Richmond, California: Fair Rent, Just Cause for Eviction and Homeowner Protection Ordinance (Measure L)

The cap comes from Measure L, which voters approved in 2016, as amended by Measure P in 2022: the yearly figure is the lower of 60% of San Francisco-area inflation or 3%, and never less than 0%. A landlord who skipped earlier increases may add them back, but the total in any 12 months cannot exceed the current year's percentage plus 5%. Single-family homes, condominiums, and newer buildings sit outside the city cap, 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 on eight listed grounds, with relocation payments for repairs, owner move-ins and withdrawals from the market, and landlords must enroll their properties, register rent-capped tenancies, and pay a yearly per-unit fee of $261 or $149 before they may raise rent at all.

Current published figures

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. Richmond voters approved Measure L on November 8, 2016, and it took effect December 30, 2016 as Chapter 11.100 of the Richmond Municipal Code, administered by the Richmond Rent Board and its staff, the Richmond Rent Program. Voters amended it once, on November 8, 2022, when Measure P cut the yearly allowed increase from full local inflation to the lower of 60% of inflation or 3%. Two companion laws sit alongside it: the Relocation Ordinance, in force since January 19, 2017, which sets the payments owed to displaced tenants, and the Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance, in force since July 22, 2021, which reaches every rental in the city. Nothing in the ordinance expires.

The rent increase limit

One rent increase is allowed per year for units under the rent cap, and only after the tenant has completed a full year in the unit. The Rent Board announces the allowed percentage, called the Annual General Adjustment, by June 30 each year, and it applies from September 1 through the following August 31. The figure is the lower of 60% of the change in the San Francisco-area consumer price index over the 12 months ending in February, or 3%, and it can never fall below 0%. A landlord who skipped past increases may add them back, but the total increase in any 12 months may not exceed the current year's percentage plus 5% of the rent charged at any point in the previous 12 months, and an increase above that limit is void. A landlord may take the increase only after serving the tenant the notice state law requires and filing a copy with the Rent Program within 10 business days; an unfiled increase is void. Rents are measured from a base rent - the rent in effect on July 21, 2015, or the starting rent of a later tenancy - plus increases lawfully taken since. Larger increases require a petition to the Rent Board, which must allow the landlord a fair return.

What housing is covered

The rent cap reaches rentals on a parcel holding more than one dwelling unit, first built before February 1, 1995. Single-family homes and condominiums that can be sold separately, and buildings first occupied after that date, are outside the rent cap - a line state law fixes in place - but they keep the eviction protections, as do government-owned units and homes covered by Section 8 vouchers, project-based Section 8, low-income housing tax credit rules, Section 202 elderly housing, or another government rent agreement. Fully outside the ordinance are hotel, motel, inn and rooming-house stays under 14 days, hospitals, convents, monasteries, extended care facilities, non-profit homes for the aged and college dormitories, a permitted second unit where the owner lives in the main house, a room rented in the owner's own home where the tenant shares a kitchen or bathroom, and a homeowner's temporary rental of their own single-family home for 12 months or less under a written agreement filed with the Rent Program beforehand.

What happens on vacancy

When a tenant leaves voluntarily, state law lets the landlord set a new starting rent at any amount, and the cap then applies to the new tenancy. The rent may not be reset if the landlord ended the previous tenancy, if the tenancy ended after the landlord changed its terms, if the tenant left because of harassment, constructive eviction, a threatened withdrawal from the market or a misleading notice, if the unit had serious health or safety code violations cited at least 60 days before the vacancy and still uncured, if the departing tenant was the relative who moved in after an owner move-in eviction, or within 3 years of the landlord ending a government rent agreement. No reset is allowed while a tenant who lived there on or before July 21, 2015, or since the landlord last set a starting rent, still occupies the unit as their home. Where a lease gives discounted or free months, the lawful rent is the average of the payments over the initial term.

