What must a California landlord disclose to a tenant, and what must the lease say?

No statute requires a residential lease to be in writing beyond the statute of frauds, so an oral tenancy is lawful. The landlord must give the tenant a copy of the signed lease within 15 calendar days.

No California statute requires a residential rental agreement to be in writing at any unit count, and the identity chapter expressly contemplates an oral agreement; a lease for a term longer than one year must be written and signed to be enforceable. Where the agreement is written, the landlord must give the tenant a copy within fifteen days of the tenant's signature, and once each calendar year after that the tenant may ask for another copy, which is also owed within fifteen days. Where the landlord does not hold the agreement or a copy, the landlord must instead give the tenant a written statement saying so together with the owner, agent and rent-payment information the same section requires. An oral tenancy carries its own duty: the landlord must give the tenant that same written statement within fifteen days of the agreement, and again once a year on request. The chapter reaches every dwelling structure containing one or more units offered to the public for rent, so there is no small-landlord carve-out.

Statute of frauds: An agreement for the leasing of real property for a longer period than one year is invalid unless it, or some note or memorandum of it, is in writing and signed by the party to be charged or that party's agent, and where an agent signs, the agent's authority must itself be in writing (section 1624, subdivision (a), paragraph (3) of the Civil Code).

Format and plain-language rules: California has no plain-language contract act and no general type-size rule for residential leases. Typography is set duty by duty instead: at least eight-point type for the flood disclosure and for the registered-sex-offender notice, at least eight-point boldface for an automatic-renewal or extension term, at least ten-point type for the bed-bug notice, and at least twelve-point type for the rent-cap and just-cause notice. Placement is prescribed twice. An automatic-renewal or extension term is voidable by the party who did not prepare the lease unless the term appears in eight-point boldface in the body of the agreement and a recital that the body contains such a term appears, also in eight-point boldface, immediately before the place where the tenant signs (section 1945.5 of the Civil Code); any waiver of that section is void. Off-street parking accessory to a qualifying property may not be included in the rental agreement at all and must sit in an addendum or a separate agreement (section 1947.1).

Language: A landlord who negotiates a lease primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean, orally or in writing, must deliver a translation of the whole agreement, including a translation of every term and condition, to the tenant and to anyone else who will sign, before the agreement is executed, and must also give a notice in that language at the time and place the agreement is signed (section 1632 of the Civil Code). The duty reaches a tenancy for a period longer than one month, so a month-to-month agreement is outside it. Matters ordinarily incorporated by reference, including house rules governing the tenancy and inventories of furnishings, are not part of the agreement for this purpose, and there is no duty where the tenant brought their own adult interpreter who is fluent and literate in both languages and is not employed by or supplied through the landlord. Names, addresses, brand and trade names, model designations, codes, numerals, dollar amounts in numerals and dates may stay in English, the translation may be signed but need not be, and the English text governs the parties' rights, with the translation admissible only to show that no agreement was formed because of a substantial difference in a material term. A tenant who does not get the translation may rescind the agreement, and any waiver of the section is void.

Electronic leases and signatures: California's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (section 1633.1 and following of the Civil Code) makes an electronic record satisfy a writing requirement and an electronic signature satisfy a signature requirement, and a residential rental agreement is not on the list of excluded transactions, so a lease and most of the disclosures on this page may be signed and delivered electronically where both sides have agreed to transact that way. Two limits bite here: the act does not reach a law requiring specifically identifiable text to be separately signed, which takes out the signed acknowledgment of a methamphetamine or fentanyl remediation order described in the hazard table, and an electronic record may not be substituted for a three-day or other notice under section 1162 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The application screening fee section and mobilehome park notices are also outside the act.

Yes — a statute requires the landlord to disclose the owner's or managing agent's identity to the tenant, in the lease or by posting on the premises.

