Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO): Coverage, Rent Caps, and Evictions

The Los Angeles Rent Stabilization Ordinance, known as the RSO, caps annual rent increases on roughly 650,000 apartments in the city and limits the reasons a landlord can end your tenancy. It applies mainly to residential buildings first occupied on or before October 1, 1978, and it is enforced by the Los Angeles Housing Department under Chapter XV of the Municipal Code. If your unit is covered, the ordinance controls how much your rent can rise each year, what grounds a landlord needs to evict you, and what you are owed if you are displaced.

Is Your Unit Covered

Coverage turns on the building’s first certificate of occupancy. If that date is on or before October 1, 1978, and the unit is residential, the RSO almost certainly applies. Covered property types include apartments, duplexes, condominiums and townhomes, two or more single-family homes sharing one parcel, residential units attached to a commercial building, accessory dwelling units and junior ADUs, and mobile homes in mobile home parks. A hotel or motel room becomes an RSO unit once the same guest has stayed more than 30 consecutive days.¹

Several categories sit outside the ordinance. Buildings with a certificate of occupancy issued after October 1, 1978, are exempt, so newer construction is not rent-stabilized. A detached single-family house is exempt only when it is the sole dwelling on its parcel; add a second unit, legal or not, and both fall under the RSO. Housing owned by the Los Angeles City Housing Authority, government-subsidized units specifically exempted by state or federal law, affordable housing with a recorded 55-year rent restriction, hospital and licensed care facility housing, school-owned student housing, convents, and monasteries are also exempt.²³

State law adds a partial exemption. Under the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, single-family homes and condominiums are generally exempt from local rent caps for tenancies that began on or after January 1, 1996. Those units still have to follow just cause eviction rules, so the exemption only lifts the rent ceiling, not the eviction protections.⁴

How Much Rent Can Go Up Each Year

The RSO allows one rent increase every 12 months. The Housing Department sets the percentage each year based on the Consumer Price Index for the Los Angeles area. From July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, the maximum allowable increase is 3%.⁵

Starting February 2, 2026, a revised formula takes effect. The allowable increase will equal 90% of the year-over-year CPI change, rounded to the nearest whole number, with a floor of 1% and a ceiling of 4%. Future standard increases will track inflation more closely but never exceed 4%.⁶

Your landlord cannot impose any annual increase while the unit has outstanding code violations, is in the Rent Escrow Account Program for unresolved habitability issues, or if the landlord has a criminal conviction tied to building safety citations on that unit.⁶

Written notice is required before any increase takes effect. For increases of 10% or less, the notice must arrive at least 30 days before the new rent begins; because RSO caps sit well below 10%, the 30-day rule is what applies in practice.⁷

One structural wrinkle to know about: when a tenant moves out voluntarily or is evicted for cause, the landlord can reset the rent to market rate for the next tenant. This vacancy decontrol is required by Costa-Hawkins. Once the new tenant moves in, that market rent becomes the base for future RSO-limited increases. Vacancy decontrol does not apply when a tenant is removed through a no-fault eviction.

Reasons a Landlord Can Evict You

Under LAMC Section 151.09, a landlord needs a specific legal reason to end an RSO tenancy. The grounds fall into two groups: at-fault (something the tenant did) and no-fault (something the landlord wants to do with the unit). A court will not grant an eviction that does not fit one of them.

At-Fault Grounds

Failure to pay rent, where the unpaid amount exceeds one month of HUD fair market rent for an equivalent-sized unit in the area.
Violating a material lease term and failing to fix it after written notice. Violations tied to occupancy limits for a tenant’s first or second dependent child do not count.
Creating a nuisance or damaging the property, including unreasonable interference with other residents’ comfort or safety within the building or a 1,000-foot radius.
Using the unit or nearby common areas for illegal purposes.
Refusing a written lease renewal with substantially similar terms.
Refusing reasonable access for repairs, inspections, or showings.
Allowing an unapproved subtenant to remain at the end of a lease term.

