LA's Rent Cap Is Rising to 8.7%

California's statewide cap on rent increases rises on August 1, and in Los Angeles and Orange counties it moves from 8.0% to 8.7%, while Riverside and San Bernardino counties go from 7.5% to 8.1%. Rents across those same four counties climbed about 1.4% over the past year, which means the legal ceiling is now roughly six times what the market itself is doing.

That gap is the part worth understanding, because for most renters in these counties the cap won't be the thing that decides their rent.

What changes on August 1

The cap comes from AB 1482, the tenant protection law California passed in 2019, and it gets recalculated every August using regional inflation rather than rent data. Grocery and gas prices in the Los Angeles area rose enough this year to push the allowable increase up, so the ceiling went higher at the same time the rental market cooled.

Coverage depends on the building. The law generally applies to apartment buildings and mobile homes more than 15 years old, while newer construction generally isn't covered, and many single-family homes and condos are also excluded unless a corporation owns them. There are real exceptions in here, so treat this as a starting point rather than a verdict on your own unit.

What 8.7% looks like in real dollars

The article that reported this used a round $2,000 example, so here's the same math on what people actually pay in these cities, using RentDataNow's June figures.

Riverside and San Bernardino use the 8.1% cap while the rest use 8.7%. Anaheim and Pomona are the ones to look at, because rents there actually fell over the past year and yet a landlord could still legally ask for $233 or $207 more a month. The market went one way while the ceiling went the other.

Why the ceiling went up while the market went down

The formula is the whole explanation. AB 1482 ties the cap to regional inflation, so when groceries and gas get more expensive the allowable rent increase climbs with them, even in a year when apartments themselves barely moved. It isn't measuring the rental market at all.

Across the 162 cities we track in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, the typical rent rose 1.4% over the past year. A landlord in a market that soft usually can't get 8.7%, because a tenant asked for it can look at comparable listings and leave. The cap tends to bite in specific situations instead, mainly where a tenant has been locked in well below market for years and the landlord is trying to catch up in one jump.

Your city's own rule probably matters more

Plenty of California cities set stricter limits than the state, and where they do, the local rule generally controls. Los Angeles caps increases at 3% under its own rent stabilization rules, which on a typical $2,773 rent works out to about $83 a month rather than the $241 the state would allow. That's a difference of roughly $1,900 over a year.

Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Culver City, Huntington Park, Pomona, Santa Ana, and West Hollywood also run their own lower caps. Notice that Santa Ana and Pomona both appear in the table above with essentially flat or falling rents, so they're covered by a local rule and sitting in a soft market at the same time.

What to do with a rent increase notice

Start by working out which rule covers your unit, since a notice can fall under AB 1482, under a local ordinance, or under neither depending on the building's type, age, and ownership. Compare the notice against your city's current limit before you assume it's allowed. Don't take the number on the letter at face value.

Keep your lease, every increase notice, and your payment records, because they're what you'll need if you challenge an increase or want to confirm the landlord followed the process. California's attorney general publishes a landlord-tenant guide, and free or low-cost legal help is available in most counties through local legal aid organizations.

For a wider view of how these rules work elsewhere, see our guide to rent increase laws by state, and for whether caps actually bring rents down, we've gone through the evidence in this analysis. You can also check the current typical rent for your own city on our California rent data page before you respond to a notice.

Sources

• Yahoo News, "California's rent hike cap rises in Los Angeles area, reaching 8.7% increase for many"

• California Legislature, AB 1482 (Tenant Protection Act of 2019)

• California Attorney General, landlord-tenant issues

• California Department of Housing and Community Development

• RentDataNow city rent data for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties (Zillow Observed Rent Index, June 2026)