Sacramento Rent Control 2026: AB 1482 Limits, CPI, and Owner Exemptions
A Sacramento landlord had owned a duplex for eleven years. She lived in one unit and rented out the other. Last year, she raised her tenant's rent by 12% to cover rising insurance costs. The increase seemed reasonable to her. However, it was not a legal rent increase in California.
Her duplex qualified for an AB 1482 exemption as an owner-occupied property, but she had never provided her tenant with the required written notice. Without that notice, the exemption did not apply, and her rent increase exceeded the statutory cap by several percentage points. When her tenant contacted a tenant's rights organization, the landlord received a demand letter threatening a wrongful eviction claim and a rent rollback. What started as a routine rent adjustment became a five-figure legal problem before she ever set foot in a courtroom.
Stories like this one are common in California's rental market. AB 1482, the Tenant Protection Act, answers the question: How much can you increase rent in California? The law imposes two obligations on covered landlords: a cap on rent increases each year and a requirement to cite legally valid grounds before ending a tenancy. Many property owners know the law exists. Far fewer understand which properties it covers, what the exemptions actually require, or what a defective notice can cost them.
Park Glen Management (PGM) was co-founded by a real estate attorney and built around exactly these situations. We assess the applicability of AB 1482 at the start of every management engagement, before it becomes a problem.
AB 1482 exemptions: Is your property covered?
The first question every California landlord should be able to answer is whether AB 1482 applies to their property. The law is broad, but its exemptions cover a significant portion of the state's rental stock. The categories most relevant to individual property owners are:
Single-family homes and condos. A single-family home or condo is exempt from AB 1482 if the owner is not a corporation, real estate investment trust, or LLC in which at least one member is a corporation. The landlord must also notify the tenant in writing that the tenancy is not subject to just-cause and rent-increase limitations. For most individual landlords, the ownership condition is met. The written notice requirement is where owners run into trouble. Skipping that step is as common and as costly as mishandling security deposits, which remains one of the most litigated areas of California landlord-tenant law.
Newer construction. Properties built within the last 15 years are exempt, regardless of ownership type. Because the 15-year window is a rolling calculation, a building that is exempt today may lose that status in a future year. Owners of newer properties need to actively track this date rather than assume the exemption is permanent.
Owner-occupied duplexes. If the owner lives in one of the two units, the property is exempt. The Sacramento landlord's duplex technically qualified under this provision, but because she never served the required written exemption notice, the protection was unavailable to her when she needed it.
Other exempt categories include deed-restricted affordable housing, properties with an existing local rent control ordinance that is more protective than AB 1482, and certain student housing arrangements.
If a property does not fall into one of these categories, AB 1482 applies in full. That means the annual rent increase is capped at 5% plus the local Consumer Price Index, with a ceiling of 10% regardless of CPI. The CPI figure used is the one published for the region where the property is located. Several counties, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, set their own caps that differ from the statewide formula. Landlords should confirm the applicable figure through the California Apartment Association or the California Department of Industrial Relations before calculating any increase.
The calculation also looks back at all rent increases over the prior 12 months, not just the most recent one. Owners who give two smaller increases in a single year and assume they are compliant can still breach the cap when the increases are combined.
Park Glen Management tracks exemption status and rent cap calculations for every property in our portfolio. When a property's exemption window is approaching its expiration, we notify the owner and adjust our rent-increase strategy accordingly. When a new tenancy begins, we ensure the correct exemption notice is served before it becomes an issue.
AB 1482 and evictions: Just Cause requirements
Before AB 1482, a California landlord could decline to renew a month-to-month tenancy without giving any reason. That is no longer true for covered properties. Once a tenant has occupied a unit for 12 months, you must follow specific home rental eviction guidelines and provide a legally recognized reason:
Under AB 1482, these reasons fall into two categories: at-fault just cause and no-fault just cause.
At-fault just cause applies when the tenant has done something that justifies termination. Qualifying reasons include:
Nonpayment of rent
Breach of a material lease term
Nuisance or criminal activity on the property
Unauthorized subletting
In these situations, the owner is generally not required to pay relocation assistance. However, for certain at-fault reasons (nonpayment and lease violations in particular), the owner must first allow the tenant to cure the problem before serving a termination notice. Skipping that step is a procedural defect that can invalidate the entire eviction process. Owners often ask, "Can I get a tenant to leave voluntarily?" The answer is yes, often through a "cash-for-keys" agreement. These arrangements can be effective, but they require careful drafting. A poorly structured agreement can be characterized as a constructive eviction, which carries its own legal exposure.