The identity disclosure must be made in the agreement itself. Every owner of a dwelling structure, or the party signing a rental agreement on the owner's behalf, must disclose in the agreement the name, telephone number and usual street address at which personal service may be made for each person authorized to manage the premises and for an owner or a person authorized to act for the owner in accepting service of process, notices and demands; the name, telephone number and address of the person or entity rent is paid to; if rent may be paid in person, the usual days and hours that person is available; and the forms in which rent may be paid (section 1962, subdivision (a) of the Civil Code). Instead of the days and hours, the landlord may give the number of an account at a financial institution located within five miles of the property, with the institution's name and street address, or the details needed to set up an electronic funds transfer. Only the manager and owner identity items may be met by posting instead: a printed or typewritten notice in every elevator and one other conspicuous place in a building with an elevator, in at least two conspicuous places in a building without one, and either method for a single-unit structure; the rent-payment items cannot be posted. The information must be kept current, and a successor owner or manager must comply within fifteen days of succeeding. Failures bite in three ways: a party who signs on the owner's behalf without complying is deemed the owner's agent for service, for performing the owner's obligations and for receiving rent in cash, by check, by money order or in any form previously accepted; a successor who has not complied may not serve a three-day notice for non-payment or otherwise evict for rent that accrued during the period of non-compliance, though the rent stays owed; and where the address given does not allow personal delivery, rent or a notice mailed to it is conclusively presumed received on the date posted if the tenant can show proof of mailing. A tenant may also serve the landlord by registered or certified mail at the address where rent is paid. California has no statewide landlord or rental-unit registration; registration exists only in some cities.

If the landlord fails to comply: the non-complying manager or agent becomes the landlord's agent for notices and service of process and for performing the landlord's obligations, as the section states; and the landlord may not maintain the action the section names until it complies.

No — no state document or statement of tenant rights must be handed over; what the state prescribes is text the lease itself must carry.

California prescribes lease text and no general tenant-rights document: there is no state statement of tenant rights, no truth-in-renting summary and no handbook a landlord must hand over. What the lease itself must carry is scattered: the owner, manager and rent-payment statement; the rent-cap and just-cause notice in twelve-point type; the exemption statement where the property is exempt from the rent cap; the gross monthly rent with any concessions listed separately; and the registered-sex-offender notice in eight-point type where the property is single-family or has more than four units. Two further texts are required only because the landlord has chosen a practice, and so do not set the state's posture: the formatting of an automatic-renewal term and the statement of where smoking is prohibited. The state's one prescribed agency booklet is a mold booklet from the health department, which is a health-hazard document and is carried on the mold row of the hazard table rather than here, and the flood text is carried on the flood row. Los Angeles requires its own renter-protections notice under city law (see the local rules).

Required items:

Owner, manager and rent-payment statement — words or content the lease itself must carry. Every written residential rental agreement must state the name, telephone number and usual street address for personal service of the person authorized to manage the premises and of an owner or person authorized to accept service, notices and demands; the name, telephone number and address of the person rent is paid to; the days and hours rent may be paid in person, or a financial-institution account within five miles, or electronic funds transfer details; and the forms in which rent may be paid. The statute fixes the subjects, not the words. The manager and owner items may be posted instead; the rent-payment items may not. Given at signing, inside the lease itself. (§ 1962(a)(1)–(3); § 1962.5(a))

Rent-cap and just-cause notice — words or content the lease itself must carry. For a tenancy commenced or renewed on or after July 1, 2020, the landlord must give the tenant a notice in the words the statute sets out, telling the tenant that California law limits how much the rent can be increased and that after all the tenants have lawfully occupied the property for twelve months, or one tenant for twenty-four months, the landlord must state a cause in any notice ending the tenancy. The notice must be in no less than twelve-point type and may sit in the lease, in an addendum, or in a separate written notice the tenant signs with a copy given back. A failure makes a written termination notice void, and the tenant may recover actual damages, and up to three times damages where the conduct was willful, with the Attorney General, a city attorney or county counsel able to seek an injunction. Given at signing and on renewal. Languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean. The statute fixes the words. Typography: No less than twelve-point type. Threshold: A mobilehome tenancy commenced or renewed on or after July 1, 2022 takes the notice only as an addendum or a signed written notice, not in the lease itself; mobilehome park tenancies have their own page. (§ 1946.2(f)(1)–(3), (g), (h))

