LA County Guide · 2026
Every fact in this guide is sourced to an official government page, linked at each mention, and current as of August 2026. Several of these numbers reset annually, on fixed dates that vary by city, so a figure that is correct today may not be correct in a few months. This article is general information, not legal advice. Confirm current status directly with the relevant city, county, or state agency, or consult a qualified attorney, before relying on any figure here for an active transaction.
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Los Angeles rent control” is not one rule. Los Angeles County contains the City of Los Angeles (its own Rent Stabilization Ordinance, currently capped at 3% annually), roughly a dozen other independently incorporated cities with their own local ordinances, several cities that regulate evictions without capping rent at all, unincorporated county areas governed by a separate ordinance, and a long list of cities with no local rule whatsoever, relying entirely on California’s statewide AB 1482, currently 8.7%. Every fact below is sourced to an official government page, because most of these numbers reset annually and several are only months old.
Every week, an owner tells me their building is “in LA” and asks what the rent cap is, and the honest first question I have to ask back is: which LA do you mean? The city? The county? A city that happens to sit inside the county but runs its own government entirely? People use “Los Angeles” to describe an enormous, legally fragmented region, and the rent rules that actually govern a building depend entirely on which of dozens of separate governments drew the line around it. It’s exactly the kind of question a free written valuation settles first, before price ever enters the conversation.
This guide exists to sort that out properly, city by city, sourced only from official government pages so you can verify every figure yourself.
Before the city-by-city detail, it helps to understand the three layers a building can fall into.
The City of Los Angeles is a single incorporated municipal government, but it is much larger than most people picture. Neighborhoods like Hollywood, Venice, Westwood, San Pedro, Wilmington, Highland Park, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock, and the entire San Fernando Valley (Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood, Encino, Reseda, Woodland Hills, Northridge, Pacoima, Studio City, Toluca Lake) are not separate cities.
They are districts inside the City of Los Angeles, and a building in any of them is governed by the City of LA’s own rent rules, not by anything specific to “Hollywood” or “the Valley.” Wilmington, for instance, was its own independent city until Los Angeles annexed it in 1909, and it has been part of the City of LA, and therefore subject to the City’s RSO, ever since.
Independently incorporated cities are a different thing entirely, even when they sit inside LA County or are surrounded by City of LA territory. Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Culver City, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Inglewood, Compton, and dozens of others each have their own city council, their own municipal code, and the legal authority to pass their own rent control, or not, independent of what the City of Los Angeles does.
A completely different set of rules can govern a building one block outside LA’s city limits than a building one block inside them.
Unincorporated Los Angeles County is the third category: pockets of land that fall under neither a city government nor a rent-controlled major city, governed instead by the County’s own Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections Ordinance (RSTPO), administered by the County’s Department of Consumer and Business Affairs.
Getting this distinction right matters enormously for underwriting. Below is what each layer actually requires, current as of August 2026.
The Los Angeles Housing Department runs two related but distinct systems. The Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) covers buildings with a certificate of occupancy on or before October 1, 1978, and currently caps annual increases at 3%, in effect through June 30, 2027, under a new formula (90% of CPI, ranging 1% to 4%) that will govern calculations in future years. As of February 2, 2026, two add-ons that used to sit on top of this cap were eliminated entirely: the 1% surcharges for landlord-paid gas and landlord-paid electricity, and the additional 10% increase for adding a dependent to a household.
Both were real underwriting deltas for years, and both are now gone. The RSO’s rent cap does not cover buildings built after October 1978, but they are covered by the City’s separate Just Cause Ordinance (JCO), which requires a legally valid reason for eviction without regulating the rent amount itself, since AB 1482 handles that piece for those units.
This is why a Hollywood fourplex from 1962 and a North Hollywood fourplex from 1985 can sit ten miles apart and answer to genuinely different rules, one under the RSO’s 3% cap, the other under the JCO’s eviction protections layered on top of the statewide AB 1482 cap, even though both are technically “in LA.”
I break down what the RSO means for a seller specifically on our Sell Your Apartment Building page.
These cities have enacted local ordinances that go further than state law, each with its own mechanism.
