What does unincorporated LA County's rent control mean when I sell?
A sale in unincorporated Los Angeles County leaves the cap and just-cause rules of County Code chapter 8.52 in place, because the chapter defines landlord to include a successor, but the small-landlord 1% goes with the owner: a buyer gets it only by meeting the test and self-certifying. The chapter fully covers a rental property with two or more units whose certificate of occupancy was issued on or before February 1, 1995, and from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 the annual increase on those units is capped at 1.919%, or 2.919% for a qualifying small property landlord and 3.919% for a luxury unit. No increase is lawful on a unit that is not registered with the County and paid up. Units first permitted after that date are partially covered unless exempt, which means no County cap but the same just-cause eviction rules.
Start typing the address. The answer comes from the county roll and the city ordinance, on this page, free, with no email required.
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.
| Period | General | Small property landlord | Luxury unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 11, 2018 to March 3, 2020 | 3% | No separate rate | 5% |
| March 4, 2020 to March 31, 2023 | 0% (County COVID-19 resolution) | No separate rate | 0% |
| April 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 | 3% | No separate rate | 5% |
| January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024 | 4% | No separate rate | Not given in the bulletin (DCBA's web table shows 4%) |
| January 1, 2025 to June 30, 2025 | 2.565% | 3.565% | 4.565% |
| July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 | 1.930% | 2.930% | 3.930% |
| July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 | 1.919% | 2.919% | 3.919% |
Source: LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, RSTPO Rent Stabilization Bulletin: Annual Allowable Rent Increase, revised July 6, 2026; LA County DCBA, Rent Stabilization Program (coverage chart and just-cause questions)
| Household | Studio | 1 bedroom | 2 bedrooms | 3 bedrooms | 4+ bedrooms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $7,654 | $8,662 | $10,797 | $13,115 | $14,759 |
| Qualified: a household member 62 or older, disabled or terminally ill, or a child under 18 | $9,272 | $10,675 | $13,359 | $16,043 | $17,995 |
| Lower-income household | $10,980 | $12,688 | $15,921 | $18,971 | $21,411 |
Source: LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, Relocation Assistance FAQ (marked Update 11.14.25); Los Angeles County Code, Title 8, Chapter 8.52, Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections (Municode)
| Requirement | Number | Where it is written |
|---|---|---|
| Register every non-exempt rental unit | On or before September 30 each year | LACC 8.52.080(A) |
| Registration fee, fully covered unit | $90 per unit | DCBA Rent Registry, 2026-27 |
| Registration fee, partially covered unit | $30 per unit | DCBA Rent Registry, 2026-27 |
| Late or unpaid fee | 10% penalty on the unpaid balance, prior years included | LACC 8.65.040(A) |
| Update the registry after a change or an error | Within 30 days | LACC 8.52.080(A) |
| Rent increase notice | At least 30 days, one increase in any 12 months | LACC 8.52.050(A) and (F) |
| Copy of any termination notice to DCBA | Within 5 days of service | LACC 8.52.090(B)(4) |
| Owner move-in notice to the tenant | 60 days | LACC 8.52.090(E)(1)(a)(ii) |
| Ellis withdrawal notice to DCBA and tenants | At least 120 days | LACC 8.52.090(E)(1)(b)(i) |
| Ellis memorandum recorded against the property | Encumbers it for 10 years | LACC 8.52.090(E)(1)(b)(vii) |
| Proposed buyout handed to the tenant | At least 45 days before signing | LACC 8.52.100(B)(1) |
| Tenant may rescind a signed buyout | Up to 45 days after all parties sign | LACC 8.52.100(C) |
| Signed buyout and disclosure filed with DCBA | Within 10 days of signing | LACC 8.52.100(D) |
Source: Los Angeles County Code, Title 8, Chapter 8.52, Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections (Municode); Los Angeles County Code, Chapter 8.65, Annual Rental Registration Fees (Municode); LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, Rent Registry page; LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, LA County Rent Registry FAQs, 2026-27
The deed has to say whether the building is in a city.
County Code 4.60.120 requires every taxable document submitted for recording to show on its face whether the property is in an incorporated or unincorporated location, so the deed itself has to answer the question this page turns on. Answer it before pricing, not in escrow. LA County Planning says unincorporated communities sometimes use a city name in the mailing address, and the County's more than 120 unincorporated areas include populous ones such as East Los Angeles, Florence-Firestone and Hacienda Heights. DCBA, the County department that runs this ordinance, points owners to the Registrar-Recorder's District Map Look Up by Address. If the results list an UNINCORPORATED community, the address is outside every city. If they list a city, the County ordinance is not the one that applies. The County Rent Registry also checks coverage by street address or Assessor Parcel Number. The answer sets the rent cap, the eviction rules, the relocation schedule and the transfer tax a buyer is underwriting.
