California Rent Increase Rules: What Renters Need to Know
Last updated 2026-09-29
California caps most rent increases at 5% plus local inflation, up to 10% total, in any 12-month period (AB 1482), and requires 30 days' written notice for smaller increases or 60 days' for anything over 10%. Some cities layer stricter local rent control on top, and some buildings, mainly those under 15 years old, are exempt from the statewide cap entirely.
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What a leasing office can't do
A California leasing office can't raise your rent in the middle of a fixed-term lease unless the lease itself specifically allows it. Beyond that, a few things are off-limits regardless of lease type:
- Retaliation. Raising rent because you complained about conditions, requested repairs, or joined a tenant organization is illegal retaliation under Civil Code §1942.5.
- Discrimination. Setting a different increase for you based on a protected characteristic (race, familial status, source of income, and more) violates California's Fair Employment and Housing Act.
- Exceeding the statewide cap on units covered by AB 1482 (see below), or a stricter local cap where one applies.
- Giving less notice than required: 30 or 60 days depending on the size of the increase (see below).
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Rent control and AB 1482 caps
Under the Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482), most apartments statewide can't have their rent raised by more than 5% plus the local Consumer Price Index change, or 10% total, whichever is lower, in any rolling 12-month period. This is a statewide floor: buildings under 15 years old, single-family homes with proper notice, and some deed-restricted or owner-occupied units are exempt from AB 1482 itself, and a number of cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Monica, and others) have their own local rent control ordinances with lower caps that apply instead where they're stricter.
AB 1482 exempts: buildings issued a certificate of occupancy in the last 15 years (a rolling exemption, since it phases in as buildings age), single-family homes and condos where the owner isn't a corporation or REIT (with proper notice of the exemption), and some deed-restricted affordable or owner-occupied units. If your city has its own rent-control ordinance (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Monica, Berkeley, and others do), the stricter of the two caps applies, not AB 1482's.
Source: California Civil Code §1947.12 (AB 1482, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019). Summary current as of 2026-09-29.
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Check My Renewal →Notice requirements
30 days’ written notice for increases up to 10%; 60 days’ notice for increases over 10%. Notice must be in writing and delivered by an allowed method (personal delivery, mail with extra time added, or as your lease specifies). Verbal notice of an increase, or a rent bump that just shows up on your next invoice, doesn't meet the legal requirement.
Source: California Civil Code §827.
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Month-to-month increases
The same notice rules and AB 1482 cap apply whether you're on a fixed-term lease that's converted to month-to-month or you started month-to-month from day one. The practical difference is timing: a fixed-term lease protects you from any increase until it ends, while a month-to-month tenancy can see an increase as often as the law and your local ordinance allow. Most commonly that's once every 12 months, since that's the window AB 1482's cap is measured against.
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How often can rent go up
On a unit covered by AB 1482, increases can happen more than once in a year, but the total of all increases in any rolling 12-month period still can't exceed the statewide cap. In practice, most leasing offices raise rent once per year, at renewal, but nothing stops a smaller increase followed by another later, as long as the combined total stays under the cap.
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Moving out and your rights
You're not obligated to accept a renewal increase. You can choose to move out instead, and the same notice period that applies to a rent increase generally applies to ending a month-to-month tenancy (30 or 60 days, tied to how long you've lived there under Civil Code §1946.1). Your security deposit must be returned, or an itemized list of deductions provided, within 21 days of move-out (Civil Code §1950.5). If your unit is covered by AB 1482's "just cause" eviction protections (generally, tenants who've lived there 12+ months in a covered unit), your leasing office also can't simply decline to renew you without a legally recognized reason.
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30-day vs. 60-day notice
The rule is a direct function of the increase size: 30 days' notice for any increase up to 10% of your rent in the preceding 12 months, 60 days' notice for anything above that, regardless of whether the larger increase is itself legal under the AB 1482 cap. A 60-day notice on a small increase is always fine; it's a 30-day notice on a large one that falls short.
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