No-fault just cause applies when the owner has a legitimate reason to end the tenancy, unrelated to the tenant's behavior. The most common qualifying scenarios are:
Owner or immediate family member moving into the unit
Withdrawal of the unit from the rental market entirely
Substantial renovations that require the unit to be vacant
These are legally valid grounds, but they come at a cost: the owner must either waive the final month's rent or pay the tenant one month's rent as relocation assistance. Attempting a no-fault termination without providing this assistance is a significant compliance failure.
The procedural requirements for both categories are specific and unforgiving. A notice that cites the wrong just cause ground, omits required language, or is served incorrectly can be challenged in court even if the underlying reason for termination was valid. In practice, this means a landlord who has every right to reclaim their property can lose months and thousands of dollars in legal fees because of a drafting error on a single document.
For properties subject to AB 1482, PGM prepares all termination notices with attorney-level review. We identify the correct just-cause category, confirm the procedural requirements for that ground, and ensure the notice language meets current statutory standards. When relocation assistance is required, we manage that process as well, documenting each step in a way that holds up if the termination is later challenged.
The cost of getting AB 1482 exemptions wrong
The financial exposure for a covered landlord who violates the law can be substantial, and in some cases, it compounds quickly.
For rent cap violations, a tenant can seek:
Restitution of any rent paid above the legal ceiling
Interest on the excess amount
Actual damages if the overcharge contributed to a constructive eviction claim
For wrongful eviction, the exposure is higher. A tenant who is removed without valid just cause, or through a procedurally defective notice, can pursue:
Actual damages, including the cost of replacement housing
Punitive damages in cases where the court finds the owner acted in bad faith
Attorney's fees, which in tenant-side litigation can exceed the underlying damages
In jurisdictions with local rent ordinances that layer on top of AB 1482 (e.g., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland), the penalties are often more severe than the state minimums. There is also a fair housing dimension worth noting. When an eviction is challenged and the owner cannot produce documentation showing a legitimate, consistently applied just-cause basis, the dispute can attract scrutiny from the California Department of Civil Rights. At that point, what began as a landlord-tenant dispute could become a fair housing investigation.
Park Glen Management's compliance documentation exists precisely for this scenario. Every notice we prepare, every rent increase we process, and every just cause determination we make is recorded and defensible. If a tenant or their advocate challenges an action we have taken on an owner's behalf, we can demonstrate the legal basis for that action at every step.
The PGM advantage in AB 1482 compliance
AB 1482 is not a static law. The CPI figures that determine the rent cap change every year. Court decisions continue to refine how exemptions are interpreted. Local ordinances in cities like Los Angeles and Oakland interact with the state law in ways that require ongoing attention. For a self-managing owner, staying current on all of this while also running a property is a significant ask.
Park Glen Management was co-founded and continues to be operated by a real estate attorney who works with AB 1482 issues daily. That foundation shapes how we approach every aspect of occupancy management for covered properties.
What that means in practice:
Exemption analysis at intake. When we take on a new property, we immediately determine whether AB 1482 applies. If an exemption applies, we serve the required written notice before the issue arises. If the property is covered, we build the rent cap and just cause requirements into our management procedures from day one.
Rent increase calculations you can defend. We track exactly how much you can increase rent in California based on the current year’s CPI, apply the 12-month lookback, and put the basis for the increase in writing. If a tenant disputes it, the math is on paper.
Attorney-reviewed termination notices. Every notice we prepare is reviewed against the current statutory requirements for that specific just-cause ground. We do not use form templates that may reflect outdated law. We verify the language before the notice is served.
Relocation assistance management. When a no-fault termination requires relocation assistance, we manage the calculation, the payment, and the documentation. Errors in this process are among the most common triggers for wrongful eviction claims.
Proactive regulatory monitoring. When AB 1482's implementing regulations or the relevant CPI figures change, we update our procedures and notify affected owners. Changes in the law reach our clients before they affect a property.
AB 1482 has been in effect since 2019, and California courts have had years to refine their interpretation of it. The owners who face the steepest penalties are not the ones who knowingly broke the law. They are the ones who assumed their property was exempt, miscalculated a rent increase, or served a termination notice without understanding what it needed to say.
If you own rental property in California and are not certain whether AB 1482 applies to your units, that uncertainty is itself a liability. Park Glen Management can tell you exactly where you stand, and put the systems in place to ensure your property's legal compliance.
Contact PGM today to schedule a consultation.
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