Rent-cap exemption statement — words or content the lease itself must carry. A landlord relying on the separate-alienability exemption from the rent cap and the just-cause rule must put a statement in the words the statute sets out into the rental agreement for any tenancy commenced or renewed on or after July 1, 2020: that the property is not subject to the rent limits or the just-cause requirements, that it meets the two exemption paragraphs, and that the owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or a limited liability company with at least one corporate member. For an older tenancy the statement may be put in the agreement but is not required. No type size is prescribed. Without the statement in a new or renewed agreement the property is not exempt. Given at signing and on renewal, inside the lease itself. The statute fixes the words. Threshold: Only for a property alienable separate from the title to any other dwelling unit whose owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, a limited liability company with a corporate member, or mobilehome park management. (§ 1947.12(d)(5)(B)(i)–(iv))

Gross monthly rent and any owner-offered concessions, listed separately — a figure the landlord must compute and state in the lease. The lease, the rental agreement or any amendment to an existing one must separately list and identify the gross per-month rental rate and any discounts, incentives, concessions or credits the owner has offered, so the tenant can see the undiscounted rent beside what is being given back. Given at signing and on renewal, inside the lease itself. The statute fixes the substance, not the words. Computation: The figure computed is the gross rent for one month before any owner-offered reduction, stated beside each discount, incentive, concession or credit the owner is giving. Where the owner offers nothing back, the gross monthly rate and the rent charged are the same number and the lease states it once. Threshold: Carried by the rent-cap section, so it follows that section's coverage and its exemptions for separately alienable property with a non-corporate owner. (§ 1947.12(a)(1))

Registered-sex-offender notice — words or content the lease itself must carry. Every lease of single-family residential property, and every leasehold in residential property with more than four dwelling units, must contain, in not less than eight-point type, the notice the statute sets out: that information about specified registered sex offenders is made available to the public on the Department of Justice website named in the notice, and that the information will include either the offender's address or the community and postal code of residence. Once the notice is given the landlord need say nothing more about the proximity of registered offenders, and the notice gives a registered offender no claim against the landlord. The section states no penalty for omitting it. Given at signing, inside the lease itself. The statute fixes the words. Typography: Not less than eight-point type. Threshold: Single-family residential property, and residential property with more than four dwelling units. A lease of a unit in a duplex, triplex or fourplex is outside the section. (§ 2079.10a(a), (a)(3), (b))

Listed, but not a general duty counted above:

Automatic-renewal or extension term — words or content the lease itself must carry. Where the landlord chooses to include a term that automatically renews or extends the lease, that term must appear in at least eight-point boldface type in the body of the agreement, and a recital that the body contains such a term must appear in at least eight-point boldface immediately before the place where the tenant signs. Otherwise the renewal term is voidable by the party who did not prepare the lease. Because the text is required only where the landlord elects an automatic-renewal term, it is listed here and not counted toward the count above. Given at signing, inside the lease itself. The statute fixes the substance, not the words. Typography: At least eight-point boldface type in the body of the agreement, plus an eight-point boldface recital immediately before the signature line. (§ 1945.5)

Statement of where smoking is prohibited — words or content the lease itself must carry. Where the landlord has prohibited smoking on any part of the property, every lease entered into on or after January 1, 2012 with a tenant who has not previously occupied the unit must include a provision specifying the areas where smoking is prohibited. Adding a prohibition to an existing tenancy is a change of terms needing written notice instead. The text is required only because the landlord elects a smoking policy, so it is listed here and not counted toward the count above, and the section states no penalty. Given at signing, inside the lease itself. The statute fixes the substance, not the words. Threshold: Only for a tenant who has not previously occupied the dwelling unit, under a lease entered into on or after January 1, 2012. (§ 1947.5(b)(1))

Lease contents the statutes or rules address, each in the circumstance it names:

• The name, telephone number and usual street address for personal service of the person authorized to manage the premises (section 1962, subdivision (a), paragraph (1)).

• The name, telephone number and address of an owner, or of a person authorized to act for the owner in accepting service of process, notices and demands (section 1962, subdivision (a), paragraph (1)).

• The name, telephone number and address of the person rent is paid to, with the usual days and hours for payment in person, or an account at a financial institution within five miles with its name and street address, or electronic funds transfer details (section 1962, subdivision (a), paragraph (2)).

• The forms in which rent payments are to be made (section 1962, subdivision (a), paragraph (3)).

• The flood disclosure, in no smaller than eight-point type (section 8589.45 of the Government Code).

