Landlord Atlas

Los Angeles County (unincorporated), California: Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections Ordinance

Verified August 17, 2026 All California topics →

Los Angeles County caps rent increases at 1.919% for the year running July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 — 2.919% for qualifying small landlords and 3.919% for luxury units — but only in the unincorporated areas, and only for rentals on a property with two or more units permitted on or before February 1, 1995.

Cited to Los Angeles County Code § 8.52.030 (definitions, including fully covered and partially covered rental units, luxury unit, small property landlord) and 13 more sources · Verified August 17, 2026

The City of Los Angeles and the county's incorporated cities are not covered by these rules. The Board of Supervisors set the formula at 60% of inflation with a 3% ceiling, and the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs publishes the figure each spring. Single-family homes, condominiums and newer buildings sit outside the county's rent limit, though most newer buildings fall under California's statewide limit of 5% plus inflation, capped at 10%, once they are more than 15 years old. Nearly every rental in the unincorporated areas, houses and condominiums included, may be ended only on nine listed grounds, with relocation payments for no-fault terminations and a threshold of two months' Fair Market Rent before unpaid rent can support an eviction. Owners must register each unit by September 30 and pay $90 a year per rent-limited unit or $30 per unit covered only by the eviction protections.

Current published figures

Figure Value Applies to Source
Maximum allowable rent increase (rent-limited units) 1.919% July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027 Official source
Maximum allowable rent increase (qualifying small property landlords) 2.919% July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027 Official source
Maximum allowable rent increase (luxury units) 3.919% July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027 Official source
Annual registration fee (rent-limited unit) $90 per unit 2026-27 registration year, due September 30, 2026 Official source
Annual registration fee (unit covered only by eviction protections) $30 per unit 2026-27 registration year, due September 30, 2026 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. These rules cover only the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County — not the City of Los Angeles and not any of the county's incorporated cities, each of which has its own rules or none. The Board of Supervisors adopted the Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections Ordinance on November 26, 2019 as Chapter 8.52 of the Los Angeles County Code, and it took effect April 1, 2020, replacing an interim ordinance the Board had adopted on November 20, 2018. The Department of Consumer and Business Affairs runs the program, and the Rental Housing Oversight Commission hears appeals. The Board reshaped the rent limit on November 26, 2024, tying it to a share of inflation with separate allowances for small landlords and for luxury units. The most recent change came on March 17, 2026, effective April 16, 2026: unpaid rent must now exceed two months of federal Fair Market Rent, rather than one, before a landlord can end a tenancy for nonpayment. The ordinance has no expiration date.

The rent increase limit

One rent increase is allowed per 12 months, on at least 30 days' written notice, and only for units under the rent limit. The Department of Consumer and Business Affairs calculates the figure each year and publishes it in a Rent Stabilization Bulletin, each spring, for the year running July 1 through June 30. The figure is 60% of the change in the average consumer price index over the 12 months ending in September, and it cannot exceed 3%. A landlord who qualifies as a small property landlord may add 1 percentage point, to a maximum of 4%, and must self-certify to the Department each year and say so in the increase notice. A landlord of a luxury unit may add 2 percentage points, to a maximum of 5%, and must say so in the increase notice. A luxury unit is one with two bedrooms or fewer, in a building of 25 or more units, that was renting for at least $4,000 a month as of September 11, 2018. An increase not taken during its July-to-June year is lost and cannot be saved for later. Rent is measured from the rent charged on September 11, 2018, or from the start of a later tenancy, plus increases lawfully taken since. A landlord may not raise rent at all unless the unit is registered and all registration fees are paid. A landlord who believes the limit denies a fair return may apply to the Department for more, and separate applications allow approved costs for capital improvements and renovations to be passed on, though rent plus those costs together cannot exceed the year's 3%, 4% or 5% ceiling.

What housing is covered

The rent limit reaches rentals in the unincorporated areas on a property with two or more dwelling units where the certificate of occupancy or equivalent permit was issued on or before February 1, 1995, plus mobilehomes rented out by the mobilehome's owner whatever their permit date. Accessory dwelling units count if they were permitted by that date, or if the tenant can show the unit was occupied by then. Single-family homes, condominiums, stock cooperatives, and any building permitted after February 1, 1995 sit outside the rent limit — a line state law fixes in place — but they keep the eviction protections, the registration duty and the rest of the ordinance. Fully outside the ordinance are hospitals, convents and monasteries, extended medical facilities, nonprofit homes for the aged, licensed care and treatment facilities, group homes, college dormitories and other student housing, fraternity and sorority houses; housing owned or run by the county or another public agency, and housing that state or federal law exempts; hotel, motel, inn, boarding-house, rooming-house and short-term stays on which transient occupancy tax is owed for the whole term; a rental where the landlord or a member of the landlord's family lives in the residence as their main home; and units that are vacant, not offered for rent, or not being used as rentals, which come back under the ordinance once they return to the market.

