Landlord Atlas

Santa Ana, California: Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance

Verified August 17, 2026 All California topics →

Santa Ana limits rent increases to 2.42% for the year running September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026, and to 2.87% for September 1, 2026 through August 31, 2027, with only one increase allowed in any 12 months.

Cited to Santa Ana Municipal Code § 8-3102 (definitions) and § 8-3104 (mobilehome residency law) and 17 more sources · Verified August 17, 2026

The figure is the lower of 3% or 80% of the change in Los Angeles-area inflation, and the city announces it by June 30 each year. The limit reaches homes, apartments, and mobilehome spaces except those state law puts outside it — most importantly, anything whose certificate of occupancy was issued after February 1, 1995, anything less than 15 years old, and separately sellable houses and condominiums with a non-corporate owner. Those newer buildings mostly fall instead under California's statewide limit of 5% plus inflation, capped at 10%, once they are more than 15 years old. Most tenancies of 30 days or more may be ended only for a reason the ordinance lists, no-fault endings carry three months of rent in relocation help regardless of the tenant's income, and every rental unit must be registered with the city each year by July 1 with a per-unit fee before rent can be raised.

Current published figures

Figure Value Applies to Source
Maximum allowable rent increase 2.42% September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2026 Official source
Maximum allowable rent increase 2.87% September 1, 2026 – August 31, 2027 Official source
Rental registry fee, per unit $104.00 August 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027 (the 2026–2027 registration year; $100.00 if paid June 1 – July 31, 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. The Santa Ana City Council adopted a rent stabilization ordinance and a just cause eviction ordinance on October 19, 2021, effective November 19, 2021. The city replaced them with a single combined law, Ordinance No. NS-3027, adopted October 18, 2022, which sits in the Santa Ana Municipal Code as Chapter 8, Article XIX and is run by the city's Rent Stabilization Division with a Rental Housing Board. The article was amended by Ordinance No. NS-3052 on October 17, 2023 and restated in full by Ordinance No. NS-3073 on November 5, 2024, the most recent change. On that same day Santa Ana voters approved Measure CC, adopting the Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance as a voter measure by a vote of 57.63% yes to 42.37% no, and the county's impartial analysis of the measure states that any change to a voter-adopted ordinance would also have to be approved by the voters. The law carries no expiration date. The published code is current through Ordinance No. NS-3089, adopted February 3, 2026.

The rent increase limit

One rent increase is allowed in any 12-month period, and it may not exceed the lower of 3% or 80% of the change in the consumer price index for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area. If that index falls, no increase is allowed at all. The city announces the figure by June 30 each year and it applies from September 1 through August 31 of the following year. The figure is 2.42% for September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026, and 2.87% for September 1, 2026 through August 31, 2027. A landlord who believes the limit denies a fair return may ask the city for a larger increase through a fair return petition, and may separately ask to pass through the cost of capital improvements, spread over the useful life of the work and limited to 10% of the current rent; a capital improvement charge is not rent and is not counted when calculating the next increase. No increase takes effect unless the unit is accurately registered, the property meets city codes, ordered repairs are done, and the required written notices were given.

What housing is covered

The limit reaches homes, apartments, and mobilehome spaces across the city, except for units the law exempts. Outside the rent limit are: any property whose certificate of occupancy was issued after February 1, 1995 — a line state law fixes in place; any housing whose certificate of occupancy is less than 15 years old; deed-restricted or subsidized affordable housing; college and school dormitories; a single-family home or condominium that can be sold on its own, so long as the owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or a limited liability company with a corporate member, and the tenant received the exact written notice the law requires; and a two-unit building where the owner lives in one unit as their main home. For mobilehome spaces, state law also carves out spaces under a lease longer than one year, spaces first offered for rent on or after January 1, 1990, and mobilehomes that are neither the owner's main home nor rented to anyone else. The city summarizes the limit as reaching buildings built on or before February 1, 1995 and mobilehome parks established before 1990; the wording that governs is the certificate of occupancy test in the ordinance. Where the ordinance and California's Mobilehome Residency Law conflict, that state law wins.