• The registered-sex-offender notice, in not less than eight-point type, for a single-family property or one with more than four dwelling units (section 2079.10a, subdivision (a)).

• The rent-cap and just-cause notice in no less than twelve-point type, unless it is given as an addendum or a signed separate notice (section 1946.2, subdivision (f)).

• For a property claiming the separate-alienability exemption, the exemption statement in the words the statute sets out (section 1947.12, subdivision (d), paragraph (5)).

• The gross per-month rental rate and any owner-offered discounts, incentives, concessions or credits, listed and identified separately (section 1947.12, subdivision (a), paragraph (1)).

• Any automatic-renewal or extension term, in eight-point boldface in the body with a matching recital before the signature line (section 1945.5).

• Where the landlord has prohibited smoking, a provision specifying where smoking is prohibited, for a tenant who has not previously occupied the unit (section 1947.5, subdivision (b), paragraph (1)).

• A copy of an outstanding methamphetamine or fentanyl remediation order and its notice, attached to the agreement (section 25400.28, subdivision (b) of the Health and Safety Code).

• Off-street parking at a qualifying property must be kept out of the rental agreement and put in an addendum or a separate agreement (section 1947.1).

No.

No California statute requires a move-in condition report, inventory or check-in checklist, and none requires one where a deposit is taken. The security-deposit section works at the other end of the tenancy: within a reasonable time after either side gives notice to end the tenancy, or before the lease term ends, the landlord must tell the tenant in writing of the option to ask for an initial inspection and of the right to be present at it, and must then make that inspection on request no earlier than two weeks before the end date, after at least forty-eight hours' written notice of the date and time. A tenant who does not ask discharges the landlord's duty. That inspection happens on the way out, not on the way in, and California prescribes no list of the previous tenant's damage.

Seven in-force state hazard disclosures: mold booklet for prospective tenants (before signing); bed bugs (before signing); methamphetamine (at application and before signing); pest-control contract notice (at signing); routine common-area pesticide notice (before signing and when the information changes); former military ordnance within one mile (before signing); and Proposition 65 warning for residential rental property (at signing and annually). Also on the books: known-mold disclosure — enacted but not yet in force; no state duty exists for lead, radon, or asbestos.

Every state duty and every stated absence, hazard by hazard:

Lead (state add-on to the federal rule) — no state duty. California adds nothing to the federal lead-paint rule for landlords: no state form, no rental-unit lead registration, no lead-safe certificate and no re-disclosure on renewal. The state's residential lead program is about accrediting and certifying lead professionals and setting abatement standards, and it never names a landlord, a lessor or a rental agreement; the childhood lead poisoning program is about blood-lead screening and case management, and its only confidentiality provision governs the use of screening data, not a landlord's duty to a tenant.

Mold booklet for prospective tenants — in force — a state duty, before signing, on an agency document (a statute). Before entering a rental or lease agreement, a residential landlord must give every prospective tenant the consumer booklet the state health department publishes on the health risks of exposure to mold. The department approved and published the booklet, and both the booklet's own first page and the department's mold page state that landlords have had to hand it over since January 1, 2022. It runs four pages and is published in English and Spanish. The booklet duty is unconditioned: it reaches every residential landlord, with no unit floor, no building age and no knowledge requirement, and the tenant signs nothing. The section states no consequence for failing to give it, and the enforcement article of the same act is itself switched off until the department adopts enforcement guidelines, which it has not done; other duties and remedies, including the habitability sections, are expressly preserved. Document: Information on Dampness and Mold for Renters in California, issued by the California Department of Public Health. Revision: No revision date is printed on the face. The first page says the booklet was produced by the department in 2020; the department's mold page labels the same file as a 2021 edition and the file name carries a May 2021 date. The English and Spanish files carry a file date of March 29, 2024, which is a stamp shared by every file in that library rather than a content revision; a second copy of the English file carries a file date of July 14, 2021, which is the closer proxy. The department's mold page is the page checked weekly. Agency page.