Eviction and termination rules

A landlord may end a tenancy in nearly any Richmond rental, including single-family homes and condominiums, only on one of eight grounds: nonpayment of rent, an uncured lease violation, nuisance or substantial damage, refusing access, temporarily vacating for substantial repairs, an owner or close-relative move-in, withdrawal of the whole property from the rental market, and the end of an agreed temporary tenancy in a single-family home. The first four require a written warning notice first, giving details and a chance to fix the problem. Owner move-ins require a person who owns at least half the property, occupancy within 90 days for at least 36 months, and cannot displace tenants of 5 or more years who are 62 or older or disabled, or tenants certified terminally ill. Withdrawing a property from the market takes 120 days' notice, or one year for senior and disabled tenants. Tenants displaced for repairs, an owner move-in, or a withdrawal get the first chance to return at their old rent. Every termination notice must be filed with the Rent Board within 2 business days of service, and failing to file is a complete defense to an eviction lawsuit. Repairs, owner move-ins and withdrawals all require relocation payments set by the City Council and adjusted each January 1 for inflation; for calendar year 2025 an owner move-in paid up to $4,355.81 for a studio, $6,725.81 for a one-bedroom and $9,159.42 for a two-bedroom or larger, and a withdrawal from the market paid up to $8,775.23, $13,451.61 and $18,255.22, with higher amounts for households that include a senior, a disabled person, a child under 18, a lower-income household, or a terminally ill tenant facing an owner move-in. Half the payment is due within 3 business days of the tenant confirming in writing they will leave and the rest within 3 business days of moving out.

Registration and filings

Landlords must enroll every rental property with the Rent Program - both rent-capped units and units covered only by the eviction protections - and file an updated form within 30 days of a sale or other substantial change. Each tenancy in a rent-capped unit must also be registered, with a new form whenever the tenancy fully changes. Every landlord pays an annual Residential Rental Housing Fee per unit, billed with the city business license, set by the City Council each year on the Rent Board's recommendation: for the year running July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 it is $261 for a unit under the rent cap and $149 for a unit covered only by the eviction protections. A landlord who has not enrolled, registered, or paid may not raise the rent at all, and the failure is a complete defense to an eviction lawsuit. A landlord who later comes into compliance may ask the Rent Board to restore the increases missed during that period, but only going forward.

Other requirements

A separate anti-harassment law covers every rental in Richmond, including single-family homes and condominiums and units the rent ordinance does not reach. It bars 18 kinds of bad-faith conduct, among them cutting utilities, refusing repairs, abusing the right to enter, threatening to report a tenant to immigration authorities, repeating buyout offers after the tenant asks in writing that they stop, and refusing lawful rent. Damages are the greater of three times the tenant's actual losses or $1,000, plus attorney's fees. Parking, garages, storage, laundry rooms, decks, patios, yards and gardens may not be taken away from a tenancy without good cause. Security deposits may not be increased while an original tenant remains, and a deposit charged in violation counts as excess rent. Landlords must give every tenant the Rent Program's brochure at the start of the tenancy and again with every rent-increase notice, and must give the city's anti-harassment notice at the start of a tenancy and with any termination notice, and post it in a common area. Utilities may not be billed to a tenant unless the unit is separately metered. Charging more than the lawful rent exposes a landlord to triple damages where the overcharge was willful. No agreement may waive a tenant's rights under the ordinance.

