Free California Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable California residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to current California law — the one-month security deposit cap and its narrow small-landlord exception, the photograph duties added by AB 2801, the 21-day accounting, and all twelve required disclosures.

California Civ. Code 1950.5 One-Month Cap Free PDF 2026 Edition

A California residential lease agreement is the written contract governed by Civil Code section 1940 and following, together with parts of the Code of Civil Procedure, the Government Code and the Health and Safety Code. California has no single landlord-tenant act, which is why a lease that looks complete can still be missing a mandatory term. Three things have changed recently enough that most templates in circulation are wrong about them. Security is now capped at one month’s rent for most landlords, not two, under Civ. Code 1950.5(c). The landlord must now photograph the unit at the start and end of the tenancy and after any repair, under Civ. Code 1950.5(g). And from January 1, 2026 a working stove and refrigerator are part of the habitability standard under Civ. Code 1941.1. This page builds a lease that carries all three, plus the twelve disclosures California actually requires and none of the ones it does not.

Complete the fields below to generate a California residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the utility allocations and each disclosure you check, and the generated lease cites the controlling California section at each point. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening — the lease governs the relationship, screening decides whether you want it. Pair the signed lease with a California move-in / move-out checklist, because the itemized accounting you owe in twenty-one days rests on documented condition.

California recognizes the usual range. A fixed-term lease runs for a stated period and expires on its own terms, though a covered tenancy that has run twelve months still needs just cause to end. A periodic tenancy renews each period until one side gives notice under Civ. Code 1946 or 1946.1. A room or roommate agreement covers a tenant renting one room in an occupied dwelling. A sublease passes the tenant’s interest to a subtenant while leaving the original tenant liable to the landlord. A lease-to-own agreement adds a purchase option that sits partly outside landlord-tenant law.

Two categories fall outside this form. A commercial lease is not governed by the residential provisions at all, and the disclosure set on this page does not apply to one. California also has a separate statutory scheme for mobilehome parks, so a space rental in a park is governed by its own law rather than by the Civil Code provisions used here. Attaching the wrong body of law to an arrangement is the most expensive drafting mistake available, because it is usually discovered in court.

One drafting note: a lease for a term longer than one year must be in writing to satisfy the statute of frauds at Civ. Code 1624. Two cities have rules deep enough to warrant their own builders — see the Los Angeles lease builder and the Santa Monica lease builder if the property sits in either.

One month’s rent, in addition to the first month’s rent. Civ. Code 1950.5(c) provides that a landlord shall not demand or receive security in excess of an amount equal to one month’s rent, in addition to any rent for the first month paid on or before initial occupancy. The limit applies to security collected or demanded on or after July 1, 2024.

Two things about that sentence deserve attention. First, the old two-month rule for an unfurnished unit and three-month rule for a furnished one are gone. Furnishing the unit no longer buys extra deposit. Pages still ranking for this query print the pre-2024 figures, and at least one states flatly that the state cap is two months. Second, the cap runs on security, and Civ. Code 1950.5(b) defines security broadly: any payment, fee, deposit or charge imposed at the beginning of the tenancy to be used to reimburse the landlord for a default in rent, for repair of damage other than ordinary wear and tear, for cleaning the unit on termination to the level of cleanliness it had at inception, or to remedy a future default in an obligation to restore, replace or return personal property. Renaming money does not remove it from the cap.

Advance rent is treated separately: the statute permits advance payment of six or more months’ rent where the term of the lease is six months or longer. That is a genuinely different thing from security, and it is not a route around the one-month limit for a twelve-month tenancy. The deeper treatment lives in our California security deposit laws guide.

Very few landlords, and never against a service member. Civ. Code 1950.5(c) allows up to two months’ rent in addition to the first month’s rent only where the landlord is a natural person, or a limited liability company in which all of the members are natural persons, and owns no more than two residential rental properties that collectively include no more than four dwelling units offered for rent.