Known-mold disclosure (enacted, not in force) — enacted but not yet in force, before signing and when the event the section names occurs, in writing (a statute). California has a second mold duty on the books that has never come into force: written disclosure to prospective tenants before they sign, and to current tenants of affected units as soon as is reasonably practical, where the landlord knows or has reasonable cause to believe that mold is present above limits the health department was to set. The department has not set those limits and says it cannot, so the duty is dormant with no date attached. The two mold duties are often run together; only the booklet is owed today. Knowledge standard: The landlord knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, that mold, visible or hidden, is present that affects the unit or the building and either exceeds the permissible exposure limits the department is to set or poses a health threat under the department's guidelines. Threshold: No duty where the mold was remediated in line with the department's guidelines, and no duty to conduct air or surface testing. Where the change will be published. When it takes effect: The section does not apply until the first January 1 or July 1 that occurs at least six months after the health department adopts permissible exposure limits for mold and develops its remediation guidelines. No backstop date exists and none can be worked out: the limits section opens with the words if the department finds that adopting permissible exposure limits is feasible, the whole chapter operates only to the extent the department determines funds are available, and the department told the Legislature in its implementation report that sound, science-based limits for indoor molds cannot be established. The section states no penalty for a failure.

Bed bugs — in force — a state duty, before signing, in a separate document (a statute). Before creating a new tenancy, the landlord must give the prospective tenant a written notice in at least ten-point type, in substantially the words the statute sets out under the heading Information about Bed Bugs, covering how bed bugs look, their life cycle and reproduction, their bites, the common signs of an infestation, why cooperation and prompt written reporting matter, and how to report a suspected infestation to the landlord. Existing tenants had to receive it by January 1, 2018. There is no duty to disclose past infestations or treatment dates, no unit threshold and no consequence stated anywhere in the chapter. Two companion duties sit beside it: a landlord may not show, rent or lease a vacant unit the landlord knows has a current bed-bug infestation, and where a pest control operator inspects, the landlord must tell the tenants of the inspected units what the operator found, in writing, within two business days, with notice to all tenants for a confirmed infestation in a common area. In force since July 1, 2017.

Radon — no state duty. California has no radon disclosure for tenants. The state's indoor environmental quality chapter mentions radon three times, and all three are construction-side: the department may adopt federal model construction standards and fold them into a radon assessment and mitigation plan, such a plan may include measures to detect, avoid or dissipate dangerous radon levels at building sites or during construction of new residential buildings, and no agency may issue a building permit to an applicant who has not complied with the testing or building standards. None of the three reaches a landlord or mentions a tenant, and the landlord-tenant chapter does not use the word.

Methamphetamine — in force — a state duty, at application and before signing, in a signed acknowledgment (a statute). Where a local health officer has issued an order requiring a property to be remediated for methamphetamine or fentanyl contamination, the owner must give written notice of the order, with a copy of the order itself, to every prospective tenant who has completed an application to rent the affected unit. The prospective tenant must acknowledge receipt of the notice and the pending order in writing before signing, and the notice must be attached to the rental agreement. A prospective tenant who was not given it may void the agreement. The duty runs until the health officer issues a no-further-action notice. A parallel rule bars selling, renting or occupying a mobilehome, manufactured home or recreational vehicle until written notice of all laboratory activity and any remediation is given and attached, with the same right to void; the mobilehome park page carries that side. Because the acknowledgment must be separately signed, it falls outside the state's electronic transactions act. Threshold: The duty runs only while a local health officer's remediation order is outstanding, and ends when the health officer issues a notice that the property requires no further action. In force since January 1, 2020. If the duty is not met: A prospective tenant may void the rental agreement where the owner did not comply, and the same remedy applies to the parallel mobilehome, manufactured home and recreational vehicle rule.

Asbestos — no state duty. No California statute requires an asbestos disclosure to a residential tenant. The state's asbestos notification chapter defines a building as a public or commercial building and says in terms that a building does not mean a residential dwelling, so the chapter never reaches a home. What it does require is notice to employees who work in a covered building, within fifteen days of the owner learning where asbestos-containing materials are and every year after that, with notice to new employees within fifteen days of starting, and notice by mail to other owners of the building in privity of contract, with a posting alternative in a common interest development.

