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%

Owner-occupied exemption

Yes

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

Civil Code section 1946.2 limits termination of a covered residential tenancy to enumerated at-fault or no-fault causes; SB 567 tightened owner-move-in and substantial-remodel rules and added enforcement remedies from 1 April 2024.

The just-cause duty begins only after every tenant has occupied lawfully for 12 months, or one tenant for 24 months when additional adults joined earlier. Coverage is not decided by dwelling count alone. Owner-occupied duplexes are exempt while the owner remains in one unit; qualifying separately alienable single-family homes and condominiums require non-corporate ownership and the statutory lease notice; housing with a certificate of occupancy in the previous 15 years is exempt.

The protection starts after 12 months of continuous lawful occupancy; when additional adult tenants joined before that point, it starts after all tenants reach 12 months or one reaches 24 months. Buying through a corporation, REIT, or an LLC with a corporate member defeats the separately alienable-home exemption. A missing exemption notice can also leave an otherwise qualifying home covered. SB 567 requires a genuine owner move-in and confines substantial-remodel termination to work that cannot safely be done with the tenant in place and requires the statutory process.

Unit counts

1+ units

Owner-occupied exemption

Yes

In effect since 2020-01-01.

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

California does not impose a general statewide rental-property registration programme. City and county programmes can still require registration and inspection, and a statewide-only answer must not be read as a clean local search.

The local jurisdiction must be checked separately. The curated municipal layer in this service is explicit and partial; an address outside it inherits state statutes but no claim that its city has no programme.

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

For a rental apartment building that is not a common-interest development, Health and Safety Code section 17973 requires inspection of qualifying wood-supported exterior elevated elements in buildings containing three or more multifamily dwelling units, first due in 2026 and every six years; retained reports pass to a later buyer. A condominium project with three or more attached multifamily dwellings follows Civil Code section 5551 instead: the association is responsible, the first inspection was due in 2025, and the cycle is nine years.

SB 721 begins at three multifamily dwelling units and only reaches qualifying exterior elevated elements more than six feet above ground that rely substantially on wood or wood-based products for support. Health and Safety Code section 17973(n) excludes common-interest developments.

This six-year owner duty is the rental-apartment path and excludes common-interest developments. A condominium project with three or more attached multifamily dwellings instead follows Civil Code section 5551: the association is responsible, the first inspection was due 1 January 2025, and the cycle is nine years. Those first deadlines do not establish the deadline for newer construction: the statutes instead measure six years from the certificate of occupancy for buildings whose permit applications fall on or after their respective 2019 and 2020 dates. On the SB 721 path, the owner must retain reports for at least two inspection cycles and deliver them to a later buyer. Confirm the property class, qualifying exterior elevated elements, permit and certificate dates, and applicable owner or association report rather than treating an absent document as proof no inspection was required.

Unit counts

3+ units

Sb721 first deadline

2026-01-01

Sb721 cycle years

6

Sb326 first deadline

2025-01-01

Sb326 cycle years

9

In effect since 2019-01-01.

For security collected on or after 1 July 2024, Civil Code section 1950.5 generally caps the deposit at one month's rent. A qualifying small landlord may collect up to two months' rent, except from a service member.

The general ceiling is one month's rent. A landlord who is a natural person or an LLC whose members are all natural persons may instead collect up to two months when they own no more than two residential rental properties containing no more than four offered rental units in total. That exception does not apply to a prospective tenant who is a service member. Confirm the buyer entity, its other holdings, and the tenant's status before choosing either ceiling.

In effect since 2024-07-01.

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%