Each element does work. A landlord holding title through a corporation is out, and so is a landlord holding through a limited liability company with a single corporate member. Owning three small properties is out even if the total unit count is low. Owning two properties containing five units between them is out even though there are only two properties. The statute also treats the settlors and beneficiaries of a family trust — a revocable living trust, or an irrevocable trust whose settlors and beneficiaries are siblings, spouses, domestic partners, children, parents, grandparents or grandchildren — as natural persons, so a family trust does not automatically forfeit the exception.

The service-member carve-out is the part landlords miss. Where a prospective tenant is a service member, the exception is unavailable and the cap is one month, whatever the landlord’s ownership position. The statute also forbids refusing to rent to a service member because the exception cannot be used, which closes the obvious workaround. A separate paragraph, operative from April 1, 2025, requires a landlord who charges a service member higher security on credit or housing-history grounds to explain the reason in writing before the lease is signed and to return the additional security within six months where the tenant is not in arrears.

Three sets, on two different start dates, under Civ. Code 1950.5(g). This is the AB 2801 change, and no template on the first page of the search results carries it.

The landlord must photograph the unit after the tenancy ends and possession is returned, and again after any repair or cleaning is completed. Those two duties took effect on April 1, 2025 and apply to every tenancy. For a tenancy beginning on or after July 1, 2025, the landlord must also photograph the unit immediately before, or at the inception of, the tenancy. The photographs are then included with the itemized statement, alongside the documents showing the charges.

The practical effect is to convert the deposit dispute from an argument into an evidence problem, and the landlord holds the evidence. A landlord who never photographed the unit at move-in is now trying to prove a deduction without the record the statute told them to make, and a tenant who receives an itemized statement with no photographs has an obvious first question. Pair the photographs with a written move-in and move-out checklist so the images have dates, rooms and signatures attached to them.

Twenty-one calendar days after the tenant vacates. Civ. Code 1950.5(h) requires the landlord to furnish the tenant an itemized statement of the basis for, and amount of, any security received and the disposition of it, together with any remaining balance, no later than 21 calendar days after the tenant has vacated. Documents showing the charges, and the photographs the section now requires, go with it.

Unlike several states, California counts calendar days here — weekends and holidays are inside the twenty-one, not outside it. The deadline runs from the tenant vacating, not from the tenant demanding anything, so a landlord waiting for a forwarding address is already on the clock.

The remedy has teeth. Under Civ. Code 1950.5(m), a landlord who retains security in bad faith is liable for statutory damages of up to twice the amount of the security, in addition to actual damages. That is a multiple of the deposit, not of the disputed deduction, which is what makes a sloppy accounting expensive out of proportion to the sum in dispute. Build the accounting with our California security deposit itemization form and close it out with a deposit return letter.

No. Civ. Code 1950.5(n) provides that no amount of the security may be characterised as nonrefundable. There is no lawful nonrefundable cleaning fee, move-in fee or redecoration fee taken as security in California, and calling it a fee rather than a deposit does not help, because 1950.5(b) already sweeps fees and charges into the definition of security.

This is the sharpest single contrast between California and the states whose templates circulate most widely. Several states allow a nonrefundable fee if its purpose is stated in writing. California does not allow one at all, and a lease that contains one is both charging money it must refund and advertising, in writing, that the landlord does not know the rule. The clean way to handle end-of-tenancy cleaning is to deduct the reasonable cost from the security in the twenty-one-day accounting, supported by the photographs, rather than to take it up front under a label the statute forbids.

The tenant can, in the final two weeks, under Civ. Code 1950.5(f). The tenant has the right to request an inspection of the unit during the final two weeks of the tenancy and to be present at it. The landlord must give at least 48 hours’ written notice of the date and time unless the parties waive that notice in writing, and must then give the tenant an itemized statement of the deficiencies the tenant may remedy before the final accounting.

The purpose is to let the tenant fix things rather than pay for them, and it is one of the few places where California builds a cure opportunity into the deposit process. For a landlord it is also a defensive tool: an inspection attended by the tenant, followed by a written list, makes the final statement far harder to attack. Our California pre-move-out inspection notice covers the notice itself.