⁸

For curable problems like an unauthorized pet or a noise complaint, the landlord has to serve written notice and give you a chance to fix the issue before filing in court.⁹

No-Fault Grounds

No-fault evictions happen when the landlord wants the unit back for reasons unrelated to the tenant. They include the owner or an immediate family member moving in as a primary resident, permanent withdrawal of the unit from the rental market under the Ellis Act, compliance with a government order, or a plan for substantial renovation. For any of these, the landlord must file a declaration with the Housing Department before serving a notice to vacate, and must pay relocation assistance.¹⁰

Ellis Act withdrawals carry their own notice rules. All tenants get at least 120 days of written notice. Tenants who are 62 or older or disabled and have lived in the unit for at least one year get a full year.¹¹

Relocation Assistance for No-Fault Evictions

If you are displaced through no fault of your own, the landlord owes you relocation money. The Housing Department adjusts the amounts every July 1. For July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, the amounts for households above the low-income threshold are:¹²

Eligible tenant, less than 3 years in the unit: $10,650
Eligible tenant, 3 or more years: $13,950
Qualified tenant, less than 3 years: $22,450
Qualified tenant, 3 or more years: $26,550

A “qualified” tenant is someone who, on the date the eviction notice is served, is 62 or older, disabled, or has one or more minor dependent children in the household. Everyone else is an “eligible” tenant. Tenants earning 80% or less of the area median income get additional payments on top of these amounts.¹⁰

Payment is due within 15 days of serving the eviction notice, either directly to you or into an escrow account. If the landlord fails to pay, you can raise that failure as a defense in court to block the eviction.¹³

Buyout Offers

Some landlords skip the eviction process and offer cash to persuade a tenant to leave voluntarily. The RSO regulates these buyouts. Before making an offer, the landlord must give you an RSO Disclosure Notice explaining your rights. The agreement itself has to be in writing, printed in your primary language, and include a prominent cancellation clause in at least 12-point bold type.¹⁴

If you sign, you have 30 days to cancel for any reason without penalty. If the landlord skipped the disclosure or the agreement does not meet the legal requirements, the cancellation window stays open through the full statute of limitations. The landlord has to file both the disclosure notice and the signed agreement with the Housing Department within 60 days. A tenant whose buyout was handled improperly has an affirmative defense in any eviction action and can sue for damages plus a $500 penalty.¹⁴

Protection Against Retaliation

California law bars landlords from retaliating against tenants who exercise their rights. If you file a code complaint with the Housing Department, join a tenant organization, or testify against your landlord, the landlord cannot answer with a rent hike, cut services, or threaten eviction. A retaliatory eviction notice is void, and you can raise retaliation as a defense in court. The burden is on the tenant to prove retaliatory intent, but courts look skeptically at notices that follow close on the heels of a tenant complaint.¹⁵

How the RSO Fits With California State Law

Two state statutes set the outer limits of what the RSO can do. The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act requires vacancy decontrol and exempts single-family homes and condominiums from local rent caps for tenancies starting on or after January 1, 1996. The RSO cannot override either rule.

The Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB 1482) created a statewide rent cap of 5% plus local CPI, or 10%, whichever is lower. Units already covered by a stricter local ordinance are exempt from the state cap. Because the RSO’s 3% limit (and future 4% ceiling) sits below the AB 1482 number, RSO tenants follow the local rules, not the state ones.⁴

The same priority applies to just cause eviction. A local ordinance adopted before September 1, 2019, that requires just cause takes precedence over the state statute, and a unit cannot be subject to both regimes at once. The RSO was in place long before that date, so its eviction rules govern.¹⁵

1
Los Angeles Housing Department. RSO Overview
2
American Legal Publishing. Los Angeles Municipal Code SEC 151.02 Definitions
3
Los Angeles Housing Department. RSO Registration of Rental Property
4
California Legislative Information. AB 1482 Tenant Protection Act of 2019
5
Los Angeles Housing Department. RSO Rent Increase Calculator
6
City of Los Angeles City Clerk. Los Angeles Municipal Code SEC 151.06 Amendments
7
California Department of Justice. Know Your Rights as a California Tenant
8
American Legal Publishing. Los Angeles Municipal Code SEC 151.09 Evictions
9
California Courts. Choose the Right Type of Eviction Notice
10
Los Angeles Housing Department. Relocation Assistance Information
11
American Legal Publishing. Los Angeles Municipal Code SEC 151.22 Ellis Act Provisions
12
Los Angeles Housing Department. Relocation Assistance Bulletin
13
City of Los Angeles Housing Department. Rent Stabilization Ordinance Relocation Assistance
14
American Legal Publishing. Los Angeles Municipal Code SEC 151.31 Tenant Buyout Notification Program
15
California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1946.2