Is my Los Angeles apartment building subject to rent control (RSO)?
In the City of Los Angeles, a rental property is generally covered by the Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) if it was built on or before October 1, 1978 and has two or more units on the parcel. For July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, the allowable annual increase for an RSO unit is 3%. The RSO also limits evictions to specific just causes. When a tenant leaves voluntarily or is evicted for cause, the unit can be re-rented at market and stays under the RSO at the new rent. Buildings first occupied after the 1978 date are usually outside the RSO but inside the citywide Just Cause Ordinance and the statewide cap, AB 1482.
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 | Allowable increase |
|---|---|
| March 30, 2020 to January 31, 2024 | 0% |
| February 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024 | 4% |
| July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025 | 4% |
| July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 | 3% |
| July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 | 3% |
Source: LAHD, Rent Stabilization Bulletin: Allowable Rent Increase
How to check a specific property.
The box at the top of this page checks your address against the county assessment roll and tells you where the building likely stands. LAHD's own description of the RSO covers rental property built on or before October 1, 1978, including apartments, duplexes, rented condominiums, and two or more houses on one parcel. A single house alone on its lot is not on that list. The roll carries a year built, and a building finished in late 1978 can fall either side of the line, so LAHD's RSO lookup is the confirmation. The RSO labels on this site's building pages are inferred from the roll's year built and unit count. LAHD's register has not been loaded here, so each label is a likelihood and not a determination. Other cities in the county, and the unincorporated areas, run under their own rules or under state law alone, so the same building two blocks away can trade on completely different math; the countywide guide sets out the ones with a local rent cap and several that rely on state law, and says which cities it could not check.
What RSO means for value.
RSO is the reason LA multifamily trades on two sets of numbers: in-place income and market-rent potential. Loss-to-lease in a long-held RSO building is frequently large enough to be the whole trade, and it is specific to the building rather than to the submarket: it depends on how long the sitting tenants have been there and what the units would fetch on turnover today. Buyers underwrite how fast units realistically turn, what relocation costs look like, and whether the lot itself is worth more under the city's CHIP density incentives than the income stream is. Value-add buyers pay for that spread between in-place and potential; naive pricing misjudges it in both directions.
Vacancy decontrol and the Costa-Hawkins Act.
The state Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act sets the outer edge of every local rent law in California. Civil Code 1954.53 lets an owner set the initial rent for a new tenancy, which is why a vacated RSO unit can be re-let at market. Civil Code 1954.52 lets an owner set all rents on a unit with a certificate of occupancy issued after February 1, 1995, and on a unit that can be sold separately from any other, such as a condominium. The reset does not apply when the owner ended the previous tenancy by a notice under Civil Code 1946.1, the notice that ends a periodic tenancy such as a month-to-month, or by a notice changing its terms under Section 827. The arithmetic of one turnover is simple. At a 5% cap rate, $300 a month more rent on one unit is $3,600 a year of income, which capitalizes to $72,000 of building value. Statewide measures to repeal or loosen Costa-Hawkins failed three times. Proposition 10 drew 59.4% no in 2018, Proposition 21 drew 59.9% no in 2020, and Proposition 33 drew 60.0% no in 2024. Every loss-to-lease number in an offering memorandum assumes the law stays as it is.
Just cause, and what a no-fault vacancy costs.
In the City of LA, ending almost any established residential tenancy takes a just cause. RSO units follow the RSO's list of causes. Most other rental units fall under the citywide Just Cause Ordinance (JCO), which applies once a tenant has lived in the unit for six months or the first lease has expired, whichever comes first. At-fault causes include non-payment, an uncured lease violation, nuisance, illegal use, and refusing to renew on similar terms. Since March 27, 2023, an RSO or JCO tenant cannot be evicted for non-payment unless the amount owed exceeds the Fair Market Rent for the unit's bedroom count. No-fault causes include owner or family move-in, demolition or withdrawal from the rental market under the Ellis Act, and a government order to vacate. Each no-fault termination requires a declaration filed with LAHD before the notice and a relocation payment on LAHD's schedule, set out in the relocation guide. Every eviction notice in the city must be filed with LAHD within three business days of service, under LAMC 151.09.C.9 and 165.05.B.5. LAHD's relocation Bulletin A words it as three days, so filing within three calendar days meets both. An Ellis Act withdrawal does not end a property's RSO status. "The lease expired" is not a cause under either ordinance, and a building marketed as "delivered vacant" has to get there by one of these routes.
When a unit comes back vacant.
A vacancy is the one moment the ordinance lets the rent reset, so the renovation question is an investment question. Price each scope of work against the rent it actually buys on your block, not against citywide averages, and get real bids. Renovate to slightly better than the best comparable unit at the rent you are targeting, then stop. Anything touching plumbing, electrical, or walls needs permits, because unpermitted work surfaces at sale in the city's 9A report, in the buyer's inspection, and in SCEP inspections. The new rent becomes the unit's RSO base, and the annual cap applies from there, so what you capture now compounds. Sometimes the buyer of the whole building would rather have the vacancy and do the work themselves, and that is a pricing call worth making with data.
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
- LAHD, Owning a Rent Stabilized Property
- LAHD, Rent Stabilization Bulletin: Allowable Rent Increase
- LAHD, Just Cause For Eviction Ordinance (JCO)
- LAHD, Eviction Notices (filing a notice to terminate tenancy, LAMC 151.09.C.9 and 165.05.B.5)
- LAHD, Ellis Act Information
- LAHD, Relocation Assistance Bulletin A, effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027
- California Civil Code section 1954.53 (Costa-Hawkins initial rent on a new tenancy)
- California Civil Code section 1954.52 (Costa-Hawkins exemptions)
- Secretary of State, Statement of Vote, November 6, 2018 (Proposition 10)
- Secretary of State, Statement of Vote, November 3, 2020 (Proposition 21)
- Secretary of State, Statement of Vote, November 5, 2024 (Proposition 33)
How much can rent go up per year under LA RSO?
LAHD sets it annually, and the formula itself changed. An ordinance effective 2 February 2026 moved the calculation to 90% of CPI with a floor of 1% and a ceiling of 4%, down from 100% of CPI with a 3% floor and an 8% ceiling, and eliminated the separate utility and additional-tenant surcharges. For 1 July 2026 through 30 June 2027 the allowable increase is 3%. Confirm the current figure with LAHD before underwriting: it moves every July, and the ceiling is now low enough that the formula, not the CPI, is usually what binds.
Does RSO limit the rent on a vacant unit?
No. When a tenant leaves voluntarily or is evicted for cause, the state Costa-Hawkins Act lets the owner set the initial rent for the next tenancy. The unit stays under the RSO at that new rent, and the annual cap applies from there.
Is a fourplex I live in still covered?
Owner-occupancy does not exempt a covered multi-unit building from RSO, though some specific unit types and situations have carve-outs. Check the address with LAHD.
Can I collect rent on an RSO unit that is not registered?
No. LAHD says a landlord cannot legally collect rent from a tenant unless the annual registration fees are paid, unless the unit is specifically exempt from registration.
Do RSO and JCO obligations pass to the buyer when a building sells?
Yes. The ordinances run with the property, so a buyer inherits every sitting tenancy on its existing terms. That is why the rent roll and the tenant estoppels get scrutinized in escrow.
SHAYA LOWENSTEIN · LYON STAHL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE · DRE #01942326 · (323) 944-2221