The most expensive sentence in Los Angeles real estate is “it’s rent controlled.” It means almost nothing on its own, because there is no single rent control regime here. There are roughly fifteen of them inside Los Angeles County, they reset on six different calendars, and the current allowable increase ranges from under 2% to 8.8% depending on which side of a city line your parcel sits on.
I built this page because I kept having the same conversation. An owner would tell me their cap was 3%, or 4%, or 8.7%, and it would turn out they were quoting a rule for a different jurisdiction, or last year’s figure, or a formula ceiling rather than the rate the formula actually produced. One of those mistakes costs you income every year you undercharge. The other creates a refund obligation and a liability.
So this is every regime in the county that I could verify, with the figure, the period it applies to, and who published it. It also tells you, honestly, which cities are publishing numbers I would not rely on without a phone call, because several of them are. Everything here was checked on 4 November 2026.
Start With Three Questions
Which city is the parcel actually in? Not the mailing address, the jurisdiction. A Los Angeles postal address does not establish City of Los Angeles jurisdiction, and the unincorporated pockets scattered through the county look exactly like city blocks from the street. Check the parcel against the boundary, every time.
When was the certificate of occupancy issued? Almost every regime here turns on a construction date, and they are not the same date. The City of LA uses 1 October 1978. Santa Monica uses 10 April 1979. West Hollywood uses 1 July 1979. Culver City, Beverly Hills and the county use 1 February 1995. AB 1482 uses a rolling fifteen years.
How many units, and is one of them owner-occupied? Several regimes exempt small owner-occupied buildings, and the thresholds differ.
Get those three answers before you read any further, because the rest of this page is only useful once you know which row of the table you are in.
The Table
Current allowable annual increase by jurisdiction, with the period each figure applies to. Verified 4 November 2026.
| Jurisdiction | Current allowable increase | Period | Resets |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Los Angeles (RSO) | 3% | 1 Jul 2026 to 30 Jun 2027 | 1 July |
| Unincorporated LA County (RSTPO) | 1.919% standard, 2.919% small landlord, 3.919% luxury | 1 Jul 2026 to 30 Jun 2027 | 1 July |
| Santa Monica | 2.6%, ceiling of $70 per month where rent is $2,674 or above | From 1 Sep 2026 | 1 September |
| West Hollywood | See the note below. The city’s published page is out of date. | Unclear | 1 September |
| Beverly Hills | 3.6% Chapter 6, 3.39% Chapter 5 | Not published by the city | June, and monthly |
| Inglewood | 3.8% for 5+ units, 8.8% for 1 to 4 units, 10% overall cap | Not published by the city | Likely 1 July |
| Culver City | 3.25% | Increases effective 1 Jun 2026 to 30 Jun 2027 | Annual, see note |
| Pasadena | 2.5% | 1 Oct 2026 to 30 Sep 2027 | 1 October |
| Everywhere else in the county | 8.7% under AB 1482 | 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Jul 2027 | 1 August |
Six more county cities run their own rent stabilization ordinances that I have not rated here because I could not verify current figures for each: Baldwin Park, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Cudahy, Maywood and Pomona. If you own in one of those, the state Attorney General publishes a compilation of local rent laws that is the right starting point, but check the city directly for the current rate.
Cities With Their Own Rent Control
City of Los Angeles. The Rent Stabilization Ordinance covers rental property first built on or before 1 October 1978. The allowable increase is 3% for 1 July 2026 through 30 June 2027, published in the Housing Department’s own rent increase bulletin.
The formula changed on 2 February 2026, the first change in roughly forty years. It is now 90% of the average Consumer Price Index change for the twelve months ending 30 September, with a 1% floor and a 4% ceiling. The old range was 3% to 8%. Two separate things were abolished on the same date: the extra percentage an owner could add for paying the tenant’s gas or electric, and the increase for an added dependent. The 10% increase for an added non-dependent tenant survives, provided you notify within sixty days of learning about the occupant.
