Landlord Atlas

Glendale, California: Rent Control (none; just-cause ordinance only)

Verified September 16, 2026 All California topics →

Glendale has no rent control of its own, and rent increases there are limited only by California's statewide cap.

Cited to Glendale Municipal Code Chapter 9.30 (just cause and retaliatory evictions; the Rental Rights Program) and 10 more sources · Verified September 16, 2026

That cap, in Civil Code Section 1947.12, is 5% plus the change in the cost of living or 10%, whichever is lower, which works out to 8.7% for increases taking effect between August 1, 2026 and July 31, 2027 in Los Angeles County. Pages that call Glendale rent-controlled are wrong, and so are pages that say the city protects renters in no other way. Under Chapter 9.30 of the Municipal Code, which Glendale calls the Rental Rights Program, a landlord needs one of 12 stated reasons to end a tenancy, from the first day of that tenancy, and owes a relocation payment for a no-fault ending. A rent increase of more than 7% over the rent charged at any time in the previous 12 months lets a covered tenant move out instead and collect three times the new rent, doubled if the household is elderly, disabled, has a school-age child and low income, or has very low income. The city also makes landlords offer a one-year lease, pay for a hotel when they let a unit fall into disrepair, and cut the rent when they cut a service. There is no registry and no fee.

Current published figures

Figure Value Applies to Source
Maximum annual rent increase under state law, Los Angeles County 8.7% (5% plus a 3.7% rise in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim consumer price index for all urban consumers from April 2025 to April 2026, rounded to the nearest tenth of 1%; the law caps the total at 10%) Increases taking effect August 1, 2026 to July 31, 2027 Official source
Fair Market Rent used in the no-fault relocation payment, Los Angeles County Studio $2,151; one bedroom $2,402; two bedrooms $2,964; three bedrooms $3,760; four bedrooms $4,208 October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027 Official source

These figures change on a published cycle; each row states the window it applies to and links the source that published it. Confirm the current figure at the source before acting on it.

What is in force

Glendale has no rent control of its own. The city has never adopted a rent cap, a rent board, or any limit on what a landlord may charge, and the law people mistake for rent control, Chapter 9.30 of the Municipal Code, does not set a rent amount. That chapter is what the city calls the Rental Rights Program, and it governs evictions, one-year lease offers, relocation payments, temporary displacement during repairs, and reductions in service. What limits rent increases in Glendale is state law: Civil Code Section 1947.12 caps most increases at 5% plus the change in the cost of living, or 10%, whichever is lower, measured against the lowest rent charged in the previous 12 months, with no more than two increases in any 12-month period. For Los Angeles County that ceiling is 8.7% for increases taking effect between August 1, 2026 and July 31, 2027. Chapter 9.30 does touch rent in one way: if a landlord raises the rent by more than 7% over the rent charged at any time in the previous 12 months, a covered tenant may choose to move out instead and collect a relocation payment of three times the new rent, doubled for a qualified tenant. That is a payment the landlord owes, not a limit on the increase. Chapter 9.30 has applied to termination notices served on or after August 20, 2002. Ordinance 5922 rewrote it effective March 14, 2019, and Ordinance 6019, adopted February 6, 2024, rewrote it again effective March 7, 2024. Nothing adopted since then changes it.

What housing is covered

Chapter 9.30 applies to a rental unit in a building or complex containing a multiple dwelling, a boarding house or a lodging house, and it reaches units that were built without a certificate of occupancy. It does not apply to a rental unit on a parcel containing two or fewer dwelling units, which leaves out single-family homes and duplexes; to a unit in a common interest development, meaning a condominium or townhouse, unless the landlord owns 50% or more of the units in that development; to hotel rooms; to boarding or lodging houses rented to transient guests for fewer than 30 consecutive days; to housing in a hospital, convent, monastery, church, religious facility, extended care facility, asylum or nonprofit home for the aged; to dormitories owned and operated by a college, high school or elementary school; to units owned or operated by a government agency; to units that require intake, case management or counseling under an occupancy agreement; or to units whose rent is restricted by an agreement with a government body, such as a density bonus, inclusionary housing or affordable housing agreement. Three further lines run inside the chapter. The relocation payment for a rent increase above 7% is not owed for a unit that received a certificate of occupancy after February 1, 1995. The relocation payment for a demolition or substantial remodel is owed only where the unit sits on a parcel of five or more units. The duty to offer a one-year lease does not apply on a parcel of four units or less, to a unit a tenant subleases for less than a year, to a unit leased to a corporation, or to a unit where living there is a condition of employment under a written agreement. Households using a Housing Choice Voucher are covered; the city removed their exemption in 2024. Where Chapter 9.30 does not reach a unit, Civil Code Section 1946.2 supplies a cause requirement of its own after 12 months of occupancy unless that unit is exempt from it.

