On this page
- The RSO applies only inside the City of Los Angeles, so confirm the parcel is in the City before anything else.
- LAHD's RSO property search and the Housing tab in ZIMAS answer most coverage questions between them.
- The deciding fact is the date of the building's first certificate of occupancy. On or before October 1, 1978 means covered, unless an exemption applies.
- If the RSO does not apply, the Just Cause Ordinance and the statewide cap in Civil Code section 1947.12 may.
Start with the city line
The RSO is a City of Los Angeles ordinance, and a building in Santa Monica, Culver City, an unincorporated neighborhood or any other jurisdiction sits outside it. Those places run their own rules, and the rent programs in other LA County cities each draw their own coverage dates. For an unincorporated address, the County's rent registry checks coverage by address or assessor's parcel number.
Inside the City, LAHD's property search and ZIMAS settle most cases between them. A buyer's due diligence runs both, so run them yourself before you quote a rent roll to anyone.
Look it up in LAHD's RSO property search
LAHD's RSO property search is the department's own lookup, and the same page lists what the ordinance reaches. It names housing in a structure first built on or before October 1, 1978, including apartments, duplexes, townhomes, condominiums, mobile homes and pads, boarding houses, and hotel and motel rooms occupied by the same tenant for 30 days or more.
A property the search lists as covered is covered as far as a buyer is concerned, whatever you believe about an exemption. Ask LAHD what exemption paperwork it has on file. Several exemptions exist only where the department issued a certificate, and a claim with no certificate behind it will not survive due diligence, so a rent roll you call exempt, with no certificate to show, gets priced as an RSO rent roll.
Check the Housing tab in ZIMAS
ZIMAS, the Zone Information Map Access System, is City Planning's parcel map for the City. It finds a parcel by address, legal description, street intersection or assessor's parcel number, and City Planning's guide explains the layout.
Open the parcel in ZIMAS and click the Housing tab, where the Rent Stabilization Ordinance field reads Yes or No. Yes tells you at least one unit on the property is covered. It does not tell you that all of them are. A building with a later addition, such as an accessory dwelling unit, can hold covered and uncovered units side by side, and LAHD's ADU page sets out when an ADU is covered. A buyer prices that split unit by unit, because an uncovered unit sits under a different increase limit, or none.
The same record shows the parcel's zoning. A buyer weighing a future project reads that next, so know what it says before the first call.
The certificate of occupancy date decides it
The RSO's coverage test is a date. A building first certified for occupancy on or before October 1, 1978 has covered rental units unless an exemption applies, and one first certified after that date is outside the RSO, apart from the replacement rule below. The test reads the building's first certificate, so a remodel does not move it. The separate exemption for substantial renovation applies only where the department issued a certificate for that work.
One exception runs the other way. Units built after July 15, 2007 to replace demolished RSO units can be covered even though their certificate is recent. If your parcel once held an older building, find out what stood there before you describe the new one to a buyer as exempt.
To find the certificate, go to the Department of Building and Safety's records. LADBS offers an online building records search, a building records site, and PRISM, its permit and records search by address, parcel or legal description. When the online files come up short, LADBS also takes records research requests.
The main exemptions
| Exemption | What it takes | What to keep on file |
|---|---|---|
| Newer construction | A first certificate of occupancy issued after October 1, 1978, and not a post-July 15, 2007 replacement for demolished RSO units | The certificate of occupancy from LADBS |
| A lone single-family house | One house as the only dwelling on its parcel | Permit records showing a single dwelling |
| Luxury units | A Luxury Exemption Certificate from LAHD, based on proof of the rent charged on or before May 31, 1978 | The certificate and the 1978 rental records behind it |
| Substantial renovation | A certificate issued by the department for the renovated units | The certificate |
| Government-owned or managed housing | Proof of government ownership or management | That proof |
| Adaptive reuse | A building converted to housing after October 1, 1978 | Conversion permits and the certificate of occupancy |
The luxury exemption trips up owners of expensive units, because today's rent has nothing to do with it. LAHD's luxury housing page ties it to a certificate and to rental records from 1978.
An owner living in one of the units can apply for a temporary one-year exemption from registration and SCEP fees on that unit, one unit per owner on title. Every other unit in the building stays exactly where it was.
If the RSO does not apply
A City building outside the RSO still has eviction rules, and it may still have a rent cap. Most such rental property falls under the Just Cause Ordinance once a tenant has stayed six months or the original lease has ended, whichever comes first. The JCO governs evictions and relocation. It leaves rent levels alone.
State law may cap the increases instead. Civil Code section 1947.12 keeps any 12-month increase at or below the smaller of 10 percent and 5 percent plus the cost-of-living change, through January 1, 2030. Buildings certified for occupancy within the last 15 years are exempt from it, and so are certain single-family homes and condos whose tenants received the statutory written notice. The Attorney General's rent cap page summarizes the rule. A building under that cap can raise rents up to 10 percent in a year where the RSO stops at 4 percent, and a buyer pays for that difference.
Mixed cases need a lawyer's reading before a buyer finds them, such as a 1970s building with a newer ADU, a unit someone once called exempt with nothing from LAHD to show for it, or a lot where an older building was torn down. A coverage question is a legal one, and Shaya is not an attorney. Bring those files to a landlord-tenant attorney first.