Fully covered, partially covered, or neither.
A unit is fully covered, meaning the rent cap and the just-cause rules both apply, when the rental property has two or more units and the certificate of occupancy or equivalent permit was issued on or before February 1, 1995. DCBA's bulletin counts the two or more rental units on the property regardless of legal permit status. Units first permitted after that date, and units that can be sold on their own title, such as single-family homes and condominiums, are partially covered unless an exemption applies, and DCBA says those units have just-cause eviction protections but are not rent restricted. An accessory dwelling unit permitted after February 1, 1995 is exempt from full coverage unless it was occupied on or before that date and a tenant can show it. Some units are outside the chapter entirely, among them housing owned or run by a public agency, hotel stays that pay transient occupancy tax, and shared housing where the landlord or a family member lives as a principal residence. The statewide rent cap is a separate question. The California Attorney General lists units covered by a local rent control ordinance more protective than the Tenant Protection Act, and units issued a certificate of occupancy within the past 15 years, among the properties that law does not cover. The County sets no cap on a partially covered unit, so whether the state cap reaches one turns on the state law's own exemptions, which the AB 1482 guide walks through.
What 1.919% does to a buyer's numbers.
Since January 1, 2025 the County cap has been 60% of the percentage change in the average Los Angeles area consumer price index over the 12 months ending in September, up to 3% unless DCBA approves more, and DCBA calculates the figure each year. At that pace a buyer treats the in-place rents on a fully covered building as close to fixed and prices the gap to market and how often units turn over. Only one increase is allowed in any 12 months, with at least 30 days' written notice. An increase the owner skips, in whole or in part, is waived for the rest of that tenancy, so years of flat rents are not a reserve the buyer can draw on later. The code lets an owner set a new tenant's rent without restriction after a voluntary move-out or an at-fault eviction. Otherwise the code caps each unit at its rent on September 11, 2018, or its first rent if it was first rented later, plus each allowed increase. A tenant charged more can withhold the excess, refuse an unlawful increase as a defense to an eviction, and apply to DCBA for an adjustment within 180 days of when they knew or should have known of the violation. The landlord must pay back an overcharge, in one payment or as rent credits over six months. The code's definition of landlord includes a successor, so a buyer has reason to check every unit's increase history against the table above before closing.
The small-landlord 1% belongs to the owner, not the building.
The extra 1% is open only to a landlord who receives a homeowners' property tax exemption on the property, who has an ownership or beneficial interest in or controls only one rental property of no more than 10 units, or who has such an interest in no more than three rental properties with no more than 10 units combined, counting property outside Los Angeles County. A real estate investment trust, a corporation, and an LLC or partnership with a member or partner that is, or is controlled by, a corporation are excluded. The landlord self-certifies to DCBA under penalty of perjury every year, with the registration, and states in each increase notice that it qualifies. Every one of those tests reads on the landlord. A seller who receives a homeowners' exemption on the building, or whose only rental property is this building of 10 units or fewer, may be using 2.919% for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. A buyer who meets none of the three tests, or who takes title through one of the excluded entities, gets the general 1.919% on the same units. A buyer who does qualify must self-certify to DCBA before using the higher rate. An offering memorandum that carries the seller's rate forward is projecting the seller's eligibility. The luxury rate works differently because its test is the unit: two bedrooms or fewer, in a single structure of at least 25 units, rented for at least $4,000 a month as of September 11, 2018.
The County keeps a second rent roll.
Every non-exempt rental unit has to be registered in the County Rent Registry on or before September 30 each year, and for 2026-27 the fee is $90 per fully covered unit and $30 per partially covered unit. The code allows an annual increase on a fully covered unit only once it is registered, its fees are paid and the landlord is in compliance with federal, state and local law, and County Code 8.65.040 makes any increase unenforceable and void while a fee or late penalty is unpaid. The penalty is 10% of the unpaid balance, and that balance includes fees and penalties left unpaid from prior years. The registration lists each unit's rent and last increase date, each tenant's name, move-in and vacancy dates, and each landlord's name and ownership interest, and it has to be updated within 30 days of any change to a unit or discovery of an error. That makes it a second rent roll, held by the County, and a buyer's diligence can set it beside yours. The County's notice of tenant rights is a paper trail too. The code requires it with every new lease, every renewal and every rent increase notice on a fully covered unit, and DCBA's bulletin lists it among the conditions for an increase. Neither DCBA's Rent Registry page nor its 2026-27 registry FAQ says how a change of owner is handled, so confirm with DCBA who updates the record after closing and how the buyer gets the property PIN the portal asks for. DCBA says properties submitted for registration on or before September 30, 2026 will have late fees waived during its review. Before listing, pull the registry record for every unit, reconcile it with the rent roll and the leases, gather each unit's increase notices and tenant-rights notices, and pay any open balance.