The City of West Hollywood’s own Rent Stabilization page sets the Annual General Adjustment at 2.75% effective September 1, 2026, up from 2.25% the year before, based on 75% of the May-to-May area CPI, with a permanent 3% ceiling the City Council wrote into the ordinance after the pandemic rent freeze ended. Coverage applies to buildings with a certificate of occupancy before July 1, 1979. Annual registration is required, and the ordinance requires relocation assistance for no-fault evictions.
The City of Santa Monica Rent Control Board sets its own annual General Adjustment, currently 2.3% through August 31, 2026, rising to 2.6% effective September 1, 2026, both based on 75% of area CPI with a dollar-amount ceiling on top ($60 and $70 per month respectively, applying to higher-rent units). Coverage reaches units built before April 10, 1979. Full just-cause eviction protection applies to every covered unit.
The city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance covers most residential rental units in the city with limited exceptions, split into two categories. Chapter 6 units, the majority of covered tenancies, get one increase every 12 months, with the maximum updated each June; as of June 2026, that maximum is 3.6%. Chapter 5 units, older buildings from before September 20, 1978 where the original monthly rent was $600 or less, follow a different formula that updates monthly, most recently set at 3.35% as of August 12, 2026.
Single-family homes, most condos, and units built after February 1, 1995 are exempt. Landlords can also apply for a rent adjustment above these caps to achieve a “just and reasonable return” based on net operating income.
The city’s Rent Control Ordinance and Tenant Protections Ordinance were adopted as permanent measures in 2020 and took effect October 30, 2020, covering multifamily buildings built on or before February 1, 1995. Single-family homes, condos, and townhomes are exempt.
The current cap is 3.25% annually. On January 12, 2026, the City Council adopted clarifying amendments to both ordinances, including renaming the program, a reminder that even settled local ordinances continue to evolve.
These administrative updates streamline enforcement protocols, clarify dispute procedures, and enhance public awareness.
Glendale Municipal Code Chapter 9.30, the Rental Rights Program, does not cap rent directly. Instead, a landlord who raises rent more than 7% in 12 months on a building of three or more units built before 1995 triggers a tenant’s right to vacate and collect relocation assistance, three times the new monthly rent, doubled for qualified tenants. Owners can bank unused portions of that 7% annually, up to a 3-year maximum of 21%, though any single-year increase above 15% triggers relocation regardless of the bank.
That unused bank is a real, transferable asset: it runs with the property and passes to a new owner when the building sells, something most buyers never think to ask about during diligence. The actual outer ceiling, separate from the relocation trigger entirely, remains California’s statewide AB 1482, currently 8.7%.
Buildings of five or more units must offer a one-year written lease to new tenants and a renewal offer at least 60 days before each lease expires; miss the renewal offer and future rent increases are void until it’s cured, a compliance detail buyers check during escrow.
The most recently enacted local ordinance on this list. Huntington Park’s official Rent Stabilization page confirms the city’s first-ever Rent Stabilization Ordinance passed the City Council on November 18, 2024 and took effect December 19, 2024. It caps annual increases at 3% or 100% of regional CPI, whichever is lower, permits one increase per year, and requires annual registration, with the city’s own site confirming that failure to register can result in the inability to enforce a rent increase or an eviction.
A December 2025 amendment, Ordinance No. 2025-14, confirmed directly through the city’s own council agenda, specifies that unpaid rent must exceed one full month’s contract rent before nonpayment qualifies as just cause for eviction.
This critical clarification offers essential protections for struggling tenants, effectively preventing immediate displacement over minor balances while encouraging property owners to adhere strictly to all official local registration procedures promptly.
Under Inglewood Municipal Code § 8-127, the Housing Protection Ordinance, buildings with five or more units are capped at the greater of 3% or the change in local CPI over the prior year, while buildings with four or fewer units are capped at 5% plus local CPI, with a hard ceiling of 10%, currently working out to roughly 8.7%. Both tiers apply to buildings with a certificate of occupancy issued more than 15 years ago, with annual registration required.