Reasonable written notice, and twenty-four hours is presumed reasonable. Civ. Code 1954 permits entry in an emergency; to make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements; to supply necessary or agreed services; to exhibit the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workers or contractors; to make the initial inspection under 1950.5(f); where the tenant has abandoned or surrendered the premises; or under court order.

Outside an emergency, abandonment or the tenant’s contemporaneous consent, the landlord must give written notice stating the date, the approximate time and the purpose of the entry. Twenty-four hours is presumed to be reasonable notice in the absence of evidence to the contrary — a presumption, not a fixed rule, so a longer period may be required where the circumstances call for it. Where the notice is mailed, mailing at least six days before the intended entry is presumed reasonable, which is the rule landlords most often get wrong when they post a letter the day before. Entry must be during normal business hours except in an emergency, on abandonment, or where the tenant consents otherwise.

There is one narrow oral-notice route. For a showing to a prospective or actual purchaser, oral notice is sufficient only where the landlord has notified the tenant in writing within the previous 120 days that the property is for sale and that the landlord or the agent may contact the tenant orally to arrange showings. The section closes by providing that the landlord may not abuse the right of access or use it to harass the tenant, and Civ. Code 1953 makes any waiver of the tenant’s rights under 1954 void. Serve entry properly with a California notice to enter property, and see California landlord entry laws for the full treatment.

Five percent plus the change in the cost of living, or ten percent, whichever is lower. Civ. Code 1947.12 caps the increase over any 12-month period at that figure, measured against the lowest gross rental rate charged in the preceding twelve months and disregarding discounts, incentives, concessions and credits. Rent may not be increased in more than two increments in that period. The section is repealed on January 1, 2030.

The exemptions in subdivision (d) matter as much as the cap: deed-restricted affordable housing, dormitories, housing already subject to a local ordinance with a lower cap, housing with a certificate of occupancy issued within the previous fifteen years, an owner-occupied duplex, and separately alienable single-family homes and condominiums held by an owner who is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or a limited liability company with a corporate member.

That last exemption comes with a trap. It is available only if the lease carries the statutory exemption statement at 1947.12(d)(5)(B)(i), word for word. No statement, no exemption — the rent cap and the just-cause requirement apply to a property that would otherwise be outside them. The form above generates the statement verbatim when you check the exemption box, which is the only safe way to include it. See California rent increase laws, and serve an increase with the California rent increase notice.

Once the occupancy thresholds in Civ. Code 1946.2 are met. After all tenants have continuously and lawfully occupied the property for 12 months or more, or at least one tenant has done so for 24 months or more, the landlord may terminate only for just cause stated in writing.

At-fault just cause covers default in the payment of rent, a material breach of the lease after a written cure notice, maintaining or committing a nuisance, waste, refusing to execute a written extension or renewal on similar terms, criminal activity on the premises or directed at the owner, unlawful subletting or assignment, refusing lawful entry, unlawful use of the premises, and an employee or agent failing to vacate after the employment ends.

No-fault just cause covers intent by the owner or a qualifying relative to occupy the unit as a primary residence, withdrawal of the property from the rental market, compliance with a government order or a local ordinance that necessitates vacating, and intent to demolish or substantially remodel. A no-fault termination requires relocation assistance equal to one month’s rent in effect when the notice issued, paid within 15 calendar days of the notice or waived as the final month’s rent. Section 1946.2 is repealed on January 1, 2030. Our California eviction notice laws guide and the California eviction process walkthrough cover the sequence.

Two sections do the work, and they answer different questions. Civ. Code 1946 supplies the general rule for a hiring with no specified term: the notice equals the period of the hiring and need not exceed 30 days. The parties may agree in writing at the outset to a shorter notice, but never less than seven days. The same section forbids a landlord charging the tenant a fee for serving, posting or delivering a notice of termination.