Eviction and termination rules

Glendale requires cause to end a tenancy, and the protection starts on day one, with no waiting period. Municipal Code 9.30.030 lets a landlord bring an action to recover possession only on one of 12 grounds. Seven are at-fault: failing to pay rent; breaking a lawful obligation of the tenancy and failing to fix it after written notice; keeping a nuisance or damaging the unit or common areas, including interfering with residents within 1,000 feet of the complex; using the unit or that same area for an illegal purpose; holding over as a subtenant the landlord never approved; refusing the landlord reasonable access; and continuing to smoke after a warning in a unit marked non-smoking or in a common area where smoking is banned. Five are no-fault: demolition; a substantial remodel costing at least eight times the greater of the monthly rent or the Fair Market Rent for a similar unit in Los Angeles County, for each unit worked on, that leaves the unit unlivable for at least 45 days, with cosmetic work excluded; move-in by the landlord, a close relative or a resident manager; permanently taking the unit off the rental market under state law; and complying with a government order to vacate or with an agreement with a government body the tenant no longer qualifies under. A move-in eviction requires the new occupant to move in within two months and stay at least one year, may be used only once for that person in each complex, and may not be used against a qualified tenant when another comparable unit is available; bad faith costs the landlord three times actual damages plus exemplary damages and attorney fees. Before or with the termination notice the landlord must serve a written statement of the reason with enough facts to show the date, place and circumstances, and for a demolition or remodel must serve the permit, the construction estimates and the schedule. For demolition, remodel, market withdrawal or a government order, the landlord must also serve written notice of the tenant's right to a relocation payment. That payment is three times the greater of the current rent or the Fair Market Rent for a similar unit in Los Angeles County during the year the unit is vacated, plus $2,000, and it is doubled for a qualified tenant. Half is due within five days of serving the termination notice and half within five days after the tenant moves out, split among the tenants if more than one lives there, and the landlord may deduct unpaid rent from the previous 12 months and damage or cleaning costs the deposit does not cover. The payment is owed even for a unit built in violation of the law, and relocation money from another government source counts against it. It is not owed where the tenant was told in writing before moving in that a condominium subdivision or conversion was pending or approved, where one resident manager simply replaces another in the same unit, or where a natural disaster caused the order to vacate. A qualified tenant is a low-income household with a member aged 70 or older, a member who is disabled, or a child in Pre-K through grade 12 enrolled in the assigned public school district where the notice requires moving during the school term, or any very low-income household.

Other requirements

Glendale regulates a good deal about renting other than the rent amount, and none of it involves registering a rental or paying a program fee: the city runs no rental registry, and Municipal Code 5.04.030 expressly excuses multiple residential dwellings from the business registration certificate every other business needs. A landlord must offer, in writing, a lease of at least one year to any prospective tenant and to any existing tenant at the first rent increase, stating the rent for the whole term, which may not change during the lease year; a tenant who does not accept within 14 days is treated as having declined. At least 60 days before a lease expires the landlord must offer a renewal of at least one year in good faith unless there is cause to end the tenancy, and the tenant has 30 days to answer. Failing to make that offer makes future rent increases void until a new one-year offer is made, and the rent in that offer cannot rise for 90 days after the lease takes effect. After the first full year past the rent increase anniversary the landlord need only offer a one-year lease when the tenant asks. Any lease offer or renewal carrying an increase above 7% must tell the tenant about the relocation payment, and Municipal Code 9.30.035 sets the exact words of that notice. A landlord may carry forward an increase not taken, so long as the deferred amounts reach back no more than three years and total no more than 21%, but an increase of more than 15% over the rent charged at any point in the previous 12 months always lets a covered tenant leave and claim the payment. Since 2024, a landlord who intentionally lets a unit fall into disrepair must pay for temporary housing while the work is done: a safe, sanitary hotel or motel comparable to the tenant's sleeping arrangement in Glendale or within two miles, meals if there is no kitchen, laundry if the unit had one, room for permitted pets, and all moving costs both ways, available within 24 hours of any order or notice to vacate. The tenancy does not end, the tenant keeps paying rent and keeps the right to return, and the landlord must give 30 days' notice to move back in if the displacement ran past 30 days and the tenant signed a separate housing agreement, or 7 days otherwise. If the unit is expected to stay unlivable for 30 days or more, the tenant may end the tenancy instead and take the no-fault relocation payment. A tenant who loses a service or amenity the lease included, such as utilities, maintenance, a laundry room, parking or security, may ask for a rent decrease after giving written notice and a reasonable time to fix it; the decrease is proportional and the law points to a range of 2% to 10% of monthly rent depending on the amenity. Retaliation is barred: a landlord may not terminate, serve notice, cut services or raise rent to punish a tenant for using legal rights, asking for mediation or arbitration, or taking part in litigation, and doing any of those within 180 days after the tenant exercised a right is presumed retaliatory unless the landlord proves otherwise. Breaking any part of the chapter is a defense to an eviction or a suit for rent, tenants may sue for an injunction on their own behalf and for others in the building, and the winning side in a wrongful eviction or relocation payment case recovers costs and reasonable attorney fees. A tenant cannot waive these protections in advance, except by turning down a one-year lease. The city may enforce by administrative citation; retaliation is separately an infraction carrying up to $250 for a first violation and up to $500 for a second within a year, with a third within a year charged as a misdemeanor.

Notes and caveats

Citations

This page records local law. Statewide laws — deposits, notice periods, late fees, entry, evictions — live on the California hub, and the state-level position on local rent regulation appears there with its own citations and verification date.