California AB 1482: Rent Cap, Just Cause, and Exemptions

California AB 1482, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, caps most annual rent increases at 5% plus regional inflation (with a hard ceiling of 10%) and prevents landlords from evicting tenants of 12 months or longer without a legally recognized reason. It took effect January 1, 2020, is codified mainly in Civil Code Sections 1946.2 and 1947.12, and is scheduled to expire on January 1, 2030.¹ Several categories of housing are exempt, and the exemptions are where most disputes begin.

How the Rent Cap Works

For a covered unit, a landlord cannot raise rent over any 12-month period by more than 5% plus the change in the regional Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or 10%, whichever is lower. The cap is measured against the lowest gross rent charged during the prior 12 months, so a temporary discount cannot be ignored when the landlord calculates the next increase.¹

Frequency matters too. With the same tenant in place, rent can go up no more than twice in a 12-month window, and the two increases combined still cannot exceed the annual cap.¹

Which CPI figure applies depends on timing. Increases effective before August 1 use the April-to-April change from the two preceding years. Increases on or after August 1 use the change from the prior April to the current April. If April data is unavailable for the area, March figures substitute, rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent.¹

Discounts, concessions, and credits must be listed separately from base rent in the lease. They are excluded from the “lowest gross rent” calculation, so a promotional break cannot be used to depress the baseline for future increases.¹

When a unit turns over and no one from the prior tenancy remains, the landlord can set any initial rent. The cap resumes on the next increase after that.¹

Notice Before a Rent Increase

The cap is one rule; the notice period is another. Under Civil Code Section 827, if a proposed increase (alone or combined with other increases in the preceding 12 months) is 10% or less, the landlord must give at least 30 days’ written notice. If it exceeds 10%, the notice period is at least 90 days. Notice served by mail rather than delivered by hand adds five days.²

For AB 1482 tenants the 90-day tier rarely matters, because the cap itself keeps most increases at or below 10%. It becomes relevant on exempt properties, and it becomes a warning sign when a landlord tries to push an increase past the lawful limit on a covered unit.

Just Cause Eviction: At-Fault Grounds

Once a tenant has lawfully and continuously occupied a unit for at least 12 months, the landlord cannot end the tenancy without a legally valid reason stated in the written termination notice. The statute splits those reasons into at-fault grounds and no-fault grounds.³

At-fault grounds under AB 1482 include failure to pay rent, breach of a material lease term, nuisance or waste on the property, criminal activity on the property or criminal threats against the owner or the owner’s agent, unauthorized subletting or assignment, refusing legally authorized entry for inspections or repairs, refusing to sign a renewal on substantially similar terms after the lease expires, and using the property for illegal purposes.³

For curable violations such as a lease breach, the landlord must first serve a notice giving the tenant a chance to fix the problem. Only if the tenant fails to cure can the landlord follow with a three-day notice to quit that offers no further cure period.⁴ Skipping that first step is one of the most common ways an eviction gets thrown out.

No-Fault Grounds and Relocation Assistance

No-fault grounds let a landlord end a tenancy even when the tenant has done nothing wrong. They are:

Owner move-in, where the owner or the owner’s spouse, domestic partner, children, grandchildren, parents, or grandparents intend to occupy the unit as a primary residence.
Withdrawing the unit permanently from the rental market.
Compliance with a government agency or court order requiring the tenant to vacate.
Substantial renovation that cannot be completed safely with the tenant in place.

Any no-fault eviction triggers relocation assistance, regardless of the tenant’s income. The landlord must either pay the tenant one month of current rent directly or waive the final month’s rent in writing. A direct payment must be delivered within 15 calendar days after the termination notice is served.³

As of April 1, 2024, owner move-in evictions carry follow-through requirements. The owner or qualifying family member must actually move into the unit within 90 days after the tenant leaves and must live there as a primary residence for at least 12 consecutive months. If that does not happen, the landlord must offer the unit back to the displaced tenant at the original rent and lease terms and reimburse reasonable moving expenses. Substantial-remodel evictions carry parallel rules: the termination notice must describe the planned work and include copies of any required permits, and if the remodel never starts or finishes, the tenant must be given the chance to return at the original rent.⁵

Which Properties Are Exempt

AB 1482 does not reach every California rental. The main exemptions:

Housing that received a certificate of occupancy within the last 15 years. This is a rolling window: in 2026, a 2012 building is still exempt, but a 2010 building is now covered.¹
Single-family homes and condominiums, but only if the owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or an LLC with a corporate member, and the property has no more than one dwelling unit on the lot. A house with a converted garage apartment does not qualify.
Housing deed-restricted or subject to a regulatory agreement as affordable housing for very low, low, or moderate-income households.
Dormitories owned and operated by a school or college.

The single-family and condo exemption has a written-notice trap. For tenancies starting or renewed on or after July 1, 2020, the exemption notice must appear in the lease itself and must state that the property is not subject to Section 1947.12’s rent limits or Section 1946.2’s just cause requirements, and that the owner is not a REIT, corporation, or qualifying LLC. Without that notice, the exemption is lost and the property is treated as covered.

How AB 1482 Interacts with Local Rent Control

Cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley had rent control ordinances well before AB 1482 arrived. Where a local ordinance restricts annual increases below the AB 1482 cap, the local ordinance governs and the state cap does not apply to those properties.¹ AB 1482 acts as a floor, covering tenants in cities without local rent control while leaving stronger local rules untouched. The statute also does not expand or restrict what the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act already allows local governments to do.⁴

Section 8 Voucher Tenants

A widespread misconception is that Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher tenants sit outside AB 1482 because their rent is subsidized. They do not. The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, reading the statutory text, has confirmed that a market-rate unit rented to a voucher holder is not “affordable housing” for exemption purposes. The voucher attaches to the tenancy, not the property, so the unit remains a market-rate rental subject to both the rent cap and just cause protections.⁶

Enforcement When a Landlord Breaks the Rules

AB 1482 is enforced by tenants, not by a state auditor. No agency proactively checks whether a landlord’s increases or eviction notices comply. If your landlord raises rent past the cap or serves a termination notice without a valid reason, pushing back is on you.

A tenant facing an unlawful increase can refuse to pay the portion above the legal amount, though that carries real risk and works best with a lawyer’s backing. In an unlawful detainer suit, AB 1482 violations can be raised as a defense. For a bad-faith no-fault eviction, the consequences are concrete: if an owner move-in does not result in actual occupancy within 90 days and a 12-month stay, the unit must be offered back to the displaced tenant at the original rent and lease terms, and the landlord must cover reasonable moving costs.⁵

Local housing departments, where they exist, take complaints. Legal aid organizations across the state handle AB 1482 disputes, and the California Attorney General’s office publishes tenant rights guidance, though it does not typically step into individual cases. If you receive an eviction notice, do not ignore it. Response deadlines in unlawful detainer cases can be as short as five days.

The 2030 Sunset

AB 1482 was written as a temporary response, not a permanent one. Both the rent cap and the just cause provisions expire on January 1, 2030. Unless the legislature extends or replaces the law, covered landlords would recover the ability to raise rents without a state cap and to end tenancies without stating a reason, subject only to any local ordinances that independently provide those protections.¹ Tenants and landlords negotiating longer leases as the date approaches should follow legislative activity closely.

1
California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1947.12
2
California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 827
3
California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1946.2
4
California Legislative Information. California AB-1482 Tenant Protection Act of 2019
5
California Department of Justice. Landlord-Tenant Issues
6
Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. Application of California’s Tenant Protection Act to Recipients