A warning on coverage, because it catches people. The Housing Department reads RSO coverage more broadly than the common summary suggests. Condominiums and townhomes are listed as covered property types, as are duplexes and two or more houses on a single parcel. The common shorthand that Costa-Hawkins exempts condominiums from local rent control is wrong for the City of Los Angeles. What is exempt is a single-family home that is the only residential structure on its parcel, and most units built after 1 October 1978.
Unincorporated Los Angeles County. This is the one almost everybody gets wrong, because the formula has a 3% cap and people quote the cap. The formula is 60% of the change in average CPI over the twelve months ending in September, and for 1 July 2026 through 30 June 2027 it produced 1.919% for standard units, 2.919% for qualifying small property landlords and 3.919% for luxury units. If you have been raising rents 3% on an unincorporated county building, you have overcharged.
It applies only in unincorporated territory, to properties with two or more rental units regardless of permit status, plus accessory dwelling units with a certificate of occupancy issued on or before 1 February 1995, plus mobilehomes offered for rent by the owner.
Santa Monica. 2.6% from 1 September 2026, under a formula of 75% of the CPI change capped at 3%, for units with certificates of occupancy before 10 April 1979. There is a second limit people miss: the increase is capped at $70 per month where the maximum allowable rent is $2,674 or above. The adjustment only applies if the tenancy began before 1 September of the previous year, the unit is properly registered, fees and penalties are paid, and there are no uncorrected violations. Buildings of one to three units where the owner lives in a unit for the whole tenancy are excluded.
West Hollywood. This is the number I am least willing to state flatly. The city’s own published pages still show 2.25% for 1 September 2025 through 31 August 2026, which is the prior period. A figure of 2.75% for the current period was reported from a Rent Stabilization Commission staff report in June 2026, and it is consistent with the ordinance formula of 75% of the May-to-May CPI change rounded to the nearest quarter percent and capped at 3%. But I could not get 2.75% from a city URL, and the city has not refreshed its pages.
If you own in West Hollywood, call the Rent Stabilization Division before you serve a notice. Do not rely on this page, and do not rely on the city’s website either. Coverage runs to units with certificates of occupancy before 1 July 1979, two units or more, and a separate $6.00 monthly registration fee pass-through sits outside the rent calculation.
Beverly Hills. Two separate regimes. Chapter 6 units, meaning properties of two or more units other than Chapter 5 housing and excluding anything with a certificate of occupancy after 1 February 1995, may be raised once per twelve months by the greater of 3% or the annual CPI, which the city currently shows as 3.6%, updated in June 2026. Chapter 5 units, meaning pre-1978 housing where the current tenant’s initial rent was under $600 a month, currently show 3.39%, and that figure is updated monthly.
The city publishes no start and end dates for either, and its own page carries a note that one of the dates may be in error. Confirm with the Rent Stabilization Division before acting.
Inglewood. Unusual in that the cap depends on building size. For buildings of five or more units, the increase is the greater of 3% or CPI, which the city lists as 3.8%. For buildings of one to four units it is 5% plus CPI, which the city lists as 8.8%. No increase may exceed 10% in any case. Units renting below 80% of Fair Market Rent can take an additional bump, approved in twelve-month increments until the rent reaches 81% of FMR.
The city does not publish an effective-date period for the current figures, and parts of the same page are visibly stale. The prior year’s figures reset on 1 July, so 1 July 2026 is the likely period start, but treat that as inference rather than fact. Inglewood exempts units with a certificate of occupancy issued in the last fifteen years, owner-occupied duplexes where the owner lived there first, and single-family homes and condominiums owned by a natural person or family trust where the required written notice was given.
Culver City. 3.25% for increases taking effect 1 June 2026 through 30 June 2027, under a formula based on average annual CPI change with a 2% floor and a 5% ceiling. Coverage is parcels with two or more rental units built on or before 1 February 1995.
One caution: the city’s page is internally inconsistent about how often it publishes, describing the figure as both annual and monthly in different passages, and the city was running public meetings on proposed changes to its rent rules in August 2026. Confirm both the rate and the cadence before serving notice, and assume this regime may be mid-amendment.