Pest-control contract notice — in force — a state duty, at signing, in a separate document (a statute). Where a contract for periodic pest control service has been signed, the landlord must give each new tenant who occupies the unit a copy of the notice the registered structural pest control company is required to prepare. That notice names the pest to be controlled, the pesticides proposed and their active ingredients, the statutory caution paragraph telling the tenant that pesticides are toxic chemicals and whom to contact if flu-like symptoms follow within twenty-four hours of an application, and how often the treatment will be done. The company must give its own notice forty-eight hours ahead for the highest-risk branch of work and no later than before application for the others, by mail, electronic mail, posting or personal delivery, with a new notice if the pesticide changes. A company that breaks its notice rule commits a misdemeanor; the landlord's own section states no penalty. Threshold: Only where a contract for periodic pest control service has been signed for the unit. In force since January 1, 2001.

Routine common-area pesticide notice — in force — a state duty, before signing and when the information changes, in writing (a statute). A landlord who routinely applies pesticide in a common area on a set schedule without using a licensed pest control operator must give a tenant in each unit a written notice naming the pest, the name and brand of the product, the statutory caution paragraph and the schedule on which the pesticide will be applied. Existing tenants get it before the first application; each new tenant gets it before entering into a lease agreement, which makes it a signing-stage duty. A new notice is owed if the product changes. Two neighboring duties fire during the tenancy rather than at signing: a unit application without a licensed operator needs written notice at least twenty-four hours ahead to that unit, and to adjacent units for broadcast applications, foggers and aerosol sprays, unless the tenant agrees in writing to an immediate application; a common-area application needs a notice posted before the work and left up for at least twenty-four hours after, or one hour after where the pest is an immediate threat. Notices may be delivered electronically where the tenant has given an address. The section states no penalty. Threshold: Only where the landlord or an authorized agent routinely applies pesticide in a common area on a set schedule without a licensed pest control operator. In force since January 1, 2016.

Former military ordnance within one mile — in force — a state duty, before signing, in writing (a statute). A landlord who has actual knowledge of any former federal or state ordnance location in the neighborhood area must give written notice of that knowledge to a prospective tenant before the rental agreement is signed. A former ordnance location is an area a federal or state agency has identified as once used for military training and possibly containing explosive munitions, and the neighborhood area is within one mile of the dwelling. No words and no type size are prescribed, and the section states no penalty. Knowledge standard: The landlord has actual knowledge of a former federal or state ordnance location in the neighborhood area. Threshold: Neighborhood area means within one mile of the dwelling; the duty is conditioned on the landlord's actual knowledge and has no unit or building threshold. In force since January 1, 1990.

Proposition 65 warning for residential rental property — in force — a state duty, at signing and annually, in writing (a statute and an administrative rule). A landlord with ten or more employees must give a warning to each known adult occupant of a rented dwelling at the time of renting and each year after that, where a listed cancer-causing or reproductive chemical on the property can expose them. The warning may be delivered in a letter addressed to each known adult occupant, and to tenants and occupants where the names are not known, by electronic message to an address otherwise used for the tenancy, or in the lease itself, though putting it in the lease only covers the adults who sign or are named; in later years a renewed agreement may carry it. It must show the warning symbol, the word WARNING in capitals and bold, the exposure source and chemical, the statement that the chemical is known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive harm, an invitation to talk to the landlord or building owner about how and when exposure could happen, and the state's apartments warning web page. Where the lease, a renewal, an amendment or any other landlord notice is given in another language, the warning must be given in that language too. Enclosed parking facilities and designated smoking areas carry their own separate warnings. The residential-rental sections were adopted in 2019 and the duty has applied since then; the rulemaking record, not a published effective date, fixes the start. Knowledge standard: Knowingly and intentionally exposing an individual to a chemical the state has listed as causing cancer or reproductive toxicity. Threshold: A landlord employing fewer than ten people is outside the act, as are public agencies. The rule covers an apartment, house, duplex, triplex, condominium or other dwelling rented to a tenant to live in, including common areas, but not a hotel. If the duty is not met: An injunction, and a civil penalty of up to two thousand five hundred dollars a day for each violation, sought by the Attorney General, a district attorney, a city attorney of a city over 750,000 people or, with the district attorney's consent, a city prosecutor, alongside the act's private enforcement route.

Yes — a statute requires the landlord to disclose whether the property lies in a mapped flood zone to a prospective or current tenant, in the lease itself.