Getting a unit back takes a listed cause, and remodeling is not one.
A tenancy in an occupied fully or partially covered unit can end only for an at-fault or no-fault reason in the code. A lease reaching its end date is neither. Without a cause the landlord must renew on substantially similar terms or let the tenancy continue, and on a partially covered unit may instead propose new terms. The at-fault reasons include unpaid rent above a threshold, an uncured breach of a material lease term, nuisance or illegal use, and refusing a substantially similar new lease. Unpaid rent counts only when the tenant owes more than two months of HUD's fair market rent for the unit, a threshold DCBA says took effect April 16, 2026. There are three no-fault reasons: owner or family move-in, withdrawal of the building from the rental market under the Ellis Act, and a government agency or court order. Each makes the tenant eligible for relocation on the County schedule in the table above, paid with the termination notice, except that a tenant found at fault for the condition behind a government or court order gets none. The landlord also hires a relocation specialist at its own expense. The schedule DCBA publishes is marked Update 11.14.25, and the code lets DCBA adjust it each year by CPI, so confirm the amounts with DCBA before serving a notice. Every termination notice goes to DCBA with proof of service within 5 days of being served. Work that needs a unit empty brings temporary relocation instead, a per diem for 30 days or less and a per diem or comparable housing for longer, and DCBA describes that tenant as displaced until the issue is resolved. An owner can recover renovation costs from sitting tenants only with DCBA approval. The code allows up to 50% of a capital improvement or a primary renovation, the second no more than once every five years, and caps the pass-through plus that year's increase at 3% (4% for a small property landlord, 5% for a luxury unit) unless DCBA approves more under the fair-return process.
Owner move-in is written for a person, not an entity.
To evict for owner or family occupancy, the landlord must be a natural person holding legal title to at least 50% of the unit, or a beneficiary with at least a 50% interest in a trust that owns it. The code's own example is two people who each buy half of a duplex, and each may evict. An LLC, a corporation and a partnership are not natural persons, and the code names no route for them, so a buyer who expects to move in should get legal advice before choosing how to take title. An owner with less than 100% may occupy one unit and an owner with 100% up to two, and on a property of three or more units a vacant unit must be used first if there is one. The person moving in must also be similarly situated to the household being displaced. If the tenant or a household member is 62 or older, disabled or terminally ill, or the tenant is a low-income household, the person moving in must match. The tenant gets 60 days' written notice, DCBA gets the occupant's name at least 60 days before the tenancy ends, and relocation is paid with the notice. The code treats good faith as moving in within 60 days of the tenant leaving and living there as a principal residence for at least three years. If the owner or family member stops living there within three years, the displaced tenant is entitled to notice of a right to return at the old rent plus allowed increases, and any other new tenant in that window is entitled to the old rent plus allowed increases. A buyer whose price depends on moving in should test those rules against the rent roll before making the offer.
An Ellis withdrawal leaves a 10-year record on title.
An Ellis Act withdrawal takes every fully or partially covered unit on the property off the market, with at least 120 days' notice served on DCBA and every tenant at the same time and relocation delivered with the notice. A tenant who is 62 or older or disabled and has lived in the unit at least a year can extend the tenancy to one year after the notice of intent is filed by asking the landlord in writing. No sooner than 40 days after notifying DCBA, the landlord records a memorandum with the Registrar-Recorder that summarizes the obligations of the landlord and any successor in interest and encumbers the property for 10 years from the notice of intent. A withdrawn building that is later sold still carries that recorded memorandum. Re-renting within two years lets each displaced tenant resume the tenancy, at the prior rent plus allowed increases for a fully covered unit, and exposes the landlord to actual and punitive damages. A return up to 10 years out carries its own notice duties. If fully covered units are demolished and new ones are offered for rent within five years of the withdrawal, the new units come under the County's annual increase limits despite being new construction. The County may set fees for recovering possession or withdrawing units, payable before the notice is served, and an unpaid fee invalidates the notice. Confirm the current amounts with DCBA before serving anything.
Buyouts: a floor on the price and a 90-day clock.
