe and must be repaired or replaced within 30 days of notice." }, { "label": "The 2026 disaster duties most summaries have not caught", "text": "Two new sections took effect on January 1, 2026. The first makes debris removal and hazard mitigation — mold, smoke, smoke residue, smoke odor, ash, asbestos, water damage — a landlord duty after a declared disaster, requires compliance within a reasonable time and with official cleaning protocols, and presumes the unit untenantable while disaster debris is present and no public health agency has determined it free of toxic substances. The tenancy survives and the tenant may return at the pre-disaster rent when it is safe. The second discharges the rent obligation while a mandatory evacuation order keeps the tenant out, with rent already paid returned within 10 calendar days after the order lifts or deductible from the next month's rent, and requires advance rent for post-termination periods back within 21 days. Any 2026 description of California habitability law that omits these describes a scheme that no longer exists." }, { "label": "The 35-day and 60-day clocks are not tenant clocks", "text": "Both require a housing enforcement officer to inspect and notify the landlord in writing; neither starts when a tenant complains. They also start differently and reach differently. The unlawful detainer presumption of breach needs 60 days from the date the officer's notice is issued. The bar on demanding or collecting rent needs 35 days from the date that notice is served, with service complete on deposit in the mail, and its substandard-building limb is narrower, reaching only conditions that endanger life, limb, health, property, safety or welfare." }, { "label": "What the warranty actually measures", "text": "Abatement is measured against the fair rental value of the premises as warranted, not against the agreed rent. Where rent sits below market the two produce different numbers, and the agreed-rent version is the more common misstatement. The court also approved a second method, reducing the rent obligation by the percentage corresponding to the lost use of the premises, and cautioned that precise determination is often impossible and trial courts should approximate from all available facts." }, { "label": "Notice, cure, and what Knight actually decided", "text": "The 1981 decision is often shortened to 'the tenant need not give notice.' It held something narrower and more useful: once the landlord has notice of uninhabitable conditions the tenant did not cause, breach exists whether or not the landlord has had a reasonable time to repair, so an unlawful detainer defense does not wait out a cure period. It separately held that a tenant's knowledge of the defects, and a change of building ownership, are irrelevant to the landlord's duty." } ] } } }