Civ. Code 1946.1 then overlays the residential rule. A landlord must give at least 60 days’ written notice to end a residential periodic tenancy. That drops to 30 days in two situations: where any tenant has resided in the dwelling for less than one year; or where the unit is separately titled, the owner has contracted to sell to a bona fide purchaser who is a natural person intending in good faith to reside in the property for at least one full year after the tenancy ends, the notice is given within 120 days of establishing escrow, and no prior notice was given under the section. A tenant gives notice at least as long as the period of the tenancy.

Serve the tenant’s side with our California tenant notice to vacate and the landlord’s side with the California notice to vacate. For a tenant leaving a fixed term early, see California breaking lease laws and California lease termination laws.

Three days — excluding Saturdays, Sundays and other judicial holidays. Code of Civil Procedure 1161 uses that formula twice, and both are routinely miscounted.

For unpaid rent, the landlord serves three days’ notice, excluding Saturdays and Sundays and other judicial holidays, requiring payment or surrender of the premises. The notice must state the amount due and the name, telephone number and address of the person to whom payment is to be made, together with the usual days and hours payment may be made in person, or the account number of a financial institution within five miles of the property, or the electronic-transfer procedure previously established. A notice missing that payment information is defective on its face.

For a breach of a condition or covenant other than rent, the landlord serves three days’ notice, on the same exclusion, requiring performance or surrender. Performance within the period saves the tenancy. Build them with our California three-day notice to pay rent or quit and notice to cure or quit.

On money: California caps the returned-payment charge. Civ. Code 1719 permits a service charge not exceeding twenty-five dollars for the first returned check and not exceeding thirty-five dollars for each subsequent one. Late charges are governed instead by Civ. Code 1671 — there is no statutory figure, and a late charge survives only as a reasonable estimate of the landlord’s actual loss from late payment. See California late fee laws.

Civ. Code 1941 requires the landlord to put the dwelling into a condition fit for human occupation and to repair subsequent dilapidations that render it untenantable. Civ. Code 1941.1 then lists what tenantable means: effective waterproofing and weather protection of roof and exterior walls including unbroken windows and doors; plumbing and gas facilities maintained in good working order; a water supply with hot and cold running water connected to an approved sewage disposal system; heating facilities maintained in good working order; electrical lighting with wiring and equipment maintained in good working order; building, grounds and appurtenances kept clean, sanitary and free from debris, filth, rubbish, garbage, rodents and vermin; adequate garbage receptacles in good repair; and floors, stairways and railings maintained in good repair.

The list grows on January 1, 2026. For a lease entered into, amended or extended on or after that date, Civ. Code 1941.1 also requires a stove maintained in good working order and a refrigerator maintained in good working order. A narrow written arrangement allows the tenant to supply a refrigerator instead, terminable by the tenant on thirty days’ notice, and the landlord may not condition the tenancy on the tenant doing so. There is no equivalent opt-out for the stove. This is the single most likely omission in any California lease signed from 2026 onward, because it is newer than every template in circulation.

Civ. Code 1941.3 adds security hardware: an operable dead bolt lock on each main swinging entry door, with a bolt projecting at least thirteen-sixteenths of an inch beyond the strike edge of the door and into the doorjamb; operable window security or locking devices on windows designed to be opened, excluding louvered and casement windows and windows more than twelve feet vertically or six feet horizontally from the ground or a platform; and code-compliant locking mechanisms on exterior doors giving access to common areas in a multifamily development.

The tenant’s side is Civ. Code 1941.2: keep the occupied part clean and sanitary, dispose of rubbish and garbage properly, use and keep clean the electrical, gas and plumbing fixtures, permit no wilful or wanton damage, and occupy the premises as a dwelling using rooms for their intended purposes. Our California habitability laws guide goes deeper.

Up to one month’s rent, twice in any twelve months, under Civ. Code 1942. Where the landlord has been notified of a condition making the dwelling untenantable and has failed to remedy it within a reasonable time, the tenant may repair the condition and deduct the cost from rent, provided the cost does not exceed one month’s rent of the premises and the remedy is used not more than twice in any 12-month period.