A buyout of a fully or partially covered unit has to meet every requirement of County Code 8.52.100, and one that misses any of them is void and unenforceable against the tenant. When the proposed agreement is provided, the owner also gives DCBA's disclosure form. Both must be in the tenant's primary language, translated at the owner's cost, and the proposed agreement must reach the tenant at least 45 days before the parties sign. It must offer at least the relocation assistance the tenant would get for a no-fault eviction, and print three statements in at least 12-point bold type near the tenant's signature, one of them the right to cancel in writing on or before the 45th day after everyone signs. The signed agreement and disclosure go to the tenant and to DCBA within 10 days, and a rescission is reported to DCBA within 10 days. The code counts calendar days, so at least 90 days pass between handing a tenant the proposed agreement and the end of the tenant's right to cancel. Once a tenant says in writing that they want no more offers, the owner may not offer payment to vacate more than once in six months. A seller who wants to market the building delivered vacant has to start early enough for that clock, or sell occupied and let the buyer price the buyouts. This site's buyout guide covers the City of Los Angeles program, which is a different ordinance.
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
- Los Angeles County Code, Title 8, Chapter 8.52, Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections (Municode)
- Los Angeles County Code, Chapter 8.65, Annual Rental Registration Fees (Municode)
- Los Angeles County Code, Chapter 4.60, Documentary Transfer Tax (Municode)
- LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, RSTPO Rent Stabilization Bulletin: Annual Allowable Rent Increase, revised July 6, 2026
- LA County DCBA, Rent Stabilization Program (coverage chart and just-cause questions)
- LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, Rent Registry page
- LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, LA County Rent Registry FAQs, 2026-27
- LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, Relocation Assistance FAQ (marked Update 11.14.25)
- LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, Small Property Landlord Self-Certification Form (last revised 11.21.2024)
- LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Precincts Maps application (District Map Look Up by Address)
- LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, Is Your Workplace in an Unincorporated Area? (address lookup steps)
- LA County Planning, Frequently Asked Questions: Unincorporated Areas
- County of Los Angeles, Municipal and Unincorporated Area Services
- LA County Registrar-Recorder, Documentary Transfer Tax
- LA Office of Finance, Real Property Transfer Tax and Measure ULA FAQ
- California Attorney General, Landlord-Tenant Issues (Tenant Protection Act rent cap, just cause and exemptions)
How much can rent go up in unincorporated LA County from July 1, 2026?
On a fully covered unit, 1.919% for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. A landlord that qualifies and self-certifies as a small property landlord may use 2.919%, and a qualifying luxury unit 3.919%. Only one increase is allowed in any 12 months, it needs at least 30 days' written notice, and it is lawful only on a unit that is registered with its fees paid.
I moved a family member into one of the units two years ago. What does that mean for a buyer?
It puts a three-year clock on that unit. If you or the family member stops living there within three years, the code entitles the displaced tenant to notice of a right to return at the old rent plus allowed increases, and any other new tenant in that window to the old rent plus allowed increases. DCBA may also check on the occupancy during those three years. A buyer who re-leases the unit after the occupant leaves inside the three years is working from the old rent, not a market rent, so give the buyer the move-in date and the displaced tenant's last rent.
What happens if the September 30 registration was missed?
Register and pay as soon as possible. The County adds a 10% penalty on the unpaid balance, and until fees and penalties are paid in full any rent increase on that unit is unenforceable and void. DCBA's notice for this cycle waives late fees during its review only for properties submitted for registration on or before September 30, 2026. For a property submitted after that date, the code lets DCBA waive the penalty on a written application showing good cause.
Can a buyer who takes title in an LLC move into a unit?
The County's owner move-in rule is written for a natural person holding at least 50% of title, or a beneficiary with at least 50% of a trust that owns the unit. An LLC is not a natural person, and the code names no route for one. Two individuals who each buy half of a duplex can each use it. A buyer planning to move in should get legal advice before choosing how to take title.
Can units be emptied for a renovation before the sale?
Not by eviction. The County's no-fault reasons are owner or family move-in, an Ellis Act withdrawal of the whole property, and a government agency or court order, and a remodel is not on the list. Work that needs a unit empty brings temporary relocation payments, and DCBA describes that tenant as displaced until the issue is resolved. Otherwise a vacancy comes from a tenant leaving voluntarily, for example under a buyout, which must offer at least the County relocation amount and can be rescinded for 45 days after signing.
What transfer tax does a sale in unincorporated LA County pay?
It pays the County documentary transfer tax, $0.55 for each $500 of value, the same as $1.10 per $1,000, figured on the price less any lien or encumbrance that stays on the property. On a $2,000,000 sale with no assumed loan that is $2,200, and all of it goes to the County because there is no city. Measure ULA is a City of Los Angeles tax on documents conveying property within that city, so it does not reach a property outside every city.
SHAYA LOWENSTEIN · LYON STAHL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE · DRE #01942326 · (323) 944-2221