What happens on vacancy

When a tenant moves out voluntarily, or is evicted for a reason the tenant is responsible for, the landlord may set the starting rent for the next tenant at any amount, and may not carry over previously approved pass-through costs. Rent may not be reset after a no-fault termination. A tenant displaced so the owner or a family member could move in has a first right to return at the old rent plus allowed increases if that occupancy ends within 3 years, and so does any different tenant offered the unit in that window. A tenant displaced when the property was withdrawn from the rental market may resume the tenancy at the old rent plus allowed increases if the unit returns to the market within 2 years, with notice rights and damages running out to 10 years, and units demolished and rebuilt within 5 years of a withdrawal come back under the rent limit.

Eviction and termination rules

A landlord may end a tenancy in nearly any rental in the unincorporated areas, including single-family homes and condominiums, only on one of nine listed grounds. Six are tenant-fault: unpaid rent above a threshold, a continuing substantial breach of a material lease term after written notice and 10 days to cure, nuisance or illegal use, refusing to sign a substantially identical new lease when asked at least 90 days before the old one ends, failing to vacate under a county-approved relocation application, and household income above the limits for a government-regulated unit on one year's notice. Three are no-fault: the landlord or a close family member moving in, withdrawal of the property from the rental market, and a government or court order. For unpaid rent, the amount owed must exceed two months of federal Fair Market Rent for the tenant's unit size — a figure the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sets each year — and the notice must state that amount and the unit's bedroom count. Owner move-ins require a person who owns at least half the unit, occupancy within 60 days for at least 3 years, 60 days' notice, and a filing with the Department naming who will move in; a household that includes someone 62 or older, a person with a disability, someone terminally ill, or that is lower-income may only be displaced for someone in the same situation. Every no-fault termination carries relocation assistance, which the Board of Supervisors sets by unit size from three times the countywide median rent plus moving, storage, utility and application costs, with larger amounts for households that include a senior, a child, a person with a disability or a terminally ill person, or that are lower-income; the Department may raise the amounts each year with inflation. Payment is due at the same time the termination notice is served, the landlord must hire and pay for a relocation specialist, and the security deposit must be refunded. Tenants temporarily displaced by repairs get a daily payment, or comparable housing if the displacement runs past 30 days. Every termination notice must be filed with the Department, with proof of service, within 5 days.

Registration and filings

Owners must register every rental unit that is not fully exempt — including units covered only by the eviction protections — with the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs by September 30 each year, and update the registry within 30 days of any change. Registration reports the rent and the date of the last increase, the owner's details, the number of units, each tenant's name and mailing address, the services provided, and move-in and move-out dates. For the 2026-27 registration year the fee is $90 per unit under the rent limit, $30 per unit covered only by the eviction protections, and $90 per mobilehome space. Paying late adds a 10% penalty, and rent increases are void while any fee or penalty is unpaid. A landlord who registers on time may pass up to half the fee to a tenant of a rent-limited unit, as a separate line item, on 30 days' notice, spread over 12 equal monthly payments, one at a time; late fees and penalties may never be passed on.

Other requirements

A security deposit for a rent-limited unit may not be increased above what was charged at the start of the tenancy. A landlord who offers a tenant money to move out must first give a Department disclosure form in the tenant's own language, hand over the proposed agreement at least 45 days before signing, offer at least what relocation assistance would pay, and file the signed agreement with the Department within 10 days; the tenant may cancel within 45 days of signing, and an agreement that misses these steps cannot be enforced against the tenant. Landlords must attach the Department's notice of tenant rights to every new and renewed lease and to every rent increase notice, provide it in the language the lease was negotiated in, and post it at the property. A long list of landlord conduct counts as harassment, including cutting off services, bad-faith failure to repair, renovation work done to drive a tenant out, abusing the right to enter, threatening to report a tenant to immigration authorities, and repeated offers to buy a tenant out after the tenant has said in writing to stop. A tenant with a permanent mobility disability may ask to move to an available ground-floor or elevator-served unit of similar size on the same property. Violations carry fines and civil penalties up to $1,000 each, each day counting separately, and the ordinance's protections are a defense in an eviction case.

Notes and caveats

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Los Angeles County (unincorporated), California: Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections Ordinance (verified August 17, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/california/los-angeles-county/" — 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.