Renting Out Your ADU: A California Landlord’s Guide to Leases, Deposits, Rent Caps, Screening, and Tenant Law

Renting out an ADU makes you a California landlord, and California landlord law is a set of specific statutes — not a set of customs. This guide works through each one the way it actually reads: what a lease must disclose, how much deposit you may really take, how screening fees changed in 2025, what the rent cap does and does not exempt, and the questions state law pointedly does not answer — there is no state rental registry, no state landlord license, and no mandated move-in checklist — because a made-up rule is worse than none.

This page is general information about California law as of November 2026, not legal advice for your lease. Local rent-stabilization and just-cause ordinances can be stricter than the state rules described here; check your city’s ordinance and, for your own lease, a California landlord-tenant attorney. This page is the Rentals and Landlord Obligations chapter of our California Accessory Dwelling Unit Handbook. For the income side of renting, see ADU Rental Income in California.

First, the ADU-Specific Rule: Rentals Run Longer Than 30 Days

Before any landlord law applies, ADU law sets the frame. For an ADU approved under the state standards of Government Code §66323, the local agency shall require that a rental be for a term longer than 30 days (§66323(e)); the same mandatory wording applies to a junior ADU (§66333(g)). For ADUs approved under a local ordinance, §66315 lets the city require rentals of 30 days or longer. The two phrasings differ in the statutes, and we quote them as written rather than blending them. The practical result: short-term rentals are off the table for state-standard ADUs and JADUs by state law itself, and cities can and do impose the same floor on ordinance ADUs — the full picture is on Can I Airbnb My ADU? Everything below assumes a lawful long-term tenancy.

Writing the Lease: What California Actually Requires

California prescribes no official lease form and no single “required contents” section. What it prescribes is a set of disclosures that must be in or with the lease, notices that decide whether an exemption exists at all, and terms the law voids if you write them wrong. Everything else — rent amount, due date, occupants, parking, pet terms — is contract practice, and it matters because the lease is the only place those terms exist.

Disclosures that are statutory, not optional

• AB 1482 coverage notice (Civil Code §1946.2(f)). For a covered property, a tenancy begun or renewed on or after July 1, 2020 must include the statutory notice — in at least 12-point type, in the lease, as an addendum, or as a signed written notice — stating that California law limits rent increases under §1947.12 and requires just cause to terminate under §1946.2 after the stated occupancy periods.
• AB 1482 exemption notice (§§1947.12(d)(5), 1946.2(e)(8)). If you claim the single-family/condo exemption, the verbatim statutory notice must have been given to the tenant — and for tenancies begun or renewed on or after July 1, 2020 it must be in the rental agreement itself. No notice, no exemption, even for a house that otherwise qualifies.
• Flood hazard (Gov. Code §8589.45). Every residential lease since July 1, 2018 must carry the flood disclosure in at least 8-point type: whether the property is in a special flood hazard area or area of potential flooding if the owner has actual knowledge (which includes being told by an agency, being required by a lender to carry flood insurance, or carrying it), where to get hazard information, and that the owner’s insurance does not cover the tenant’s possessions.
• Megan’s Law notice (Civil Code §2079.10a). The statutory notice about the Department of Justice sex-offender website, in at least 8-point type, is required by the statute’s terms in single-family leases and leases in multiunit properties of more than four units. Including it in every lease is the standard practice; the statute’s literal scope is the two categories named.
• Bed bugs (Civil Code §1954.603). Before a new tenancy begins, the landlord must give the prospective tenant the statute’s written bed-bug information notice in at least 10-point type, including how to report a suspected infestation. A unit the landlord knows has a current infestation may not be shown or rented (§1954.602).
• Lead-based paint (federal, 42 U.S.C. §4852d). For most housing built before 1978, before the tenant is bound by the lease the lessor must disclose any known lead-based paint or hazards, provide available records, give the EPA pamphlet, and attach the federal Lead Warning Statement with signed acknowledgments, kept at least three years. The rule is known-information disclosure — it imposes no duty to test.
• Shared meter (Civil Code §1940.9). If a tenant’s gas or electric meter also serves an area outside the unit and you know it, you must disclose that before the tenancy begins (or on discovery) and either sign a mutual written agreement on paying for the outside-area service or make another written arrangement — see Utilities below.
• Death in the unit (Civil Code §1710.2). The statute does not require disclosure of a death that occurred more than three years before the rental, or that an occupant had HIV or died of AIDS-related complications. A death within three years is treated as a material fact, and a direct question must always be answered truthfully.
• Smoking policy (Civil Code §1947.5). The statute authorizes a landlord to prohibit smoking of tobacco products anywhere on the property. The authorization is the law; stating the policy in the lease is what makes it enforceable as a lease term.

