Landlord Atlas

Hayward, California: Residential Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protection Ordinance

Verified August 17, 2026 All California topics →

Hayward limits rent increases to 5% once every 12 months for rentals in buildings first occupied before July 1, 1979.

Cited to Hayward Municipal Code § 12-1.04 (definitions, including covered rental unit and initial rent) and 12 more sources · Verified August 17, 2026

The figure is fixed in the city's Residential Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protection Ordinance and does not change from year to year, so there is no annual percentage to look up. A landlord who skips an increase may save it for later, but the annual increase plus banking may not exceed 10%, and going above those limits requires a fair return decision from the city's Rent Review Office with the landlord carrying the burden of proof. Single-family homes, condominiums and newer buildings sit outside the city limit, though most newer buildings fall under California's statewide limit of 5% plus inflation, 10% at most, once they are more than 15 years old. Nearly every rental in the city, houses and condominiums included, may be ended only for one of 15 listed reasons, with a payment of one month's rent or a waiver of the last month's rent for a no-fault ending. Landlords must send the city a copy of every rent-increase and termination notice within 30 days and pay a yearly per-unit fee of $66 for a rent-limited unit or $32 otherwise for the year running July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027.

Current published figures

Figure Value Applies to Source
Rent stabilization administration fee, per covered rental unit $66.00 July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027 Official source
Rent stabilization administration fee, per rental unit not under the rent limit $32.00 July 1, 2026 – June 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

In force today. The Hayward City Council adopted the Residential Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protection Ordinance on June 25, 2019, and it took effect July 25, 2019 as Chapter 12, Article 1 of the Hayward Municipal Code. It replaced a rent stabilization ordinance the city had run since September 13, 1983 and an emergency eviction ordinance from March 2019. The Rent Review Office in the city's Housing Division runs the program; Hayward has no rent board. The Council amended the ordinance on July 21, 2020, replaced the companion relocation ordinance on December 17, 2024 with a new version effective January 17, 2025, and most recently amended the ordinance on February 17, 2026 to give arbitrators 30 days instead of 20 to issue a decision and to let the city collect unpaid program fees through the property tax roll. The ordinance has no expiration date.

The rent increase limit

Rent on a covered unit may go up once every 12 months, by up to 5% of the current rent without any city review. The 5% is a threshold written into the ordinance and does not change from year to year — Hayward publishes no annual percentage. A landlord who notices more than 5% must be ready to justify it: the tenant may petition the Rent Review Office, pays only the 5% while the case is pending, and the dispute goes to mediation and then arbitration, where the landlord carries the burden of proof. A landlord who skips an increase may save it and add it later: banked increases expire after 10 years, the earliest year that can be banked is 2018, and the annual increase plus banking together may not exceed 10% of the current rent. Separately, a landlord may pass through half the cost of a capital improvement, but only with city approval, only for work paid for and finished after July 25, 2019, only on a request made within 2 years of finishing the work, and spread over at least 5 years, with the charge dropping off at the end. Utility costs billed under a written lease through a shared allocation system are not rent and are not counted toward the 5%. To charge more than 5% — or more than 10% including banking and capital improvement costs — a landlord must file for a fair return decision, and at the hearing the landlord carries the burden of proof. Fair return compares the property's operating income against calendar year 2018, adjusted for San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward inflation.

What housing is covered

The rent limit reaches rentals in buildings whose certificate of occupancy was first issued before July 1, 1979 — a date the city has used since before state law froze such cutoffs in place. Outside the rent limit are single-family homes and other property that can be sold separately from any other dwelling, condominiums sold separately by the developer, anything state law exempts, accessory dwelling units on a property where the owner lives in the main home, units whose rents are already set or subsidized under a government agreement, and rentals in a nonprofit cooperative owned and controlled by a majority of the residents. The ordinance does not reach mobile homes or mobile home spaces (the city handles mobile home space rents separately), hospital and care-facility rooms, dormitories, or hotel and rooming-house stays under 30 days. The city says about half of Hayward's rentals fall under the rent limit. The eviction, harassment, source-of-income, notice and fee rules reach nearly every rental in the city, including houses and condominiums.