In every residential lease entered into on or after July 1, 2018 the landlord must disclose four things in no smaller than eight-point type. First, that the property is in a special flood hazard area or an area of potential flooding, but only where the landlord actually knows it, and the statute defines actual knowledge as having had written notice from a public agency, being required by the mortgage holder to carry flood insurance, or currently carrying flood insurance. Second, that the tenant can look up flood and other hazards on the Office of Emergency Services website, with the address of that office's hazard-mapping tool included in the text. Third, that the landlord's insurance does not cover the tenant's possessions and that renter's and flood insurance are worth considering. Fourth, that the landlord need give no further flood information and that what was given is treated as enough to inform the tenant. The first item turns on a map-based zone determination, not on whether the property has flooded before: there is no flooding-history limb anywhere in the section. The last three items run in every residential lease whatever the zone. The statute prescribes the subjects rather than a script, so there is no state form and no revision to track, and it states no penalty. Where the lease was negotiated primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean, the flood disclosure must be translated too. The state's natural hazard and transfer disclosure statements are sale-side: that article reaches a lease only where it carries a purchase option or is a ground lease coupled with improvements.

Threshold: None. Every lease or rental agreement for residential property entered into on or after July 1, 2018 carries it, with no lease-term floor and no unit count.

Yes — of the facts the rule names, some need not be disclosed; no cause of action arises from not disclosing some; and disclosing some is forbidden, each as stated here.

California has three rules, and two of them bind the landlord's tongue rather than loosen it. A death on the property more than three years before the tenant offers to rent, and an occupant's HIV or AIDS status, are declared not material facts requiring disclosure to a buyer, lessee or renter, and no claim arises against the owner or the owner's agent for not disclosing them; the section names lessees and renters in terms, so it reaches a tenancy, but it does not protect an intentional misrepresentation made in answer to a direct question. Separately, a landlord or a landlord's agent may not ask about or based on a tenant's, prospective tenant's or occupant's immigration or citizenship status, may not require any statement or certification of that status, and may not disclose information about it to anyone for the purpose of harassing, intimidating or retaliating against a person, influencing a tenant to leave, or recovering possession; verifying financial qualifications or identity, and complying with federal law or court process, are carved out. A further section makes it unlawful to disclose that information to an immigration authority, a law enforcement agency or any government agency for the same improper purposes, whether or not the person still lives there, and a court may order the landlord to pay between six and twelve times the monthly rent for each person whose status was disclosed, plus an injunction and, on a prevailing party's motion, attorney's fees; a waiver of that section is void and a non-profit may bring the injunction action.

Yes — the statute lists the lease provisions that are void or prohibited.

The roster is short and enumerated in one section, with a second layer spread across the code. Five kinds of waiver are void outright in a residential lease: the deposit and entry rights, a future cause of action against the landlord, a notice or hearing required by law, procedural rights in litigation, and the landlord's duty of care against personal injury or property damage. Then comes a procedural rule found in almost no other state: any other waiver or modification of a statutory right is also void unless the lease was presented to the tenant before the tenant took actual possession, and that rule does not reach a renewal carrying a provision the earlier agreement already had. The roster reaches clauses the tenant gives up rights under, not the landlord's, and it applies to leases signed on or after January 1, 1976. Several further anti-waiver provisions sit in their own sections and are listed above, which is why the roster counts as spread across the code. California has no general unconscionability provision in the landlord-tenant chapter; the sanction for a prohibited clause is that the clause does not work.

It reaches clauses against the tenant.

Sanction as the statute states it: The clause is void as contrary to public policy and nothing more: no damages figure, no multiple of the rent, no whole-lease voidness and no cure window. Money exposure in California comes from the individual sections, not from the roster, and each is described where it belongs: two thousand five hundred dollars and fees for a missed demolition notice, six to twelve times the monthly rent for an improper disclosure of immigration status, up to three times damages for a rent-cap and just-cause failure, rescission for a missed translation, the right to void the agreement for a missed methamphetamine or fentanyl order notice, a rent deduction for refusing an internet opt-out, and up to two thousand five hundred dollars a day for a missing chemical-exposure warning.

