/// LA MULTIFAMILY GUIDE · UPDATED OCTOBER 2026

What does an Ellis Act withdrawal in LA cost, and what does it do to a sale?

THE SHORT ANSWER

With no demolition planned, an Ellis Act withdrawal of an RSO building in the City of Los Angeles costs relocation of $11,000 to $27,400 per unit for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 under LAHD's Bulletin A, and the restrictions LAHD records bind the next owner. The building stays under the RSO: for five years after withdrawal a re-rented unit goes at the rent in effect when the notice was filed plus RSO increases, and for 10 years each displaced tenant gets the first chance to come back. The withdrawal takes every rental unit in the building off the market together (for a building of three or fewer units, every unit on the parcel), on a 120-day notice, or one year for a tenant who is 62 or older or disabled, has lived there at least a year and claims the extension. If the owner seeks to develop the site within five years of a filing that stated no plan to redevelop and paid no RPO relocation, LAHD will not clear demolition or new construction permits until a fine is paid, $250,000 per displaced household where the former tenants' income is not known.

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Answered by Shaya Lowenstein, a Los Angeles multifamily broker at Lyon Stahl Investment Real Estate, CA DRE 01942326, with 15 years in apartment buildings and land across Los Angeles County. His closed sales are published with addresses and recording dates, so anything claimed here can be checked against the county record.

The Ellis clock for a City of LA RSO building with no demolition planned
Step	Deadline	Where the rule is
Final Ellis forms mailed to LAHD by USPS First Class Mail only, as the LAHD analyst instructs	The postmark date is the file date	LAHD owner page
Notice terminating tenancy served on every tenant	The same day as the file date	LAHD owner page
Copy of each termination notice filed with LAHD	Within 3 business days of service	LAHD Important Information, updated 08/31/2026
Form E3, Notice to Tenant of Pending Withdrawal, served on each tenant	Within 5 days after the file date	LAHD owner page
Relocation paid to the tenant or deposited in escrow	Within 15 days after the termination notice is served	LAHD owner page
Tenant 62 or older or disabled, in the unit at least 1 year, claims a one-year extension in writing	Within 60 days of delivery of the notice to LAHD. LAHD's renters page counts the 60 days from the file date	Gov. Code 7060.4(b); LAHD renters page
Owner reports the tenant's claim to LAHD (Form E5)	Within 30 days of the tenant's claim	Gov. Code 7060.4(b)(4)
Owner elects to extend any other unit, up to one year after delivery (Form E6)	Notice within 90 days of delivery to LAHD	Gov. Code 7060.4(b)(5)
Withdrawal date for the building	120 days after delivery to LAHD, or one year for an extended tenancy. The latest termination date among all tenants counts	Gov. Code 7060.4(b) and (b)(6)
Annual Property Status Report (Form E8)	Every year for 7 years from delivery of the notice, or until LAHD says reporting is complete	LAHD owner page

Source: LAHD, Removal From Rental Market, Property Owner (Ellis filing steps and forms E1 to E8); LAHD, Important Information When Filing A Notice of Intent to Withdraw (updated 08/31/2026); LAHD, Removal From Rental Market, Renters; California Government Code 7060.4 (notice to the city, the 120-day and one-year withdrawal dates)

What a completed Ellis leaves on a City of LA building (no demolition)
Restriction	How long	Source
A re-rented unit goes at the lawful rent in effect when the notice was filed, plus RSO annual adjustments, overriding the usual right to set a new tenant's rent	Tenancies that start within 5 years of withdrawal. The statute also lets a city reach tenancies that start within 5 years of the filing, even if the notice is rescinded	Gov. Code 7060.2(a); LAHD Important Information
Written offer by certified or registered mail to a displaced tenant who asked in writing within 30 days of displacement, with 30 days to accept	Re-rental within 2 years of withdrawal	Gov. Code 7060.2(b)(3); LAHD Form E7
First right of refusal for 30 days after the owner files Form E7, and no one else may rent the unit during those 30 days	Re-rental within 10 years of withdrawal	LAHD Form E7; LAHD owner page
Punitive damages of up to 6 months of contract rent for skipping the 10-year first offer, and the offer is still owed	Re-rental within 10 years of withdrawal	Gov. Code 7060.2(c)
Fine paid to LAHD before it clears demolition or new construction permits, by the applicant or the applicant's successor in interest: 3 times the RPO relocation amount where the former tenants' income is known, $250,000 per displaced household where it is not	Development sought within 5 years of submitting the notice, where the withdrawal came after the RPO's February 11, 2025 effective date, stated no intent to redevelop and paid no RPO relocation	Ordinance 188481 (LAMC 16.60); LAHD Important Information
RSO status	Not removed by the Ellis Act	LAHD Ellis Act Information
Constraints recorded against the property	Bind any successor in interest. A bona fide purchaser for value who takes title after the withdrawal date is not one if the city's notice was not recorded at least one day before the transfer	Gov. Code 7060.3; LAHD owner page