Pasadena. 2.5% for 1 October 2026 through 30 September 2027, adopted by the Rental Housing Board on 18 June 2026 under the Measure H charter amendment. The formula is 75% of the LA-area CPI increase for the twelve months ending in March, rounded to the nearest quarter percent. The CPI figure was 3.4%, three quarters of which is 2.55%, rounded to 2.5%.
Pasadena is notable for having no unit-count threshold on the eviction protections. Multifamily units built after 1 February 1995 are exempt from the rent caps, and most single-family homes and condominiums are exempt from the caps, but the eviction protections still reach them.
Cities With No Rent Cap
In these cities AB 1482 is the only limit on rent increases, currently 8.7%. That does not mean no regulation, and in two of them the relocation rules effectively function as a soft constraint.
Long Beach. No local rent cap. The city adopted a tenant relocation assistance ordinance in June 2019 and repealed it in December 2019 because AB 1482 had made it inoperable. Just cause protections remain in the municipal code. For rent, AB 1482 governs.
Glendale. No rent cap, but a rent increase of 7% or more entitles a tenant who vacates within fourteen days of service to relocation assistance, scaled by building size and length of tenancy. Owners may bank deferred increases of up to 7% a year for up to three consecutive years, and if a banked increase raises rent by more than 15% the tenant may vacate and collect. Coverage runs to buildings of three or more units with certificates of occupancy before 1 February 1995. The specifics here come from secondary sources rather than city pages that I could load, so verify with Glendale’s Rental Rights Program before relying on the amounts.
Burbank. No rent cap under the Tenant Protection Ordinance, which caps nothing by percentage and restricts increases only where made with retaliatory intent. Relocation assistance is no less than three months’ rent for no-fault terminations and at least one month’s rent for owner or relative move-in. One live item: in October 2025 the Burbank Council voted to direct staff to draft a 4% soft cap, under which a tenant facing a larger increase could either pay it or take relocation equal to three months at the increased rate. A hard cap was rejected. Whether that soft cap has since been enacted I could not confirm, so check before assuming Burbank is uncapped.
Torrance and El Segundo. Neither appears in the state Attorney General’s compilation of local rent control ordinances, and I could find no local ordinance for either. Torrance rejected a mobilehome rent control ordinance in November 2022. I want to be straight about the quality of this finding: it is absence of evidence from a state compilation, not an affirmative statement from either city. If you are about to transact on it, call the city.
Carson. No apartment rent control. Carson does, however, have a long-standing mobilehome space rent control ordinance dating to 1979, administered by its own rental review board and litigated repeatedly. If you own a mobilehome park in Carson you are in a different world from the apartment owner next door, and the formula figures circulating for it are dated. For apartments, AB 1482 is the cap.
Hawthorne. No local ordinance. The city’s own landlord-tenant page names AB 1482 as the rent increase law and references the county RSO only as outside information, which does not apply inside an incorporated city.
AB 1482: The Floor Under Everything
Where no stricter local ordinance applies, the state Tenant Protection Act does. The cap is 5% plus the regional change in the cost of living, or 10%, whichever is lower, measured against the lowest gross rent charged in the prior twelve months.
For the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area, increases taking effect 1 August 2026 through 31 July 2027 are capped at 8.7%. That traces cleanly: the statute says to compare April to April for increases effective on or after 1 August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics put the LA metro twelve-month CPI change for April 2026 at 3.7%, and 5% plus 3.7% is 8.7%, under the 10% ceiling.
Three things about AB 1482 that get misstated constantly:
- The exemption test is the certificate of occupancy date, not building age. A unit is exempt if the certificate was issued within the previous fifteen years, and that window rolls forward every year. A building exempt this year can fall into coverage next year.
- The single-family and condominium exemption has conditions. It applies only if the owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or an LLC with a corporate member, and only if the specific written notice was given to the tenant. Miss the notice and you lose the exemption.