What counts as a reasonable time is a question of fact, but the statute supplies a presumption: where the tenant acts after the 30th day following notice, a reasonable time is presumed to have passed. The presumption is rebuttable in both directions — a tenant is not required to wait thirty days where the circumstances demand faster action, and a landlord may show that thirty days was not enough for a particular repair. The remedy is unavailable where the tenant, a member of the household or a guest caused the condition, or where the tenant is in breach of Civ. Code 1929 or 1941.2.

Twelve for an ordinary residential tenancy — eleven under California law and one federal. This is the largest mandatory lease-disclosure set in the country, which is why California leases run long and why a template written for another state is never close.

1. Megan’s Law database notice — Civ. Code 2079.10a. A statutory paragraph, reproduced word for word, in at least eight-point type, telling the tenant that information about specified registered sex offenders is available from the Department of Justice website. Once given, the landlord has no further duty to research or disclose proximity.

2. Rent cap and just cause notice — Civ. Code 1946.2(f). A statutory paragraph in no less than twelve-point type, telling the tenant that California law limits rent increases and that after twelve months of occupancy by all tenants, or twenty-four by one, the landlord must state a cause in any notice to terminate.

3. Owner and manager identification — Civ. Code 1962. The person authorized to manage the premises and the owner or the owner’s agent for service of process, each with a telephone number and a usual street address at which personal service may be made, plus the name and address of the person to whom rent is paid and the form in which it is paid. The information must be kept current, and a copy of the executed lease delivered within fifteen days.

4. Bed bug information notice — Civ. Code 1954.603. A written general information notice in at least ten-point type, given before a new tenancy is created, covering appearance and life cycle, the signs of an infestation, the importance of cooperation with inspection and treatment, and how the tenant reports a suspected infestation. Note the citation: this obligation lives in the Civil Code, not in the Health and Safety Code, and lists that put it in the wrong code are usually confusing it with mold.

5. Mold and dampness — Health and Safety Code 26147 and 26148. Two duties, not one. Under 26147 a landlord who knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, that mold is present that exceeds permissible exposure limits or poses a health threat must disclose it in writing before the lease is entered into, and is not required to conduct air or surface testing. Under 26148 every residential landlord must give prospective tenants the Department of Public Health booklet on dampness and mold for renters before the lease is signed — a duty that has applied since January 1, 2022. Our California mold disclosure form handles the first.

6. Military ordnance proximity — Civ. Code 1940.7. A landlord with actual knowledge of a former federal or state ordnance location within one mile of the dwelling must give written notice before the rental agreement is executed. A former ordnance location is an area identified by a government agency as once used for military training and which may contain potentially explosive munitions. The section exists because a buried device detonated in a residential neighbourhood in 1983.

7. Demolition permit notice — Civ. Code 1940.6. An owner who has applied, or will apply, for a demolition permit must give written notice of the earliest approximate demolition date and the approximate date the tenancy will end — to a prospective tenant before any rental agreement is entered into and before any screening fee or other fee is accepted, and to a current tenant before the permit application is made.

8. Flood hazard — Government Code 8589.45. For every lease entered into on or after July 1, 2018, a landlord with actual knowledge that the property is in a special flood hazard area or an area of potential flooding must say so, in type no smaller than eight point, and must point the tenant at the Office of Emergency Services hazard-mapping website, note that the landlord’s insurance does not cover the tenant’s possessions, and recommend renter’s and flood insurance.

9. Methamphetamine contamination order — Health and Safety Code 25400.28. While a remediation order is pending, the owner must give written notice to every prospective tenant who has completed a rental application and attach a copy of the order to the rental agreement. If the owner does not, the prospective tenant may void the rental agreement — an unusually direct remedy.

10. Smoking policy — Civ. Code 1947.5. A landlord who prohibits or limits smoking must include a provision specifying the areas of the property where smoking is prohibited. For a tenancy that began before January 1, 2012, a new restriction is a change of terms requiring notice under Civ. Code 827.