Notably, the smaller-building tier can currently permit a higher increase than the larger-building tier, the opposite of what most owners assume.
This unexpected structure provides smaller landlords additional financial flexibility while maintaining strict long-term affordability controls to protect residents in larger multi-family housing complexes.
Measure H, the Fair and Equitable Housing Charter Amendment, passed by voters in November 2022, covers buildings of two or more units with a certificate of occupancy before February 1, 1995. The current Annual General Adjustment is 2.25%, set at 75% of regional CPI, through September 30, 2026.
A December 18, 2025 California Court of Appeal ruling struck down two specific provisions: the requirement that owners of Costa-Hawkins-exempt single-family and condo units pay relocation assistance tied specifically to a rent increase, and an extra notice step layered onto nonpayment evictions. Relocation assistance for actual no-fault evictions, owner move-in, substantial remodel, Ellis Act withdrawal, was not touched and remains fully in effect, along with the core rent cap and registry.
The city’s own materials confirm Ordinance No. 925, adopted in September 2022 and effective October 12, 2022, sets the annual cap at 50% of the change in CPI or 4%, whichever is less. Since CPI has come in lower, the current allowable increase is 1.5%.
This modest limit ensures predictable housing costs for local residents during inflationary periods. Meanwhile, property owners must carefully review official municipal guidelines, verify annual calculations, and properly issue required advance notices to avoid administrative non-compliance, legal disputes, or invalidating scheduled rent adjustments throughout the current calendar year.
The city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance, Chapter 117 of the Baldwin Park Municipal Code, ties annual increases to the LA-Long Beach-Anaheim CPI-U, with a floor of 1% and a ceiling of 5%; that formula currently computes to 3.7%, effective August 1, 2026.
Coverage generally reaches units built before January 1, 1995, with exemptions for single-family homes and condos, most mobile homes, owner-occupied duplexes, transient lodgings, government-related and Section 8 housing, and construction after October 21, 2020. Annual registration is required, due by the last day of March.
The city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance No. 23-07, effective September 22, 2023, caps annual increases at 4% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower. For Fiscal Year 2026-2027, that computes to 3.7%, based on April 2026 CPI, effective annually each July 1. An increase can only be imposed after the unit is registered. A companion measure, Tenant Protection Ordinance 23-11, separately governs evictions, growing out of a 2023 moratorium on no-fault substantial-remodel evictions. Multifamily units built on or after February 1, 1995 are exempt.
The city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance, Municipal Code Chapter 5.13, took effect July 7, 2023. The maximum allowable increase for protected units is 3% or CPI, whichever is lower, for the period July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, with no banking of unused increases allowed and only one increase per 12 months. Units built after February 1, 1995, single-family homes and condos, and properties of up to two units where the owner occupies one are exempt. Units not covered by the ordinance follow the statewide AB 1482 rate instead.
we will confirm the exact rules that apply before we ever discuss price.
Not every local ordinance is a percentage cap. Several cities on this list took a different approach: leave the annual rent increase to state law, but add real, local teeth to how a no-fault eviction can happen.
The city’s Tenant Protection Ordinance, codified in Title 5, Chapter 4 of the Burbank Municipal Code, has been built up across three actions. An urgency ordinance adopted September 12, 2023 first heightened requirements specifically for demolition and substantial-remodel evictions. Ordinance No. 24-4,014, effective August 31, 2024, expanded three months’ relocation assistance to nearly all no-fault just-cause evictions and added anti-retaliation protections.
Ordinance No. 25-4,025, effective April 11, 2025, carved out one exception: an owner or owner’s-relative move-in eviction now requires only the state-standard one month of relocation, while every other no-fault eviction, withdrawal from the rental market, a government or court order to vacate, or demolition and substantial remodel, still requires three months.
The same 2025 ordinance added an extensive anti-harassment section, giving tenants a civil action for damages or injunctive relief and an affirmative defense in an unlawful detainer proceeding. None of this caps the rent amount itself, which still runs under statewide AB 1482.
Separately, in October 2025, the City Council voted to direct staff to draft a Glendale-style rent-increase cap; as of this writing, that proposal has not been adopted.