- AB 1482 has a sunset. The statute states it remains in effect until 1 January 2030 and is repealed as of that date. Any ten-year hold model built on an 8.7% growth assumption is assuming a law that currently expires inside the hold period.
Costa-Hawkins, and What It Does Not Do
Costa-Hawkins is the state law that limits how far local rent control can reach. In broad terms it exempts construction completed after 1 February 1995, along with single-family homes and condominiums, from local rent control, and it provides vacancy decontrol so that an owner can generally reset rent to market on a genuine voluntary vacancy.
Vacancy decontrol is the single most valuable feature of this landscape for an owner, and it is why loss-to-lease on a long-tenancy building is real upside rather than a trapped number. The limits of that are covered in the guide to selling a rent-controlled building.
But be careful with the condominium half of that sentence inside the City of Los Angeles, where the Housing Department lists condominiums and townhomes among covered property types. The clean statement is that LA City does not regulate rent for condominium tenancies beginning after 31 December 1995. The loose statement, that condos are simply not rent controlled in LA, is wrong.
Voters have been asked to repeal or weaken Costa-Hawkins three times, most recently with Proposition 33 in November 2024, which failed. It remains in force.
The Reset Calendar
This is the operational point that saves owners from accidental overcharges, and almost nobody builds a process around it.
| Reset date | Who |
|---|---|
| 1 June | Culver City, currently |
| June, and monthly | Beverly Hills, Chapter 6 and Chapter 5 respectively |
| 1 July | City of Los Angeles, unincorporated LA County, probably Inglewood |
| 1 August | AB 1482, everywhere it applies |
| 1 September | Santa Monica, West Hollywood |
| 1 October | Pasadena |
If you hold buildings in three jurisdictions, you have three different rate years running at once, and the number that was correct in June is not the number that is correct in August. A single annual review in January will have you serving at least one wrong notice.
What This Does to Value
The gap between regimes is not a compliance detail, it is a pricing input, and it is the reason two physically identical buildings three blocks apart trade at different numbers.
Compare a City of LA RSO building at 3% against a Hawthorne or Long Beach building at 8.7%. Over a ten-year hold, compounding at 8.7% rather than 3% produces a fundamentally different income stream from the same starting rent, which is why post-1978 construction and AB 1482-only cities carry a premium. The unincorporated county is the extreme case: at 1.919%, income growth barely keeps pace with expense growth, and buyers price that accordingly.
Two counterweights worth stating. First, AB 1482’s higher cap sunsets on 1 January 2030 as the law currently stands, so the premium is not permanent on paper. Second, a high cap is only worth something if the market will bear the increase, and in several of these cities the market rent is well below the cap. The cap sets the ceiling, not the rent.
I work through how these factors show up in an actual valuation in the pieces on valuing a building before selling and analysing a multifamily deal.
Where the Official Sources Are Unreliable
I would rather tell you this than have you find out by serving a bad notice. As of 4 November 2026:
- West Hollywood publishes the prior year’s 2.25% on its own pages. The current figure is not on the city website.
- Beverly Hills publishes rates with no period dates, and its page flags that one date may be an error.
- Inglewood publishes rates with no period dates, and the Fair Market Rent chart on the same page is dated 2022.
- Culver City contradicts itself on whether it publishes annually or monthly, and the regime may be mid-amendment.
- Glendale figures beyond the 7% trigger come from secondary sources.
- Torrance and El Segundo have no affirmative city statement either way that I could reach.
The pattern is consistent: the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Santa Monica and Pasadena publish clearly and keep it current. The smaller cities do not. Where the stakes are a rent roll, make the call.
The November 2026 Ballot
Because the timing invites the question: nothing on the 3 November 2026 statewide ballot concerned rent control, Costa-Hawkins or rent stabilization. Fourteen state measures appeared and none touched landlord-tenant law. Proposition 43 would require two-thirds voter approval for future voter-initiated local special taxes, which is tax-adjacent and reportedly motivated in part by Measure ULA, but it would apply prospectively and repeals nothing existing.
