On this page
- Civil Code section 1947.12 caps a 12-month increase at 5 percent plus the change in the cost of living, or 10 percent, whichever is lower, counted from the unit's lowest rent in the prior 12 months. It expires January 1, 2030.
- Exemptions include units under a stricter local limit such as the RSO, housing certified within the previous 15 years, qualifying houses and condos with the statutory notice, and an owner-occupied two-unit structure.
- Civil Code section 1946.2 requires a just cause after 12 months and one month's rent in relocation on a no-fault termination. SB 567 tightened owner move-in and remodel terminations from April 1, 2024.
- For price, a capped unit can grow 8.7 percent in the Los Angeles area from August 1, 2026 against the RSO's 3 percent, and it turns over only when the tenant leaves or a listed cause applies.
Which buildings does AB 1482 reach?
AB 1482, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, added a rent cap to the Civil Code in section 1947.12 and a just-cause rule in section 1946.2. Both reach rental housing that no exemption takes out. One exemption is local rent control stricter than the state's, which is why an RSO unit takes the RSO's increase instead. In the City of Los Angeles the cap governs what the RSO leaves out, such as buildings first certified for occupancy after October 1, 1978, and checking RSO status tells you which units those are. Elsewhere in the county, the rent programs in other LA County cities draw their own lines.
The remaining exemptions an apartment owner meets, with what each does to a buyer's number:
| Exemption | What it takes | What it does to price |
|---|---|---|
| Newer housing | A certificate of occupancy issued within the previous 15 years, unless the housing is a mobilehome | It ends on a date anyone can compute. A building certified in March 2013 comes under the cap in March 2028, and a buyer pays for uncapped increases only until then. |
| A house or condo | An owner that is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation or an LLC with a corporate member, and a tenant given the notice the statute prescribes | It turns on who owns the unit, so a sale to a disqualified owner ends it, and a unit whose tenant never got the notice is capped. |
| An owner-occupied two-unit structure | Two units in one structure, neither an ADU nor a JADU, with the owner living in one as a principal residence since the tenancy began | It lasts while that owner stays, so a buyer who will not live there should price both units as capped. |
| Deed-restricted affordable housing | A deed, a regulatory agreement with a government agency or another recorded document keeping the housing affordable for very low, low or moderate income households | The restriction sets the rents instead, and it appears in the buyer's title report. |
Dormitories run by a college or a K-12 school are exempt too.
How much can rent rise under the cap?
Over any 12 months, section 1947.12 lets rent rise by 5 percent plus the percentage change in the cost of living, or 10 percent, whichever is lower. The cost-of-living part is the change in the April Consumer Price Index the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes for the Los Angeles area. From August 1, 2026 the published maximum here is 8.7 percent, 5 percent plus a 3.7 percent change, and it moves every year, so confirm it on LAHD's AB 1482 page before serving a notice.
The limit counts from the lowest rent charged for the unit at any time in the 12 months before the increase takes effect, and a tenant who stays through those 12 months can be given no more than two increases in them.
Take a made-up unit at $2,400. At 8.7 percent it can reach $2,608.80 within 12 months. Split into two increases, the second is still measured against $2,400, so a first step of $120 leaves $88.80. Figuring the second step as 3.7 percent of the new $2,520 gives $93.24, which overshoots the limit by $4.44 a month.
Notice is 30 days. Civil Code section 827 sets that period for any increase of 10 percent or less. Once no tenant from the prior tenancy remains in lawful possession, you set the new tenancy's first rent, and the cap runs from there.
For price, the cap is the steeper slope, since an RSO unit takes 3 percent for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, and the City's formula in effect since February 2, 2026 stops at 4 percent in any year. The RSO's allowable increase shows how that lower slope compounds.
When can you end a tenancy?
Once a tenant has continuously and lawfully occupied a unit for 12 months, section 1946.2 requires a just cause, stated in the written notice, to end the tenancy. At-fault causes turn on what the tenant did. No-fault causes are occupancy by the owner or a listed relative, withdrawal from the rental market, a government or court order to vacate, and demolition or substantial remodel.
SB 567, in effect since April 1, 2024, tightened the move-in cause. The owner or relative must move in within 90 days after the tenant leaves and stay as a primary residence for 12 consecutive months. Your notice names that person and the relationship and tells the tenant they may ask for proof, and the cause is unavailable while a similar unit on the property sits vacant. If the move-in falls through, you offer the unit back at the old rent and terms and pay reasonable moving costs beyond the relocation already given.
It also defined a substantial remodel. The work must replace or substantially modify a structural, plumbing, electrical or mechanical system and need a permit, or remove hazardous materials, and it must keep the tenant out at least 30 consecutive days. Your notice describes the work, attaches the permits and gives the expected finish date, and if the work is not started or finished, the tenant can have the unit back at the same rent and terms.
Section 1946.2 gives way to a local just-cause ordinance adopted on or before September 1, 2019, or to a later one the local government has found, in a binding finding, to be more protective. A property is never under both. LAHD describes the City's Just Cause Ordinance as covering most rental property the RSO does not regulate, once a tenant has stayed six months or the first lease has ended, whichever comes first, and it leaves rent to the state cap.
For price, a unit turns over when its tenant leaves unless a listed cause fits. A buyer planning a move-in needs the relative ready within 90 days and staying a year, and one planning a remodel needs the permits before the notice can go out.
What does a no-fault termination cost?
A no-fault termination under section 1946.2 owes the tenant relocation equal to one month of the rent in effect when you issued the notice, paid within 15 calendar days of serving it. You may instead waive the final month's rent in writing before it comes due, with the notice stating the amount waived. Inside the City the JCO requires relocation for a no-fault eviction too, so get the figure for a City unit from LAHD before budgeting one month's rent.
On a made-up eight-unit building at $2,200 a unit, ending every tenancy on no-fault grounds under the state rule costs $17,600 in relocation, and a buyer adds that to the cost of whatever plan needed the units empty.
What carries over when the building sells?
A sale is not among the causes for ending a tenancy, so the buyer takes every tenant in place. Because the look-back runs on the unit's rent history whoever owned it, your last increase limits the buyer's first. A newer building's 15-year clock keeps running. Exemptions tied to the owner can end at closing, the house or condo exemption if the buyer is disqualified and the duplex exemption once the owner who lived there moves out.
A buyer will ask for the paper behind each rent:
- Each unit's rents and increase notices for the last 12 months.
- The exemption notice and the vesting for any house or condo you call exempt.
- Every termination notice under section 1946.2, with the relocation paid or waived, any remodel permits, and what became of the unit.
Section 1947.12 expires January 1, 2030. AB 1157, which would have lowered the cap, failed in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on January 13, 2026, so any projection past 2030 rests on a rule the Legislature has not written.
Whether a unit is exempt, or whether a notice met SB 567, is a legal question, and Shaya is a real estate agent rather than a lawyer, so take it to a landlord-tenant attorney. He can price the building both ways, capped and exempt, before you decide what to claim.