{ "_meta": { "dataset": "Landlord Atlas 50-State Landlord-Tenant Law Dataset", "dataset_version": "1.19.0", "published_at": "2026-08-26T14:30:00Z", "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.", "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)" } ], "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": "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 and 1946.2; and California Rules of Court rule 8.822 — the law as it stood on 2026-07-21." } ] }, "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 extend 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.", "status": "In the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee; referred February 2, 2026.", "checked": "2026-08-18", "lifecycle": "introduced", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null }, { "bill": "AB 1128 (2025–2026)", "summary": "Would amend the same rent-limit section as it applies to the City of Torrance.", "status": "In the Senate; read a third time and amended and ordered to second reading on August 17, 2026.", "checked": "2026-08-18", "lifecycle": "passed_one_chamber", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null }, { "bill": "AB 768 (2025–2026)", "summary": "Would rework 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.", "status": "Passed the Assembly January 20, 2026; in the Senate Judiciary Committee, first hearing set and canceled at the author's request June 26, 2026. Latest text is the version amended in the Assembly January 14, 2026.", "checked": "2026-08-18", "lifecycle": "passed_one_chamber", "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 remove 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 add 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.", "status": "Listed as an active bill in the committee process. It passed the Senate on June 4, 2025 by 28 votes to 10 and went to the Assembly, where it was referred to the Housing and Community Development and Judiciary Committees on June 16, 2025 and a July 2 hearing was postponed on June 27, 2025. No further action is recorded.", "lifecycle": "passed_one_chamber", "signed_on": null, "effective_on": null, "checked": "2026-08-25" }, { "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." } ] } } }