Source: California Government Code 7060.2 (re-rental rent for five years, damages, first offer, rebuilt units); California Government Code 7060.3 (recorded notice that binds a successor in interest); LAHD, Important Information When Filing A Notice of Intent to Withdraw (updated 08/31/2026); LAHD, Form E-7, Notice of Intention to Re-Rent Withdrawn Accommodations (Rev 2.2022); LAHD, Removal From Rental Market, Property Owner (Ellis filing steps and forms E1 to E8); LAHD, Ellis Act Information; City of Los Angeles, Ordinance No. 188481, Resident Protections Ordinance adding LAMC 16.60 (effective February 11, 2025), City Clerk copy

Withdrawing to leave the rental business versus withdrawing to demolish, City of LA RSO building
Question	Withdrawal, no demolition planned	Withdrawal to demolish for new construction (RPO or HCA project)
Notice to tenants	120 days, or one year for a qualifying tenant who is 62 or older or disabled	At least six months before the move-out date, with notice of RPO and HCA rights. LAHD tells an owner who owes any tenant the one-year Ellis extension to consider giving it to every tenant
How long tenants may stay	Until the withdrawal date	Until six months before construction activities start, so a later start means a later move-out
Relocation	Bulletin A amounts	At least Bulletin A amounts. On projects vested on or after February 11, 2025, lower-income households are owed the RPO amounts (Bulletin B), which LAHD says are typically much greater. The owner pays the greatest amount that applies, not both
Extra filings	Form E8 every year for 7 years	Form E8, plus a Declaration of Start of Construction Activities on the file date and at 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10 months after it
Developing the site later	If the owner seeks to develop within 5 years of submitting the notice, having stated no plan and paid no RPO relocation, LAHD withholds demolition and new construction permits until the RPO fine is paid	The development plan goes on the withdrawal forms, and the RPO or HCA relocation and notice rules apply
If the units are rented again	Displaced tenants may return for 10 years, at the filing-date rent plus RSO increases for the first 5	If the demolition does not go ahead, displaced tenants may return at their prior rent (under the RPO, to the same or a comparable unit)
Right of first refusal in a new building	None	Lower-income households, to a deed-restricted comparable unit (RPO) or a comparable unit (HCA)

Source: LAHD, Important Information When Filing A Notice of Intent to Withdraw (updated 08/31/2026); LAHD, Removal From Rental Market, Property Owner (Ellis filing steps and forms E1 to E8); LAHD, Removal From Rental Market, Renters; California Government Code 7060.4 (notice to the city, the 120-day and one-year withdrawal dates); City of Los Angeles, Ordinance No. 188481, Resident Protections Ordinance adding LAMC 16.60 (effective February 11, 2025), City Clerk copy

All of the building, or none of it.

The Ellis Act bars a city from forcing an owner to keep offering a property for rent, and the Legislature wrote it to let landlords go out of business. It does not let an owner withdraw less than all of the accommodations, and the statute counts them by structure. In a detached building with four or more units, the accommodations are the units in that building. In a building with three or fewer, they are its units plus the units in every other structure on the same parcel, so a front house and a rear duplex on one lot leave the market together. That rules out an Ellis of only the vacant units or only the lowest rents. LAHD describes the City of LA process as recovering possession, in good faith, to demolish or to withdraw units from rental housing under LAMC 151.09.A.10 and 151.22 to 151.28, and says an owner may file at any time. Rent Adjustment Commission Regulation 610 defines good faith as honestly, without fraud, collusion or deceit. Regulation 611 says a landlord shows it by adhering to every RSO provision and not using the eviction to get around the RSO, and Regulation 612 lists the minimum, which includes registering the units and charging no more than the legal rent.

What it costs before the building is empty.

Relocation is the large check. Bulletin A sets it per unit by tenure, income and whether the household is qualified, and the relocation guide carries LAHD's chart and the per-unit service and administrative fees. The reduced mom-and-pop amount does not apply, because Bulletin A limits it to evictions for occupancy by the owner or an eligible relative. The RSO and SCEP registration fees keep running for occupied units, and a unit occupied for even one day of the billing year owes the fees for that whole year. The long-term exemption comes only after the property is completely vacant and LAHD approves a Conditional Exemption Application. Recording Form E1 and paying counsel come on top. Then there is the carry. A tenant whose withdrawal date is extended keeps paying rent on the same terms, but once the last unit is empty the building collects nothing while the loan, the property tax and the insurance keep coming due.

120 days is the shortest an RSO Ellis can take.

