Landlord Atlas

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

Verified September 16, 2026 All California topics →

Long Beach has no rent control of its own, and never has: nothing in the Long Beach Municipal Code limits the amount of rent, and the city has no rent board.

Cited to Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 8.99 (just cause for termination of tenancies; expires January 1, 2030) and 16 more sources · Verified September 16, 2026

Rent increases here are capped by state law instead, at 5% plus the change in the cost of living or 10%, whichever is lower, over any 12-month period, with no more than two increases in that period. Sources that call Long Beach rent-controlled are wrong, and sources that say it has no tenant protections at all are also wrong. Since 2020 the city has required a stated reason to end a tenancy after 12 months, and it pays a tenant more than state law does when a landlord clears a building to demolish or substantially remodel it: $4,500 or two months' rent, whichever is greater, against one month's rent under state law. The city bans landlord harassment, makes owners of buildings with four or more units sign up for an inspection program, and pays relocation when code enforcement forces a building to be cleared.

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

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

Long Beach has no rent control of its own. No part of the Long Beach Municipal Code limits what a landlord may charge or how much rent may go up, and the city has no rent board. What limits rent here is state law. Since 2020 the California Tenant Protection Act, Civil Code Section 1947.12, has barred a landlord from raising the rent over any 12-month period by more than 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, and has allowed no more than two increases in that period. The change in the cost of living is measured from the Consumer Price Index for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area, and no state agency publishes a single yearly percentage, so the figure depends on when the increase takes effect; for Los Angeles County it works out to 8.7% for increases taking effect between August 1, 2026 and July 31, 2027. There is no vacancy control: once a tenancy ends, the landlord sets the new rent freely. What Long Beach does have is a local eviction law. Chapter 8.99 of the Long Beach Municipal Code requires a stated reason to end a tenancy once a tenant has lived in the home for 12 months, and it pays a displaced tenant more than state law does when a landlord clears a building to demolish or substantially remodel it. The city also had a relocation assistance chapter for a few months in 2019; the City Council repealed it effective January 1, 2020 and has not replaced it.

What housing is covered

The city's eviction law covers most rented homes in Long Beach, including homes in a mobile home park, but not a mobile home owner who rents only the space. It does not cover hotel stays; a nonprofit hospital, religious facility, extended care facility, licensed residential care facility for the elderly or adult residential facility; a school or college dormitory; a home where the tenant shares a bathroom or kitchen with an owner who lives there; a single-family owner-occupied home where the owner rents no more than two units or bedrooms, including an accessory dwelling unit; a two-unit building where the owner lived in one unit when the tenancy began and still does; a home whose certificate of occupancy was issued within the previous 15 years, unless it is a mobile home; a single-family home, condominium or mobile home that can be sold separately, where the owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, a limited liability company with a corporate member, or mobile home park management, and where the tenant was given the exact exemption wording the law sets out; or housing kept affordable for very low, low or moderate income households by a deed restriction or an agreement with a government agency. The state rent cap has its own list. It does not reach deed-restricted or subsidized affordable housing, dormitories, housing already under a local rent ordinance that limits increases to less than the state figure, housing whose certificate of occupancy was issued within the previous 15 years unless it is a mobile home, or separately sellable homes, condominiums and mobile homes whose owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation or a limited liability company with a corporate member and whose tenant was given the required notice.

Eviction and termination rules

Long Beach requires a stated reason to end a tenancy. Once a tenant has lived in the home continuously and lawfully for 12 months, Municipal Code 8.99.020 lets a landlord end the tenancy only for a listed reason, and the reason must be written into the termination notice. Where adult tenants are added to the lease before an existing tenant reaches 24 months, the protection applies once all tenants have 12 months or any one tenant has 24 months. The at-fault reasons are not paying rent, breaking a material lease term, nuisance, waste, refusing to sign a renewal on similar terms, criminal activity on the property or aimed at the landlord, subletting against the lease, refusing lawful entry, unlawful use of the home, an employee or agent staying on after that job ends, and failing to hand over the home after giving notice to leave. Where the problem can be fixed, the landlord must give notice of the violation and a chance to fix it before serving a three-day notice to quit. The no-fault reasons are the landlord or a close family member moving in as a main home for at least 12 months, taking the property off the rental market, complying with a government or court order to vacate, and demolishing or substantially remodeling the home. A move-in notice must name the person moving in and state their relationship to the owner, and must tell the tenant they may ask for proof; the person has 90 days to move in and must stay 12 months, and if that does not happen the landlord must offer the home back at the old rent and terms and pay moving costs above the relocation already paid. A demolition or substantial remodel notice may not go out until the landlord already holds every permit, and it must carry a description of the work, its expected length or the demolition date, a copy of the permits, a paragraph telling the tenant the home must be offered back at the old rent if the work is not started or finished, and instructions on how to ask to move back in. Work counts as a substantial remodel only if it replaces or substantially changes a structural, electrical, plumbing or mechanical system needing a permit, or removes hazardous materials such as lead-based paint, mold or asbestos, cannot be done safely with the tenant in place, and forces the tenant out for at least 30 days; painting, decorating and minor repairs do not count. Every no-fault notice carries a payment, whatever the tenant earns. For a demolition or substantial remodel it is $4,500 or two months' rent, whichever is greater. For every other no-fault reason it is one month's rent. The landlord chooses between paying the tenant, within 15 days of serving the notice, and waiving the final month or months of rent in writing before it falls due, and the notice must say which. Failing to follow any part of the law makes the termination notice void. A tenant may sue for actual damages, attorney's fees and costs, up to three times damages where the landlord acted willfully or with oppression, fraud or malice, and up to $15,000 more where the landlord wrongly used the demolition or remodel reason. The notice period itself comes from state law: 60 days where the tenant has lived there a year or more, 30 days where they have not. Chapter 8.99 is written to expire on January 1, 2030.

