Rent regulation & tenants
Retaliatory eviction
Adverse landlord action — eviction, rent hike, service cuts — punishing a tenant's protected activity; barred by statute, with a 180-day presumption window.
Definition
Retaliatory eviction is a termination, rent increase, or reduction in services that punishes a tenant's exercise of legal rights — complaining to code enforcement, using repair-and-deduct, organizing with other tenants, or asserting rent-ordinance rights. Civil Code § 1942.5 bars it and presumes retaliation when the landlord acts within 180 days of specified protected activity by a tenant who is current on rent.
The bar runs alongside just cause: even a facially valid ground under Civil Code § 1946.2 fails if proven retaliatory, and local ordinances add their own anti-retaliation and anti-harassment provisions, some with civil penalties and fee-shifting.
Why it matters in an underwrite
Sequencing is the operational lesson: a rent increase or termination served on the heels of a code complaint or habitability demand starts inside the 180-day presumption window, with the owner carrying the burden of showing a legitimate motive. Remedies include actual and punitive damages plus attorney's fees, and retaliation is a standard counterclaim in unlawful detainer. Document the independent business reason before acting, and let contested-repair dust settle before serving anything adverse.
Sources & related guides
See also
See the term in the law itself
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Last reviewed 2026-07-29. General information, not legal advice.