The City of Long Beach’s own Substantial Remodel-Related Tenant Displacement page confirms that for tenants who have lived in a unit 12 months or more, an owner must give 60 days’ notice and either waive the tenant’s last two months of rent or pay $4,500 in relocation assistance, whichever is greater.
The work must actually require the tenant to vacate, and the owner must have already obtained the required permits before serving notice. If an owner intentionally violates the ordinance by issuing an invalid termination notice, the tenant can sue in civil court for a penalty of up to $15,000, plus attorney’s fees, at the court’s discretion. This is a tenant-enforced remedy tied specifically to improper substantial-remodel notices, not a general fine the city imposes on its own. The rent amount itself remains governed by AB 1482.
These stringent requirements safeguard vulnerable residents against bad-faith evictions disguised as routine property renovations. Landlords must ensure absolute statutory compliance before issuing notices, while displaced occupants gain vital financial backing and potent legal recourse to challenge fraudulent construction claims effectively. Consequently, this enforcement framework deters abusive practices, maintains municipal housing stability, and provides clear procedural accountability for local real estate developers operating across Long Beach.
The city’s own tenant protection materials confirm targeted urgency ordinances addressing no-fault and substantial-remodel evictions specifically, first passed in 2023 and extended since, without a general local rent cap layered on top of AB 1482.
The city closed its substantial-remodel eviction loophole in 2023, following the same pattern as Burbank and Long Beach. We could not confirm a general rent-increase percentage cap for South Pasadena from public sources; if your building is there, confirm current status directly with the city before relying on this guide for that jurisdiction specifically.
The following cities, per their own government pages or official municipal code, currently rely entirely on the statewide AB 1482: 5% plus regional CPI, capped at 10%, currently 8.7% effective August 2026 for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim CPI region. This rate resets every August 1, so always confirm the current figure before relying on it for an active transaction.
Whittier has no local ordinance of any kind.
Downey’s City Council has explicitly debated and rejected local rent control multiple times, most recently reconsidering the issue again in early 2026 without passing anything.
Gardena has no local rent cap, but does have a separate rent mediation program dating to 1987 that requires extended written notice for larger increases without capping the dollar amount.
Compton, San Gabriel, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach each have no local rent control ordinance, confirmed via each city’s own government page or official municipal code.
La Cañada Flintridge, an independently incorporated city since 1976, has no local rent control ordinance identified.
South Gate, has no local rent control ordinance, confirmed directly by the city, which is genuinely useful to know if you’re comparing it against its immediate neighbors: Huntington Park, Cudahy, and Bell Gardens all sit right next to South Gate, and a South Gate owner reading about all three could reasonably expect to find their own city on a similar list. They won’t, and that’s not an omission, it’s the actual answer.
Paramount has no local ordinance either, confirmed directly against the city’s current municipal code, though it’s worth knowing this one is contested rather than settled: a tenant organizing campaign pushed for a 3% cap as recently as December 2024, and as of the code’s most recent update, that effort has not resulted in an adopted ordinance.
Torrance, no local rent control ordinance, confirmed directly against the city’s current municipal code.
Montebello has no rent-increase cap; the city’s own page confirms an Eviction Data Collection Ordinance (Chapter 9.70 of its Municipal Code), a reporting requirement for landlords rather than a rent control or rent stabilization measure. Rental properties there are governed by the statewide AB 1482.
Bellflower has no local rent control ordinance. Its own housing resources point renters and owners to California’s statewide AB 1482 as the operative framework, confirmed via a dedicated current review of the city’s rules; we were not able to pull the specific municipal code language directly confirming the absence of a rent cap, so this sits at a slightly lower confidence tier than South Gate, Paramount, or Torrance.
Norwalk has no local rent control ordinance and relies on statewide AB 1482, consistent with earlier research on this account. We do not have a fresh, direct government-page confirmation from this session; treat this at the same lower confidence tier as Bellflower until independently reverified.
Lynwood has no local rent control ordinance identified; the city’s own municipal code is current through an ordinance passed as recently as April 2026, with nothing indicating a rent stabilization measure exists. This wasn’t confirmed against a full table of contents the way Paramount and Torrance were, so treat it as solid but not airtight.
