Los Angeles Rent Control & Eviction Rules

Rental units — dwelling units, efficiency units, guest rooms, duplexes and condominiums, mobile homes and RVs in parks — in a structure whose first Certificate of Occupancy was issued on or before October 1, 1978

"Housing accommodations, located in a structure for which the first Certificate of Occupancy was issued after October 1, 1978, are exempt." A building permitted for residential use with no C/O ever issued is dated by the permit.

Source: LAMC § 151.02 ("Rental Units") · verified 2026-09-26

Single-family dwellings unless two or more units share the parcel; hotel, motel and rooming-house rooms occupied under 30 days; nonprofit stock-cooperative units occupied by a shareholder; hospitals, licensed care facilities, convents, dorms; government-owned or rent-regulated housing (Housing Choice Voucher units remain covered); and post-October-1-1978 construction

Source: LAMC § 151.02 ("Rental Units", exclusions) · verified 2026-09-26

90 percent of the change in the CPI (All Urban Consumers, Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim) between the two most recent 12-month periods ending September 30, rounded to the nearest whole number; if that is under 1 percent the landlord may still take 1 percent

Transitional rule in the text: an increase not noticed between June 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026 is capped at 3 percent with no utility add-on.

Source: LAMC § 151.06(D) · verified 2026-09-26

4%

"In no event, however, may an annual rent increase under this subsection exceed four percent." The floor is 1 percent.

Source: LAMC § 151.06(D) · verified 2026-09-26

Once in any 12 consecutive months — no increase under § 151.06(D) within 12 months of the effective date of a prior increase under that subsection or Subsections A–D or F.1

Source: LAMC § 151.06(D) · verified 2026-09-26

No

No banking mechanism appears in §§ 151.04–151.08; each increase is tied to a rolling 12-month anniversary rather than accumulated.

Source: LAMC § 151.06(D) · verified 2026-09-26

Utility pass-through of 1 percent each for landlord-paid electricity and gas (§ 151.06 A–B); up to 10 percent per additional tenant joining the unit (§ 151.06 G); smoke-detector surcharge of $0.50 (battery) or $3 (hardwired) a month until the cost is recovered (§ 151.06.1); 50 percent of DWP excess-water penalties (§ 151.06.2); capital-improvement, rehabilitation and seismic-retrofit increases by petition under § 151.07

Source: LAMC § 151.06(A), (B), (G); §§ 151.06.1–151.06.2 · verified 2026-09-26

Full vacancy decontrol once every tenant has voluntarily vacated, or after a termination under § 151.09 A.1, A.2, A.9 or A.13 — the landlord may re-rent at any amount; after most other § 151.09 terminations the unit re-rents at the prior lawful rent plus available annual adjustments

Source: LAMC § 151.06(C) · verified 2026-09-26

Yes — a landlord may recover possession only on one of the 14 grounds enumerated in § 151.09(A): nonpayment, uncured lease violation, nuisance or criminal activity, illegal use, refusal to renew a like lease, refusal of access, unapproved subtenant, owner or family or resident-manager occupancy, interference with a Tenant Habitability Plan, demolition or permanent removal from rental use, government order to vacate, HUD sale, residential-hotel conversion, and conversion to affordable housing. Units outside the RSO are covered by the citywide Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance (§§ 165.00–165.12)

§ 151.09 has no page of its own in the library; its text appears in full on the § 151.08 page.

Source: LAMC § 151.09(A) (text carried on the § 151.08 page) · verified 2026-09-26

For a no-fault termination under § 151.09 A.8, 10, 11, 12, 13 or 14: $23,150 to a qualified tenant and $11,000 to any other tenant for a tenancy under three years; $27,400 and $14,400 for a tenancy of three years or more, or a household at or below 80 percent of AMI. Plus, for grounds 8, 10, 11 and 12, a City relocation-service fee of $971 (qualified) or $604 (other) per unit and $83 administration. A small-landlord owner move-in under § 151.30(E) pays a flat $21,250 or $10,550 instead

Every figure adjusts annually by the § 151.06(D) CPI formula at 100 percent of the change; these are the amounts printed in the 2026-08 edition. The small-landlord owner-move-in figures are on the § 151.30 page.

Source: LAMC § 151.09(G) (on the § 151.08 page); § 151.30(E) · verified 2026-09-26

Yes — the owner registers every rental unit with the Los Angeles Housing Department and renews annually; the registration fee is $38.75 per unit (Ord. 186,448, eff. 12/30/19), of which up to half may be passed through to the tenant as a monthly surcharge

Source: LAMC § 151.05(A)–(B), (F) · verified 2026-09-26

Yes — the Tenant Buyout Notification Program: an RSO Disclosure Notice before any offer, an agreement in the tenant's primary language stating the 30-day cancellation right in 12-point bold above the signature, filing with LAHD within 60 days, and a private right of action with $500 statutory damages

Source: LAMC § 151.31 · verified 2026-09-26

The Los Angeles Housing Department ("the Department") handles registration, applications and enforcement; the Rent Adjustment Commission ("the Commission") decides rent-adjustment matters and adopts regulations. Applications, hearing requests and appeals are filed under § 151.14

Source: LAMC § 151.03; § 151.14 · verified 2026-09-26