Sacramento, CA — landlord and rental rules

Sacramento's Tenant Protection Program limits annual increases for covered apartments, duplexes, and long-term hotel rooms built before February 1995; the city publishes the current maximum annually.

Covered property includes qualifying pre-February-1995 apartments and duplexes. Single-family homes, condominiums, and stock cooperatives are outside the city programme.

Unit counts

2+ units

Construction

Built before 1996

The Tenant Protection Act caps annual rent increases at 5% plus CPI, with a hard ceiling of 10%, on housing built more than 15 years ago.

The 15-year window rolls forward, so a building drifts into coverage with age rather than being fixed by its construction date at purchase.

Annual cap

10%

Construction

Built before 2011

In effect since 2020-01-01.

Costa-Hawkins exempts post-1995 construction and single-family homes and condominiums from *local* rent control, and preserves the landlord's right to reset rent to market on vacancy.

It does not help at the affordable end, because affordable stock is old stock: the buildings a small investor can actually buy are usually the ones Costa-Hawkins does not exempt.

Vacancy decontrol

Yes — rent resets on vacancy

Construction

Built after 1995

For property covered by Sacramento's Tenant Protection Program, an owner must offer renewal after the tenant has resided in the unit for more than 12 months unless an authorised termination ground applies.

The city programme covers qualifying apartments and duplexes built before February 1995; state AB 1482 remains the fallback outside that local footprint.

Unit counts

2+ units

Construction

Built before 1996

Owners subject to the Tenant Protection Program register annually, and owners of rental property must register each property with the Rental Housing Inspection Program unless an exemption applies.

Rental Housing Inspection Program registration is property-wide; Tenant Protection Program registration has its narrower covered-property definition.

Confirm both programmes and every claimed exemption with the city. A property can be outside the local rent cap and still owe Rental Housing Inspection Program registration and inspection duties, while an owner who believes the property is exempt must apply for the city's review rather than infer an exemption.

Unit counts

1+ units

The Rental Housing Inspection Program schedules registered rental property for health, safety, and welfare code inspection and requires correction of cited violations. This local programme does not replace California's exterior-elevated-element duties. An ordinary rental apartment building with three or more multifamily dwellings follows SB 721 when qualifying wood-supported elements sit more than six feet above ground: the first report was due in 2026, repeats every six years, and passes to a later buyer. Health and Safety Code section 17973(n) excludes common-interest developments; a condominium project with three or more attached multifamily dwellings instead follows Civil Code section 5551, with association responsibility, a first inspection due in 2025, and a nine-year cycle. Ask for the applicable owner or association report.

Rental property is registered property by property; the programme publishes exemptions that must be claimed rather than inferred from a missing notice.

Some units, including certain newer property and property regularly inspected by another agency, can qualify only after the city's exemption review. Confirm the live registration, exemption decision and inspection record. This local programme does not replace California's exterior-elevated-element duties. An ordinary rental apartment building with three or more multifamily dwellings follows SB 721 when qualifying wood-supported elements sit more than six feet above ground: the first report was due in 2026, repeats every six years, and passes to a later buyer. Health and Safety Code section 17973(n) excludes common-interest developments; a condominium project with three or more attached multifamily dwellings instead follows Civil Code section 5551, with association responsibility, a first inspection due in 2025, and a nine-year cycle. Ask for the applicable owner or association report.

Unit counts

1+ units

FAIR Plan policies are up 139% since 2021, habitability claims are now commonly excluded, and earthquake cover is excluded from every standard policy.

Get a bindable quote before removing contingencies. An insurance assumption carried over from another state is the single largest silent error in a California pro forma.

Fair plan increase since2021

139%