Terms the law voids or bars

A lease cannot waive the tenant’s habitability rights under §§1941–1942 (void under §1942.1, apart from a genuine tenant-improvement agreement), cannot waive just-cause rights under §1946.2 (void under §1946.2(j)), and cannot call any part of the security deposit “nonrefundable” (§1950.5(n)). Where a lease was negotiated primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean, Civil Code §1632 translation duties apply to the statutory notices as well.

Fair Housing: The Rules That Reach Your Listing, Not Just Your Decision

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (Gov. Code §12955) makes it unlawful to refuse to rent, to impose different terms, or to make a dwelling unavailable because of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, source of income, disability, veteran or military status, or genetic information. The federal Fair Housing Act list is shorter — California’s additions bind a California landlord even where federal law is silent. The Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civil Code §51) applies on top of FEHA to a rental operation as a business establishment.

• Your advertising is regulated. §12955(c) makes it unlawful to publish a notice, statement, or advertisement that indicates a preference, limitation, or discrimination based on a protected characteristic. Listing copy — “perfect for a young professional,” “no kids” — can violate FEHA even if you would in fact have rented to the applicant who read it.
• Source of income includes Section 8. Since January 1, 2020 (SB 329), “source of income” (§12955(p)(1)) expressly includes federal housing assistance vouchers. Refusing an applicant because rent is paid in whole or part by a voucher is discrimination.
• Subsidy screening has its own math (§12955(o), SB 267). Where a government subsidy pays part of the rent, an income standard such as “income must be three times the rent” may be applied only to the portion of the rent the tenant actually pays, and the applicant must be offered the option of providing alternative evidence of ability to pay — benefit statements, payment history — instead of credit history.
• Perception and association count. Discrimination because you perceive a characteristic, or because of who the applicant is associated with, is covered (§12955(m); Unruh §51(e)(7)).

Assistance animals are not pets

Under the Civil Rights Department’s regulations, “an assistance animal is not a pet” (2 CCR §12005(d)). That single sentence drives the rules: no pet deposit, no pet rent, and no fee of any kind may be charged for an assistance animal, the landlord may not require liability insurance for the animal, and no breed, size, or weight limits apply — including limits an insurer claims to impose (2 CCR §12185(d)). If the disability and the need for the animal are not obvious, you may ask for documentation of the disability-related need — not a diagnosis. Reliable documentation is broad: the tenant’s own credible statement, disability-benefit documentation, or information from any reliable third party in a position to know. No registration, certificate, ID card, or vest is required, and a certificate bought online, standing alone, is not reliable documentation. Denial is allowed only on an individualized, evidence-based showing — undue burden, fundamental alteration, or a direct threat from the specific animal. The tenant remains liable for damage the animal actually causes beyond ordinary wear and tear.

One 2026 wrinkle, stated plainly: HUD narrowed its federal enforcement position in 2026 guidance, but the Fair Housing Act’s text was not amended, and the California Civil Rights Department confirmed in Legal Alert 2026-01 that California law still requires accommodation of emotional support animals. A California ADU landlord follows the California rule.

Screening Tenants: The Fee Rules Changed in 2025

Civil Code §1950.6 caps an application screening fee at the landlord’s actual out-of-pocket costs of gathering information about the applicant, including the screening service and the reasonable value of the landlord’s time — and in no case more than the statutory base of $30 per applicant, adjusted annually for CPI increases since January 1, 1998. The statute publishes the base and the adjustment formula, not a current dollar figure, so we publish the rule rather than a number: never more than your actual cost, and never more than the CPI-adjusted cap.