The listed provisions:

• A clause by which the tenant waives or modifies rights or remedies under the security-deposit section or the landlord-entry section (section 1953, subdivision (a), paragraph (1)).

• A clause by which the tenant waives the right to bring a cause of action against the landlord that may arise in the future (section 1953, subdivision (a), paragraph (2)).

• A clause by which the tenant waives a notice or hearing required by law (section 1953, subdivision (a), paragraph (3)).

• A clause by which the tenant waives procedural rights in litigation about their rights and obligations as a tenant (section 1953, subdivision (a), paragraph (4)).

• A clause by which the tenant waives the landlord's duty of care to prevent personal injury or property damage where the law imposes that duty (section 1953, subdivision (a), paragraph (5)).

• Any other waiver or modification of a statutory right, unless the lease was presented to the tenant before the tenant took actual possession (section 1953, subdivision (b)).

• A clause waiving or modifying the tenant's rights to a habitable dwelling and to repair and deduct, as to any condition that makes the premises untenantable, except an agreement that the tenant will improve, repair or maintain stated parts of the dwelling as part of the consideration for the rent (section 1942.1).

• A clause waiving the translation duty for a lease negotiated primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean (section 1632, subdivision (l)).

• A clause waiving the rent-cap and just-cause rights (section 1946.2, subdivision (j)).

• A clause waiving the formatting rules for an automatic-renewal term (section 1945.5).

• A clause waiving the rules on forms of rent payment, including the no-fee-for-check rule (section 1947.3, subdivision (f)).

• A clause waiving the bar on disclosing a tenant's immigration or citizenship status (section 1940.35, subdivision (g)).

• A clause waiving attorney's fees in a contract that provides for them, which is void on the face of the fee statute (section 1717, subdivision (a)).

By statute a one-way landlord attorney-fee clause is read as reciprocal, so the tenant has the same right on prevailing.

Where a lease provides that attorney's fees incurred to enforce it go either to one named party or to the prevailing party, the party who actually prevails on the contract is entitled to reasonable fees whether or not they are the party named, so a one-way landlord clause is converted rather than struck out. A fee provision is read as applying to the entire contract unless each party was represented by counsel in negotiating and signing it and the contract says so. The court fixes the fee as an element of costs, decides who prevailed on notice and motion whether or not the case reaches judgment, and may find that neither side prevailed. Two limits matter: where the action is voluntarily dismissed or dismissed under a settlement there is no prevailing party at all, and a defendant who pleads and proves a full tender and deposits the money with the court is treated as the prevailing party. A contractual waiver of the fees the section provides is void. California caps nothing, and a fee clause is not one of the clauses the void-clause section lists, so a lease that says nothing about fees leaves each side to pay its own.

Partly — state law preempts local rules on some subjects and leaves others to the locality or open.

California is mixed on an unusual pattern: it takes one disclosure subject away from cities entirely, protects local action on a second, bars public entities from compelling a landlord on a third, and says nothing about the rest. The Legislature has declared that it occupies the field of regulation of disclosure about deaths on real property and about a prior occupant's HIV-positive status, so a local death-disclosure ordinance cannot stand. The smoking section says in terms that it does not preempt a local ordinance restricting smoking, whether in effect before or after January 1, 2012. A public entity may not by ordinance, regulation, policy or administrative action compel a landlord or a landlord's agent to inquire into, compile, disclose, report or provide information about, or otherwise act on, a tenant's or prospective tenant's immigration or citizenship status. The demolition-notice section expressly does not preempt other laws about landlord obligations or disclosures. Beyond those four, neither the landlord-tenant chapter nor the identity chapter carries a preemption or an authorization clause, and the state's preemption machinery in this area is confined to rent and to just cause, which belong to the rent-increase and lease-termination pages. Los Angeles requires a city renter-protections notice, under an ordinance with enforcement hooks in the municipal code, for tenants who begin or renew a tenancy on or after January 27, 2023, posted in an accessible common area and reissued each July 1, and the city conditions collecting rent on serving a valid rent-stabilization registration statement. San Francisco's signing-stage packet is thinner than its reputation: its prescribed disclosures sit at the advertising stage, at buyout and at sale, and the city requires no move-in rights summary beyond state law. City requirements are not carried on this page.