The final forms go to LAHD by USPS First Class Mail only. LAHD treats the postmark as the file date, and the notice terminating each tenancy must be served that same day. The statute counts from delivery of the notice to the city instead. The withdrawal date is 120 days after delivery, or one year after it for a tenant who is 62 or older or disabled, has lived in the unit at least a year, and gives the owner written notice of the claim within 60 days. LAHD's renters page counts those 60 days from the file date, so ask the LAHD analyst which date the City uses. The owner may also extend any other unit to a date up to one year after delivery. The latest termination date among all tenants becomes the withdrawal date for the whole building, and the five-year rent rule and the 10-year return right both count from it. A building under the Just Cause Ordinance instead of the RSO is withdrawn on a 30, 60 or 90 day notice, according to LAHD. If a tenant does not leave and the owner files an unlawful detainer, the statute lets the tenant defend on the ground that the owner did not comply with the Ellis Act or the City's rules under it, so noncompliance with any step above is a defense the tenant can raise in court. LAHD's annual status form has a box for original tenants still in their units because of pending litigation. Until the 60-day claim window closes, plan the sale around the one-year date for any tenant who could qualify.

What a buyer who re-rents inherits.

The Ellis Act lets a rent-controlled city hold a re-rented unit to the lawful rent in effect when the notice was filed, plus the annual adjustments its system allows, and says that rule prevails over any law letting a landlord set the rent for a new tenancy. The statute lets a city reach every tenancy that starts within five years of the filing, whether or not the notice is later rescinded, or within five years of the withdrawal. LAHD applies it to the five years after withdrawal and adds that an Ellis does not remove a property's RSO status. So a buyer who puts the units back on the rental market inside that window cannot reset them to market rent. For 10 years, LAHD's Form E7 gives each displaced tenant a first right of refusal for 30 days after the owner files the notice of intent to re-rent, and no one else may rent the unit during those 30 days. Under the statute, an owner who skips that first offer is liable for punitive damages of up to six months of contract rent and still has to make the offer. The statute also lets a city make an owner who re-rents within two years of withdrawal liable to each displaced tenant for actual and exemplary damages, and lets the city sue for exemplary damages. LAHD's pages do not say whether the City has adopted those two, so ask counsel before re-renting inside two years.

Why an Ellis filed to sell vacant can be challenged.

The Rent Adjustment Commission's regulations name the version of this plan that goes wrong. Among the circumstances from which an intent to circumvent the RSO can be inferred, Regulation 613.07 lists a pattern or practice of Ellis evictions "for the purpose of selling the units but the units continue to be used for residential rental use." Regulation 613.08 adds a withdrawal whose stated justification does not necessitate taking the units off the rental market for good. Regulation 613.07 speaks of a pattern or practice and does not say how one building is judged, so get counsel's view before any plan in which the units go back to rent after the sale. The recorded rent rule and first right of refusal bind the buyer either way. A sale to a builder runs into a newer rule. Under the Resident Protections Ordinance, a withdrawal made after February 11, 2025 that stated no intent to redevelop and paid no RPO relocation falls under it if, within five years of submitting the notice, the owner seeks to develop the property, for example by applying for an entitlement or building permit for a project that demolishes a rental unit. LAHD then will not clear demolition or new construction permits until the applicant or the applicant's successor in interest pays a fine of three times the RPO relocation amount where the former tenants' income is known, or $250,000 per displaced household where it is not. If a sale to a developer is possible inside those five years, keep the filing and the relocation records ready, because the permit clearance turns on what they say. An Ellis fits an owner who is leaving the rental business and a buyer who will use the property some other way. An owner who mainly wants a better price from a buyer who will keep renting should price a negotiated buyout and an occupied sale before filing anything.

Selling a building with an Ellis on record.

The record is public. As part of the filing, the owner records Form E1, a memorandum of the notice of intent, with the County Recorder, and LAHD will not accept a filing with an inaccurate legal description. After withdrawal, LAHD records the constraints with the Recorder and states that they apply to any successor in interest. The statute ties a buyer's exposure to that recording. A bona fide purchaser for value who takes title after the withdrawal date is not a successor in interest if the city's notice was not recorded at least one day before the transfer, and that notice names the owner of record and is indexed in the grantor-grantee index. ZIMAS, the City's parcel map, has an Ellis Act Property field under Housing, though LAHD warns that recent filings may not appear yet. Form E8 reports run seven years from delivery of the notice, so keep a copy of each one filed for the buyer's due diligence. A buyer planning condominiums still answers to local land-use rules, because the Ellis Act says it is not intended to interfere with local authority over converting housing to condominiums after a withdrawal. Section 7060.7 also says the re-rental offer requirement does not apply to a unit that is an owner's principal residence when the building returns to the rental market, and that an owner who moves out within 10 years of withdrawal must make the offer within 30 days. A buyer who plans to live in one unit should ask LAHD how that sits with Form E7.

When the buyer plans to demolish.