Locally, four relevant measures were on ballots: Santa Monica Measures GG, RR and VV, all touching eviction and rent control administration, and Cudahy Measure H, which would require voter approval to raise that city’s 3% rent increase ceiling. The City of Los Angeles also voted on Measure TE, a narrow one-time Measure ULA exemption for residential property damaged in the Palisades Fire.
I am not reporting outcomes, because no results were available when this page was written. The county runs a thirty-day official canvass, so even early returns will be preliminary. If you own in Santa Monica or Cudahy, those measures could change your rules, and you should check the certified results rather than this page.
Separately, the proposed Measure ULA reform that would have exempted new apartment construction never reached the ballot. The council shelved it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my building rent controlled? It depends on the city and the certificate of occupancy date. In the City of Los Angeles, property first built on or before 1 October 1978 is covered by the RSO. Other cities use their own dates, from April 1979 in Santa Monica to February 1995 in Culver City and Beverly Hills. If no local ordinance covers you, AB 1482 almost certainly does.
What is the allowable rent increase in Los Angeles right now? For City of LA RSO units, 3% for 1 July 2026 through 30 June 2027. For units covered only by AB 1482 in the LA metro, 8.7% for 1 August 2026 through 31 July 2027. For unincorporated county, 1.919% standard.
I read the LA cap was 4%. Which is right? 3%. The 4% is the ceiling inside the formula, which cannot produce a rate above it. The rate the formula actually produced for this period is 3%. This is the single most common error in published advice on LA rent control.
Why is the unincorporated county rate so much lower than the city rate? Different formulas. The city uses 90% of CPI with a 1% floor and a 4% ceiling. The county uses 60% of CPI with a 3% cap for standard units. Sixty percent of a 3.2% CPI change is 1.919%, and that is the published rate.
My building is in an unincorporated pocket. Which rules apply? The county ordinance, not the city’s, even if the mailing address says Los Angeles. This is worth confirming against the parcel map rather than assuming.
Can I still add a percentage for paying the tenant’s gas or electric? Not in the City of Los Angeles. That was eliminated effective 2 February 2026, along with the increase for an added dependent.
Does AB 1482 apply on top of local rent control? No. Where a local ordinance is at least as strict, it governs and AB 1482 steps aside. AB 1482 is the floor, not an additional layer.
My building is twelve years old, so it is exempt from AB 1482. Is that permanent? No. The exemption is for a certificate of occupancy issued within the previous fifteen years, and the window rolls forward. Your building becomes covered in three years.
Is it true AB 1482 expires? As the statute currently reads, yes, on 1 January 2030. Legislatures extend sunsets routinely, so do not plan on it disappearing, but equally do not build a ten-year model that assumes 8.7% growth for the whole hold without noting the risk.
How much notice do I have to give? Thirty days for an increase of 10% or less, ninety days for anything above 10%, in writing and properly served. Some cities layer on additional requirements, Santa Monica among them.
Does the rent cap transfer when I sell? Yes. Rent regulation attaches to the property. A buyer inherits the rent roll, the tenancies, the registration history and any violations, which is exactly why clean registration is worth money at sale.
Which cities are the best to own in, purely on rent regulation? On the cap alone, AB 1482-only cities at 8.7% beat the City of LA at 3% and the unincorporated county at 1.919%. But the cap is a ceiling, not a rent. Market rents, submarket fundamentals and your actual loss-to-lease matter at least as much, which is why I would not buy on the rulebook alone.
Where to Start
Confirm which jurisdiction your parcel is in, pull the certificate of occupancy date, then check the increases you have served over the last three years against the allowable rate for that jurisdiction in each of those years. In my experience the most common finding is not an aggressive owner, it is an owner who has been undercharging for years because they were applying the stricter of two rules they were not sure about.
If you want a second pair of eyes on which regime governs a specific building and what it means for value, I am happy to look. A free valuation starts with exactly this question, because in Los Angeles County the rulebook is half the price.
Evelyn Baez Nguyen Multifamily Investment Specialist, Lyon Stahl Investment Real Estate
