How much can you legally raise rent in California?
AB 1482 caps most rent increases at 5% + your region's CPI (never more than 10%). The CPI figure changes every August 1 and depends on your county. Enter your details below for your exact legal maximum — and the notice language the law requires.
AB 1482 Rent Increase Calculator
Free, no account, unlimited use — and no ads on the site today. See what’s planned.
Your maximum legal increase
| Maximum increase (per month) | — |
| New maximum rent | — |
| Your CPI region | — |
| Regional CPI used | — |
| Formula | — |
| Required written notice | — |
Increases can't exceed the cap in any rolling 12-month period, and no more than two increases are allowed in that period (their total must stay under the cap). Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.12.
Is your unit even covered by AB 1482?
The cap doesn't apply to every rental. The most common exemptions:
Single-family home or condo — often exempt, but only if you did this
- The owner must NOT be a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or an LLC with a corporate member.
- You must have given the tenant written notice of the exemption — in the lease for tenancies starting after July 1, 2020, using the statutory language from Civ. Code § 1947.12(d)(5). No notice = no exemption.
New construction — exempt for 15 years
- Housing issued a certificate of occupancy within the previous 15 years is exempt. This is a rolling window: a 2012 building became covered in 2027... check your certificate date, not the marketing year.
Owner-occupied duplex
- Exempt if you live in one of the two units as your principal residence for the whole tenancy.
Other exemptions
- Deed-restricted affordable housing
- Dorms, hotels, and certain care facilities
- Units already under a stricter local rent control ordinance (the local law applies instead)
Your rent increase notice, ready to send
California requires written notice for any rent increase: 30 days if the increase is 10% or less, 90 days if more (Civ. Code § 827(b)). If served by mail, add 5 days. Calculate your increase above, then fill in and copy:
The rent cap is the easy part
Three California laws can turn one move-out into a four-figure judgment. You just handled one of them. None of this is about being a bad landlord — it's about paperwork nobody told you had a deadline.
AB 2801 — no photos, no deduction
California now requires photographs at move-in, at move-out, and after any repair you charge for, delivered with the itemized statement. Miss the photos and the deduction is unenforceable, no matter how real the damage was.
The 21-day rule — a clock you can't restart
You have 21 days from move-out to deliver an itemized deposit statement. Bad-faith violations carry statutory damages of up to twice the deposit, on top of the deposit itself.
Go deeper on the two that bite hardest
Full guides on the photo rule and the deposit deadline — free to read, no signup required.
AB 2801 — the photo rules, in plain English
The three moments you must photograph, what to actually shoot, and why the timestamp is the whole ballgame.
The 21-day rule, explained
How the clock is counted, what the itemized statement must contain, and what missing the deadline actually costs.
What RentGuard does about it
Not property management software. No rent collection, no tenant screening — just the compliance work that carries real penalties.
Guided photo capture
A room-by-room checklist per unit, three capture events per tenancy. Every photo is stamped with a server-side timestamp, the device timestamp, GPS, and a SHA-256 hash of the file — tamper-evidence that stands up when the tenant says you took the photo last week.
The 21-day countdown
Move-out starts a countdown with escalating reminders at day 7, 14, 18, and 20. The deduction builder makes each line item carry its own photo pair and receipt, then generates the itemized statement PDF with the photos embedded. Included on every paid plan — we don't paywall the deadline that gets people sued.
Rent cap math, tied to your actual units
The calculator above answers one question once. On a paid plan it's attached to your units, remembers the last increase date, and warns you before you break the rolling 12-month rule.
The local ordinance layer
In Los Angeles, Santa Ana, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Santa Monica and two dozen more California cities, AB 1482 is not your cap. A stricter local ordinance is — with its own percentage, its own registration rules, and its own notice filing.
Three plans, one of them free
The calculator stays free forever. Paid plans add the photo engine, the deposit workflow, and no ads.
- AB 1482 calculator, unlimited use
- Exemption screener
- Rent increase notice generator
- Free account Planned
- Save 1 unit
- Store 20 photos
- Ad-supported
- Up to 10 units · 5 GB photos
- Guided AB 2801 photo capture
- 21-day countdown + reminders
- Deduction builder & statement PDF
- Tenant share links
- No ads
- Unlimited units · 50 GB photos + video
- Local ordinance layer
- Court-ready export packet
- Multi-user access
- Compliance calendar
- Schedule E export
When accounts open, every new one will start with free months — one on Essentials, two on Premium, spread across year one as a lower rate rather than a trial that snaps back. How the welcome offer works.
Founding members lock these prices for life
RentGuard is in build. Join the waitlist and you'll be offered the early-bird rate — $3.99/mo Essentials or $6.99/mo Premium, or $40/$75 a year — locked for as long as you stay subscribed, not just for an introductory period. We'll email you when spots open.