What happens on vacancy

When a tenant leaves by choice or after a lawful eviction, the landlord may set the starting rent for the next tenancy at any amount, and the 5% limit then applies again for the rest of that tenancy. When the vacancy was not voluntary, the rent may go up only 5%, and that increase sets a new anniversary date. The reset is also unavailable where the landlord ended the prior tenancy or changed its terms — a tenant who moves out within 12 months of a one-sided change in terms is presumed to have left because of it — where the unit was cited for serious health, safety, fire or building code violations at least 60 days before the vacancy and left unfixed, where the landlord dropped a government rent-limitation contract within the last three years, or where the tenant left because of the landlord's own conduct. A vacancy caused by severe habitability problems does not count as voluntary, and a single act of harassment can be enough to show a move-out was not by choice.

Eviction and termination rules

A landlord may end a tenancy in nearly any Hayward rental, including single-family homes and condominiums, only for one of 15 reasons listed in the ordinance, and state or federal grounds also remain available. The tenant-fault reasons are nonpayment of rent, continuing to break material lease terms or written house rules after notice, willful serious damage with refusal to pay for repairs, refusing a substantially identical new lease, continuing disorderly conduct after notice, refusing access after notice, conviction for illegal use of the unit, drug manufacture or sale, ending employment that was a written condition of the tenancy, and threatening a crime causing death or great bodily harm where a police report was filed. The no-fault reasons are substantial permitted repairs that cannot be done with the tenant in place, demolition, and an owner or close-relative move-in. An owner move-in requires someone holding at least 51% of the property and is barred if a comparable unit on the property is already vacant. Every termination notice must state the reason with specific facts, and failure to do so is a defense to eviction. A copy of every termination notice must go to the Rent Review Office within 30 days.

Registration and filings

Hayward has no annual rental registry. Instead, for every rental in the city, the landlord must send the Rent Review Office a copy of each rent-increase notice and each termination notice within 30 days of serving it, and the city may issue a citation for each missed notice with no warning first. Landlords also pay a yearly rent stabilization administration fee on every rental unit, set by the City Council in the master fee schedule and payable to the Housing Division by October 31. Up to half the fee for a covered unit may be billed to the tenant, using a notice the ordinance spells out; the other half may not be passed on in any way. A landlord who has not paid the fee may not collect a rent increase, cannot be awarded one by an arbitrator, and faces the unpaid fee as a defense in an eviction — all curable by paying before acting. Unpaid fees can be placed on the property's tax bill. A separate rental inspection program fee also applies.

Other requirements

Security deposits follow state law only; Hayward adds no local deposit cap and no deposit interest. The ordinance bars a long list of bad-faith landlord conduct, including cutting off services, letting repairs go undone, abusing the right of entry, refusing lawful rent, threatening to report a tenant to immigration authorities, repeating offers to pay a tenant to move out after being told in writing to stop, and verbal or physical abuse. Damages start at $1,000 or actual losses, whichever is more, are tripled for a knowing violation, and carry up to $5,000 more per violation against a tenant who is a veteran, disabled, or 65 or older. Landlords may not turn down applicants over their source of income, including housing vouchers, and must count every lawful income source and add household members' incomes together; a violation costs three times one month's rent plus fees. Rent disputes go to the Rent Review Office: the tenant files within 30 days, tries a 10-day conversation with the landlord, then mediation and, if that fails, arbitration before an outside arbitrator, with no separate filing fee and the landlord bearing the burden of proof. An arbitrator may cut the rent where services were reduced, and may refuse an increase where code violations or unpaid fees remain. Landlords must give tenants a copy of the ordinance or the city's summary, post a notice in the building, attach a detailed explanation to every rent-increase notice, and get a signed acknowledgment; missing any of it blocks the increase until it is fixed. No lease may take these rights away, and no lease may stop a tenant from speaking to the City Council or city staff.

Notes and caveats

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Hayward, California: Residential Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protection Ordinance (verified August 17, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/california/hayward/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).

Citations

This page records local law. Statewide rules — 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.