11. Shared gas or electric meter — Civ. Code 1940.9. Where the landlord knows the tenant’s meter also serves an area outside the unit, the landlord must disclose it before the tenancy begins or on discovery, and the parties must execute a written arrangement — the tenant is compensated, or the landlord becomes the customer of record, or the outside area is separately metered. Our California shared utility disclosure covers it.

12. Federal lead-based paint — 42 U.S.C. 4852d. Federal, not Californian. Any target housing built before 1978 requires disclosure of known lead-based paint and hazards, delivery of available records and reports, and the EPA pamphlet. Use our California lead paint disclosure form.

Three appear repeatedly on template pages and none of them is a California lease requirement.

Asbestos. Health and Safety Code 25915 requires the owner of a building constructed before 1979 who knows it contains asbestos-containing construction materials to give notice — to all employees of that owner working within the building. It is an employee-notice statute. It does not create a tenant disclosure, and a lease page that lists asbestos among California’s required disclosures has read a workplace provision as a landlord-tenant one. The form above offers an asbestos block, labelled on its face as voluntary, for a landlord who wants to disclose knowledge anyway.

The Real Estate Transfer Disclosure Statement. Civ. Code 1102.6 prescribes that form for transfers of residential real property — sales. The article it sits in is titled disclosures upon transfer of residential property, and it has no application to a lease. Pointing a landlord at it wastes effort and produces a document that discloses the wrong things to the wrong party.

Death on the premises. Civ. Code 1710.2 is often listed as a required lease disclosure, but it is written the other way round: it provides that an owner or agent has no duty to disclose the death of an occupant, or the manner of death, where the death occurred more than three years before the offer to purchase, lease or rent, and no duty at all to disclose that an occupant was living with HIV or died of AIDS-related complications. What the section does not do is immunize an intentional misrepresentation in response to a direct inquiry. So the rule is: no volunteering required after three years, and never lie when asked.

California also requires no radon disclosure and no carbon monoxide lease disclosure, though carbon monoxide alarms are separately required equipment. Proposition 65 is not a lease-disclosure statute either; it obliges a business of sufficient size that knowingly exposes a person to a listed chemical to give a clear and reasonable warning, which is a different obligation arising from a different fact pattern.

Civ. Code 1953 is California’s prohibited-provisions section, and it works by voiding waivers. Any provision in a lease by which the tenant agrees to modify or waive any of the following is void as contrary to public policy:

• The tenant’s rights or remedies under Civ. Code 1950.5 (security deposits) or 1954 (entry).
• The tenant’s right to assert a cause of action against the landlord that may arise in the future.
• The tenant’s right to a notice or hearing required by law.
• The tenant’s procedural rights in litigation over the rights and obligations of the tenancy.
• The tenant’s right to have the landlord exercise a duty of care to prevent personal injury or property damage where that duty is imposed by law.

Subdivision (b) adds that a modification of another statutory right is void unless the lease was presented to the tenant before the tenant took possession. Civ. Code 1942.1 separately voids an agreement waiving the landlord’s repair duty under 1941, outside the narrow circumstances that section allows.

Attorney fees are the case that surprises drafters. California does not ban a lease attorney-fee clause. Civ. Code 1717 does something more interesting: it construes a contractual fee provision as applying to whichever party prevails, whatever the wording says, and provides that the right to reciprocity may not be waived and that any waiver is void. So a landlord-always-wins clause is not merely unenforceable as written — it is converted into a clause the tenant can enforce. This is a genuinely different regime from the flat bans and the narrow exceptions found elsewhere, and it is the reason the option in the form above generates the reciprocal version only.

Yes, and it runs on a one-hundred-and-eighty-day lookback. Civ. Code 1942.5 bars a landlord from recovering possession, causing the tenant to quit involuntarily, increasing rent or decreasing services within 180 days after the tenant has lawfully given notice of a repair need, complained to a public agency about tenantability, filed or prosecuted an action or arbitration on those grounds, or obtained a judgment or award.