A withdrawal that clears a site for new construction runs on a longer clock. LAHD says owners who withdraw with plans to demolish must also follow the state Housing Crisis Act (HCA) and the City's Resident Protections Ordinance (RPO). According to LAHD, the RPO applies to development projects vested on or after February 11, 2025, and the HCA otherwise applies to projects vested between January 1, 2020 and February 10, 2025. Both require written notice at least six months before the date a tenant must vacate and let tenants stay until six months before construction activities start. LAHD's own example is a move-out date of February 1, 2026 with construction started by August 1, 2026. Where any tenant is owed the one-year Ellis extension, LAHD tells the owner to consider giving it to every tenant to avoid violating the RPO or HCA. Because the RPO fine falls on a filing that stated no intent to redevelop and paid no RPO relocation, an owner who might sell to a developer should decide before filing whether to state a development plan and follow the RPO from the start. Two more rules can follow the land. The Ellis Act lets a rent-controlled city put rebuilt units that are rented within five years of the withdrawal under its price controls, on the basis of a fair and reasonable return on the new units, despite any exemption for new construction, and LAHD's pages do not say how the City applies that. And where the City has denied or revoked a demolition permit or approval over tenant harassment, the five-year denial applies to any new owner unless that owner builds a publicly financed project with more than 50 percent of the units affordable, and LAHD records a notice of it on title.

Before you file.

Some consequences run from the filing date rather than the withdrawal date. The re-rental rent is fixed at the rent in effect when the notice was filed, the RPO's five-year development window runs from submitting the notice, and the statute lets a city apply the rent rule to tenancies that start within five years of the filing even if the notice is rescinded. So price the alternatives first. A negotiated buyout and an occupied sale each have their own guide. Put two numbers side by side: the price for the building sold occupied today, and the price for it empty, less relocation, LAHD fees and the months it carries no income. LAHD calls the process complex, tells owners to read its packet and correspondence carefully, and says it may be a good idea to seek legal advice. On an Ellis, have a landlord-tenant attorney prepare the forms and notices. This page covers the City of Los Angeles. Section 7060.4 lets each rent-controlled city require its own notice of intent to withdraw, so a building in another city follows that city's procedure.

EDUCATIONAL ONLY, NOT LEGAL OR TAX ADVICE. RATES, THRESHOLDS AND ORDINANCES CHANGE, AND SEVERAL OF THE FIGURES HERE DEPEND ON FACTS SPECIFIC TO YOU. CONFIRM ANYTHING YOU PLAN TO ACT ON WITH YOUR OWN ATTORNEY OR CPA, OR WITH THE AGENCY THAT SETS IT.

/// SOURCES

/// RELATED QUESTIONS

Can I Ellis just the vacant units, or the ones with the lowest rents?

No. The Ellis Act does not let an owner withdraw less than all of the accommodations. In a building of four or more units that means every unit in the building, and in a building of three or fewer it means every unit on the parcel, including units in other structures there.

Does an Ellis take my building out of rent control?

No. LAHD says the Ellis Act does not remove a property's RSO status. A unit rented again within five years of the withdrawal goes at the rent in effect when the notice was filed, plus RSO annual adjustments.

If I sell after an Ellis, does the buyer inherit the restrictions?

Yes, once they are recorded. LAHD records the constraints with the County Recorder and says they apply to any successor in interest. Under Government Code 7060.3, a bona fide purchaser for value who takes title after the withdrawal date is not a successor in interest if the city's notice was not recorded at least one day before the transfer. And if the owner seeks to develop within five years of a filing that stated no intent to redevelop and paid no RPO relocation, LAHD withholds demolition and new construction permits until the RPO fine is paid.

Can I rescind the notice if a buyer who wants the tenants comes along?

The statute contemplates a rescinded notice, and it lets a city apply the filing-date rent plus allowed increases to every tenancy that starts within five years of the filing whether or not the notice is rescinded. LAHD's documents describe the five years after withdrawal and do not say how the City treats a rescinded filing. Ask LAHD and counsel before relying on a rescission.

How does a buyer check whether a building was Ellised?

ZIMAS, the City's parcel map, shows an Ellis Act Property field under Housing that reads Yes or No, and LAHD warns that recent filings may not show yet. The Form E1 memorandum the owner records and the constraints LAHD records after withdrawal are in the County Recorder's records, and the owner's annual Form E8 reports to LAHD say what has happened to the units since.

How long does an Ellis take, start to finish?

For an RSO building, at least 120 days from delivery of the notice to LAHD, and one year for any tenant who is 62 or older or disabled, has lived there a year and claims the extension within 60 days. LAHD says a building under the Just Cause Ordinance is withdrawn on a 30, 60 or 90 day notice. If the plan is demolition, the RPO and the HCA require at least six months' notice. The reporting outlasts the vacancy, with a Form E8 due every year for seven years.

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