What happens on vacancy

The ordinance sets no rules of its own for the rent charged to a new tenant. It leaves that to state law, which lets a landlord set the opening rent for a new tenancy at any amount, with the yearly limit applying from then on. The only local step tied to a vacancy is paperwork: the unit must be registered again with the city within 30 days after it becomes vacant and is re-rented.

Eviction and termination rules

Once a tenant has lived in a home for 30 days, the landlord may end the tenancy only for a reason the ordinance lists, and the reason must be stated in the written notice. The at-fault reasons include not paying rent, breaking a material lease term after a chance to fix it, nuisance, damage to the property, refusing to sign a similar renewal, criminal activity reported to police, unauthorized subletting, refusing lawful entry, and unlawful use of the home. The no-fault reasons are the owner or a close relative moving in, taking the property off the rental market for at least 24 months, complying with a government or court order to vacate, and demolishing or substantially remodeling the home in work that requires the tenant to move out for at least 30 days. Before an eviction for something the tenant can fix, the landlord must first send a written notice to correct it. For any no-fault ending, and regardless of the tenant's income, the landlord must either pay the tenant three months of the current rent within 15 days of serving the notice or waive the last three months of rent in writing. Failing to follow these steps exactly makes the notice void. Every termination notice must be filed with the city through the rental registry within 5 days of serving it, and must be in the language used to negotiate the tenancy as well as English. Tenants have a defense where the notice grows out of domestic violence, elder or dependent adult abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking, or stalking against the household, and a no-fault notice can be defended where a school-age person under 21 lives in the home. Some homes sit outside these eviction rules, including newly built housing less than 15 years old, owner-occupied single-family homes and duplexes, shared kitchen or bathroom arrangements with a resident owner, short hotel stays, care facilities, dormitories, deed-restricted affordable housing, and separately sellable homes with a non-corporate owner who gave the required notice.

Registration and filings

Landlords must register each rental unit with the city and file any claim of exemption by July 1 each year, and pay a yearly per-unit fee set by the City Council. For the year running July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 the fee is $100.00 per unit if paid between June 1 and July 31, 2026, and $104.00 per unit from August 1, 2026 onward; late fees add 8.2% of the fee in October 2026, 18.2% in November 2026, and 28.2% from December 2026. A landlord may pass up to half the fee to the tenant, spread over 12 monthly payments — the city puts that at $50 per unit — but not to tenants in deed-restricted or subsidized affordable housing, and not at all if the fee was paid late; the pass-through is not rent and is not counted when calculating a rent increase. Registration also has to be updated within 30 days when ownership changes and within 30 days after a vacancy is re-rented, and rent increase and eviction notices are filed with the city through the same registry. Until a unit is accurately registered, a landlord may not advertise it, collect rent, raise the rent, or evict.

Other requirements

The ordinance bans retaliation and lists 16 forms of harassment a landlord may not commit, among them cutting off services, bad-faith failures to repair, abusing the right to enter, threatening to report a tenant to immigration authorities, repeat offers to pay a tenant to leave after the tenant asks them to stop, and interfering with tenants organizing. Landlords must post a city notice at the property and give tenants a city notice of their rights at the start of a tenancy, with every rent increase, and with any change in terms, in the language used to negotiate the tenancy as well as English. Tenants may petition the city over an excessive increase, reduced services, an unlivable home, or an improper capital improvement charge, and the city offers free voluntary mediation. A violation can be met with a city citation, a lawsuit by the tenant, or a defense in an eviction case, with damages and attorney's fees for a wrongful eviction. Separately, on March 3, 2026 the City Council adopted an ordinance banning the sale, licensing, and use of certain rent-setting software that relies on private competitor data; a tenant affected by a violation may seek damages, a court order, or penalties of up to $1,000 per violation plus attorney's fees.

Notes and caveats

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Santa Ana, California: Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance (verified August 17, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/california/santa-ana/" — 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.