Other requirements

Long Beach regulates several things about renting other than the amount of rent. A landlord who owns a property with four or more units must sign up for the Proactive Rental Housing Inspection Program with the Department of Community Development within 60 days of buying the property or turning it into a rental, on a form signed under penalty of perjury, and must name a contact representative with full authority to act, with a telephone number and mailing address (Municipal Code 18.30.040 and 18.30.110). An annual inspection permit fee set in the City's Master Fee and Charges Schedule is due each year on the later of November 1 or 60 days after the property is bought or converted, and a re-inspection fee applies where another visit is needed (18.30.050). The City inspects the outside, all common areas and all exits, asks to see at least 10% of the units, and may go through every unit if it finds violations; it mails notice of the inspection to the owner and the contact representative at least 14 days ahead and to the units as well (18.30.120 and 18.30.130). Where a violation is an imminent threat to health and safety and is not fixed within 72 hours, the City may issue a citation every 15 days for as long as it continues. Before any tenancy starts, the landlord must give the tenant information on tenant rights and responsibilities on a form the Director approves (18.30.100). Renting out a unit in a building of four or more units also carries an annual business tax, set in the code at $52.85 for each parcel plus $23.20 for each unit on a year 2000 cost-of-living base, so the amount billed today is higher; buildings of three or fewer units are outside it, and in a building of seven or fewer units one owner-occupied unit may be left out of the count (3.80.233). Separately, Long Beach bans landlord harassment (Chapter 8.101). A landlord may not cut off housing services or threaten to; may not, in bad faith, delay repairs, abandon them once started, skip the containment steps that limit exposure to noise, dust, lead, paint, mold or asbestos, or run elective renovation to drive a tenant out; may not abuse the right of entry, including inspections unrelated to needed repairs, entries that are excessive or outside business hours, recording beyond what the visit is for, or lying about why entry is needed; may not use fraud, misrepresentation, intimidation or coercion to make a tenant leave, including threatening to report the tenant to the United States Department of Homeland Security; may not threaten physical harm or use abusive words likely to provoke violence; may not discriminate, including on source of income or because a minor child lives there; may not serve a termination notice or sue for possession on facts the landlord has no reasonable cause to believe; may not give false information about tenant protections, including demanding a tenant sign a lease that is not in the tenant's main language in the situations the law lists; may not, in bad faith, refuse or sit on a lawful rent payment for more than 30 days or fail to keep a current address for rent; may not, in bad faith, ask about immigration status or protected-class status, release that information, or demand unreasonable information in answer to a request for a reasonable accommodation; may not, in bad faith, communicate in a language other than the tenant's main language to intimidate, confuse, deceive or annoy; and may not interfere with tenants organizing, block tenant organizers from the property, prevent tenant meetings in accessible space, or discourage the posting of rights information in common areas. A tenant may sue for an injunction and damages, and the court must add a penalty of $2,000 to $5,000 for each violation, with up to $5,000 more for each violation where the tenant is over 65 or disabled; the court may award attorney's fees to a tenant who wins, and to a landlord only if it finds the tenant's case frivolous. Long Beach also pays relocation when code enforcement forces a building to be cleared (Chapter 18.25). The landlord pays the household within 10 days of the order to vacate, or within 2 business days where the building is dangerous and must be cleared sooner, by certified check, cashier's check or money order, and the household cannot be made to move until the payment is made and proof is filed with the Department of Community Development. The code sets the payment at $3,366, with up to $2,500 more for a household with a disabled person who paid for structural changes at the home being vacated, and directs the department to raise both by the change in the cost of living since January 1, 2005, so the amount payable now is higher. A landlord who does not pay also owes the City half the amount again, up to $10,000 for the property, plus the City's costs. A tenant who gets a termination notice within 90 days of a substandard building notice is presumed entitled to the payment, and a displaced household has the option of moving back in. A tenant who caused the condition is not paid, and a landlord is not liable where the building became substandard through fire, flood, earthquake or another act of God beyond the landlord's control.

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.