Notes and caveats

• How the city cap and the state cap fit together — units under Richmond's rent cap are exempt from California's statewide rent cap because the local limit is stricter. Buildings first occupied after February 1, 1995 fall under the statewide cap of 5% plus inflation, at most 10%, once their certificate of occupancy is more than 15 years old. Buildings newer than 15 years, and most individually owned single-family homes and condominiums, sit outside both caps - but Richmond's eviction protections and its anti-harassment law still reach them.
• State law fixes the coverage line — the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act guarantees landlords a market-rate reset between tenancies, keeps most separately owned single-family homes and condominiums outside local rent caps, and bars the city from capping rents in buildings first occupied after February 1, 1995. Richmond's ordinance does not name that date; it simply carries the state exemption across by reference, so the state statute is where the line actually sits.
• Two levels of coverage — Richmond sorts rentals into fully covered units, which get both the rent cap and the eviction protections, and partially covered units, which get the eviction protections only. Both must be enrolled with the Rent Program and both pay a yearly fee, at different rates.
• How the yearly figure is set — the ordinance points to the San Francisco-area consumer price index for the 12 months ending in March, but that index is published only every other month and has no March reading, so the Rent Board uses the February figure. For 2026 the index rose 2.5%; 60% of that is 1.5%, which is below the 3% ceiling, so 1.5% is the figure for September 1, 2026 through August 31, 2027.
• Relocation payments for 2026 are not yet published — the amounts owed to displaced tenants rise each January 1 with San Francisco-area inflation. The Rent Program has said it cannot yet publish the 2026 amounts because the federal shutdown from October 1 to November 12, 2025 delayed the inflation figure it needs, and that the amounts shown on its relocation page are the calendar year 2025 amounts. Landlords planning a no-fault termination should ask the Rent Program for the current figures.
• Saved-up increases are limited — a landlord who did not take an allowed increase in an earlier year may add it to a later one, and the amounts compound rather than simply add. But the total increase in any 12 months cannot exceed the current year's percentage plus 5% of the rent charged at any point in the prior 12 months, and an increase above that ceiling is void, not merely reduced. With the 1.5% figure for 2026, that ceiling is 6.5%.
• Exemptions for subsidized housing are under review — units covered by Section 8, low-income housing tax credit rules, or another government rent agreement are currently outside the rent cap but keep the eviction protections. The Rent Board has been holding study sessions through 2026 on whether to end that exemption, and it can already withdraw the exemption from an individual property whose owner falls out of compliance with the ordinance, the fee, or its own regulatory agreement.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Richmond, California: Fair Rent, Just Cause for Eviction and Homeowner Protection Ordinance (Measure L) (verified August 17, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/california/richmond/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).

Citations

• Richmond Municipal Code Ch. 11.100 (Fair Rent, Just Cause for Eviction and Homeowner Protection Ordinance) § 11.100.030(d), (i); § 11.100.040; § 11.100.050(a)–(g); § 11.100.060(g), (l)(1), (s); § 11.100.070(a)–(b), (f)–(g), (k); § 11.100.080; § 11.100.100; § 11.100.130 (verified 2026) Official source
• Richmond Municipal Code Ch. 11.102 (Relocation Ordinance) § 11.102.020(d), (j), (m); § 11.102.030(a)–(c); § 11.102.050; § 11.102.060; § 11.102.070(b); § 11.102.110 (verified 2026) Official source
• Richmond Municipal Code Ch. 11.103 (Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance) § 11.103.030; § 11.103.050; § 11.103.060; § 11.103.080; § 11.103.090; § 11.103.110(c) (verified 2026) Official source
• Richmond Rent Board Regulations, Chapter 6 (annual general adjustments; conditions; saving up increases; filing notices) Regs. 600–603, 614 (verified 2026) Official source
• Richmond Rent Board Regulation 615 (2026 annual general adjustment), adopted June 17, 2026 Reg. 615(A)–(C) (verified 2026) Official source
• Richmond Rent Board Regulations, compiled (applicability and exemptions; enrollment and registration; vacancy rent increases; eviction notices; security deposits) Regs. 201–204, 402, 405–406, 700–703.5, 905, 912, 1001, 1101–1102 (verified 2026) Official source
• Richmond Rent Program — rent control and annual general adjustment (verified 2026) Official source
• Richmond Rent Program — residential rental housing fees (verified 2026) Official source
• Richmond Rent Program — relocation payments (verified 2026) Official source
• Ordinance No. 15-22 N.S. (Measure P), approved by Richmond voters November 8, 2022 §§ 5, 7 (verified 2026) Official source
• Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.12 (statewide rent cap and its local-ordinance exemption) (a)(1), (d)(3)–(d)(5), (o) (verified 2026) Official source
• Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.2 (statewide just cause; deference to local ordinances) (i)(1)–(2), (n) (verified 2026) Official source
• Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1954.50–1954.535 (Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act) § 1954.52(a); § 1954.53(a) (verified 2026) Official source

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.