El Segundo: Unlike its South Bay neighbors above, the city runs a program it calls its Rent Stabilization Program, which is easy to mistake for general apartment coverage. It isn’t: that program refers specifically to mobile home park protections, a separate legal category under California law that doesn’t extend to apartment buildings. For apartment owners, El Segundo has no rent control ordinance, and AB 1482 governs the same as every other city in this section.
For a broader statewide cross-reference, the California Department of Real Estate’s own Landlords’ and Tenants’ Rights Guide maintains an official list of California cities with local rent control ordinances.
For pockets of the county that fall under neither a city government nor one of the cities above, places like East LA, large parts of Altadena, and Marina del Rey, the County’s Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections Ordinance, effective since 2020, limits annual increases based on CPI and provides just-cause eviction protection, administered by the County’s Department of Consumer and Business Affairs rather than any city hall. Coverage generally reaches buildings with two or more units built before February 1, 1995.
For the period July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, the maximum allowable increase is 1.919% for fully covered units, rising to 2.919% for landlords who qualify and self-certify as small property landlords, and 3.919% for luxury units. This is notably tighter than most nearby incorporated cities, a real reversal of the assumption that unincorporated land is the more lightly regulated option.
This is a genuinely common point of confusion, and it is a perfect small example of the entire framework above. Montrose is not a city. It is a neighborhood and commercial district within the City of Glendale, which means a Montrose apartment building is governed by Glendale’s Municipal Code Chapter 9.30, the same 7% relocation trigger and banking rules described above.
La Cañada Flintridge, by contrast, is its own separately incorporated city, distinct from Glendale, with its own council and its own government, and no local rent cap of its own. Two neighborhoods that sound similar and sit close together on a map answer to two entirely different governments.
The practical upshot is simple to state and easy to get wrong: never assume a building’s rent rules from its neighborhood name, its ZIP code, or how close it sits to a city you already know well.
Confirm the actual incorporated jurisdiction first, then confirm which ordinance, if any, that specific jurisdiction has passed, because the difference between a 2.25% cap, a 3%-or-CPI cap, a 7% relocation trigger, and no local cap at all changes what a buyer should underwrite for future income, and it changes what a seller’s rent roll is actually worth.
We walk through exactly this kind of underwriting question in our guide on analyzing multifamily investment opportunities in Los Angeles.
No. Roughly a dozen cities in the county have enacted their own local rent stabilization ordinances. The rest, including most of the South Bay, several Gateway Cities, and cities like Burbank and Whittier, rely entirely on California’s statewide AB 1482, though several of those also layer on their own eviction-specific protections without capping rent directly.
Both have their own local rent control. Beverly Hills runs two separate formulas depending on the tenancy, currently 3.6% for most units (Chapter 6) and 3.35% for a smaller category of older, low-rent tenancies (Chapter 5), the latter updated monthly rather than annually. Culver City caps at 3.25%, with its ordinance dating to 2020 and clarified again in January 2026.
No. Hollywood is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, not a separate city, and it is governed by the same RSO and JCO framework as every other LA neighborhood built in the same era.
AB 1482 is a California state law that acts as a floor, applying wherever a stronger local ordinance does not. Local ordinances, where they exist, are generally more restrictive than AB 1482’s 5%-plus-CPI, 10%-maximum formula, and they can add requirements state law does not, such as registration, relocation assistance triggers, or banking rules.
Most annually, on a fixed date that varies by city. AB 1482’s regional figure resets every August 1. West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Pasadena, Baldwin Park, and several others each announce a new figure ahead of their own annual adjustment dates. Any number in this guide should be reverified against the linked government source before being relied on for a live transaction.
Hi, I am Max Berger, a multifamily broker at Compass in Los Angeles. Every one of our location pages, from Glendale to Inglewood to the Gateway Cities, is built around exactly this kind of jurisdiction-specific detail, because the rule that governs your building is never just “the LA rule.” Browse current listings or see how past sales came together on our success stories page.
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