Two details do the real work. The 180-day period runs from the latest applicable date among those triggers, so a series of complaints extends the window rather than starting a new clock each time. And the protection applies only where the tenant is not in default as to the payment of rent, and may be invoked not more than once in any 12-month period.

The remedy is actual damages, plus punitive damages of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars for each retaliatory act where the landlord acted with fraud, oppression or malice, and the court shall award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party if either party requests them. Note the interaction with 1717: the fee award here is statutory and reciprocal by its own terms, so a landlord who loses a retaliation claim pays the tenant’s fees whether or not the lease says anything about fees.

State law is a floor in California, not a ceiling. A city or county ordinance may cap rent increases lower than Civ. Code 1947.12, may require just cause earlier than the twelve- and twenty-four-month thresholds in 1946.2, may set relocation payments above one month’s rent, and may add registration, banking and noticing obligations that have no state equivalent. Where a local ordinance is more protective, it controls, and the lease should name it.

The form above captures the ordinance by name and writes it into the lease, which matters for two reasons. It tells a later reader — a successor owner, a lender, a court — which regime the tenancy was created under. And it stops the common error of assuming that satisfying AB 1482 satisfies everything, when in a rent-stabilized city the state cap may be irrelevant because the local one is lower. For properties in the two most heavily regulated markets, use the dedicated Los Angeles and Santa Monica builders instead of this one.

• Collecting two months’ security as a matter of course. Civ. Code 1950.5(c) has capped most landlords at one month since July 1, 2024, and the exception is narrow.
• Assuming the small-landlord exception applies. It requires a natural person or an all-natural-person limited liability company, no more than two properties and no more than four units, and it never applies against a service member.
• Charging a nonrefundable cleaning fee. Civ. Code 1950.5(n) forbids characterising any part of the security as nonrefundable.
• Never photographing the unit. Civ. Code 1950.5(g) now requires photographs at inception, after the tenancy ends and after repairs, delivered with the itemized statement.
• Missing the twenty-one-day accounting. The clock runs from the tenant vacating and the days are calendar days.
• Counting a three-day notice on a calendar. Code of Civil Procedure 1161 excludes Saturdays, Sundays and other judicial holidays.
• Omitting the payment details from a pay-or-quit notice. The name, telephone number, address and payment hours, or the account or transfer details, are part of the notice.
• Leaving the AB 1482 exemption statement out of a single-family or condo lease. Without the verbatim statement at 1947.12(d)(5)(B)(i), the exemption is lost and the rent cap and just cause apply.
• Serving thirty days on a tenant of more than a year. Civ. Code 1946.1 requires sixty unless a specific exception applies.
• Mailing an entry notice the day before. A mailed notice is presumed reasonable only if it goes out at least six days ahead under Civ. Code 1954.
• Copying a one-sided attorney-fee clause. Civ. Code 1717 makes it reciprocal and voids a waiver of the reciprocity, so it becomes the tenant’s clause too.
• Waiving habitability, entry or deposit rights. Civ. Code 1953 makes those waivers void as contrary to public policy, and 1942.1 does the same for the repair duty.
• Charging a deposit or fee for a service or support animal. An assistance animal is not a pet, and see California pet and assistance animal laws.
• Leaving out the stove and refrigerator for a 2026 lease. Civ. Code 1941.1 adds both for a lease entered into, amended or extended on or after January 1, 2026.
• Treating state law as the ceiling. A local rent-control or just-cause ordinance may be more protective, and where it is, it controls.

A well-drafted lease decides who wins a dispute; screening decides whether there is one. California puts unusual weight on the landlord’s own compliance before the tenant’s conduct is ever examined — a deposit above the cap, a missing exemption statement, a three-day notice counted wrong, an entry notice mailed too late. Each of those is decided on the landlord’s paperwork. The way to keep paperwork from being the whole case is to have fewer cases, and that is a screening problem. Verifiable income, a clean payment history and no prior eviction filings remain the strongest predictors of a quiet tenancy. Our tenant screening report covers credit, eviction filings, criminal background and employment verification, and California tenant screening laws covers what you may and may not ask.

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