AB 2493: when you may charge at all (§1950.6(c), since January 1, 2025)

• No unit, no fee. A fee may not be charged when the landlord knows or should know no unit is available then or within a reasonable period.
• Process A — first-qualified. Applications are considered in the order received under written screening criteria given to the applicant with the application; the first applicant who meets the criteria is approved; and an applicant is not charged unless their application is actually considered. A fee collected by mistake from concurrent submissions must be refunded within 7 days to anyone whose application was not considered (or applied to another of the landlord’s units at the applicant’s election). No refund is owed to an applicant who was considered and denied under the criteria.
• Process B — refund everyone not selected. The landlord returns the entire fee to every applicant not selected, for any reason, within 7 days of selecting an applicant or 30 days of submission, whichever comes first.
• Receipt and report duties (§1950.6(d)–(f)). The applicant gets an itemized receipt; any unused portion (no reference check performed, no credit report obtained) must be returned; and the applicant must receive a copy of the consumer credit report within 7 days of the landlord receiving it — no request required. A reusable screening report under §1950.1 must also be accepted.

Two reporting laws sit behind the fee rule: California’s Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (Civil Code §§1785.1–1785.36) and Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (§§1786–1786.60), and the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Under the FCRA, a landlord who takes adverse action — denial, a higher deposit or rent, a co-signer demand — based in whole or part on a consumer report must tell the applicant, name the reporting agency, state that the agency did not make the decision, and give notice of the right to a free copy of the report within 60 days and to dispute it.

Criminal history: convictions only, and only directly related ones

Criminal history is not itself a protected characteristic, but the Civil Rights Department’s regulations (2 CCR §§12264–12271) make a screening policy unlawful if it intentionally discriminates or has an unjustified discriminatory effect on a protected class. In practice: a denial must rest on a conviction, never a mere arrest; sealed, dismissed, or expunged convictions are off the table; and the conviction must be directly related — a direct and specific bearing on the safety of residents, employees, or the property, judged by the nature and severity of the offense and the time elapsed. A blanket “no felons” policy or advertisement is the textbook violation.

Security Deposits: One Month, Photographs, and a 21-Day Clock

Civil Code §1950.5 defines “security” broadly: any payment, fee, deposit, or charge collected at the start of the tenancy, however it is labeled, that can be applied to rent default, damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, cleaning back to the move-in level of cleanliness, or restoring personal property the lease covers. Labels do not matter — a “pet deposit,” “key fee,” or advance rent beyond the first month is security and counts toward the cap.

The cap (AB 12, since July 1, 2024)

• One month’s rent is the maximum total security, in addition to the first month’s rent paid on or before move-in. The old two-months-unfurnished / three-months-furnished rule is dead.
• Narrow two-month exception (§1950.5(c)(5)): up to two months only if the landlord is a natural person (including a family-trust settlor or beneficiary) or an LLC whose members are all natural persons, and owns no more than two residential rental properties totaling no more than four dwelling units. The exception never applies to a service-member tenant — one month is the cap there regardless.
• If a service member is charged more than the standard advertised amount because of credit or housing history, the higher amount and the reason must be stated in writing on or before signing, and the extra amount returned after no more than six months if the tenant is not in arrears (§1950.5(c)(4)).

Photographs are now part of the deposit law (AB 2801)

• For tenancies beginning on or after July 1, 2025, the landlord must photograph the unit immediately before or at the start of the tenancy (§1950.5(g)(1)).
• Since April 1, 2025, the landlord must also photograph the unit after the tenant returns possession but before any repairs or cleaning a deduction will cover, and again after those repairs or cleanings are completed (§1950.5(g)(2)).
• When a deduction is taken for repairs or cleaning, those photographs must be provided with the itemized statement, together with a written explanation of the cost — deliverable by mail, email, flash drive, or an online viewing link (§1950.5(h)(2)(D)).

The accounting: 21 days, itemized, documented

No later than 21 calendar days after the tenant vacates, the landlord must return the remainder and furnish an itemized statement of what was received and how it was used (§1950.5(h)(1)). Claims must be reasonably necessary; there is no claim for preexisting damage or for ordinary wear and tear or its effects, whenever they occurred. Third-party work is documented with the bill or invoice (plus the provider’s name, address, and phone if not on it); landlord-performed work is described with time spent and a reasonable hourly rate. A good-faith estimate is allowed only where the work or documents genuinely cannot be finished in 21 days, with the final accounting completed within 14 days after. The documentation package may be excused only when repair and cleaning deductions total $125 or less (or on a qualifying written waiver) — and even then it must be produced on a tenant request made within 14 days. Before move-out, the tenant also has the right to request an initial inspection (notice in writing, inspection no earlier than two weeks before the end, 48 hours’ notice) and to cure the items listed, and deductions for items hidden by the tenant’s belongings or arising afterward follow the statute’s exceptions (§1950.5(f)).

The stakes for getting it wrong: a landlord who in bad faith fails to comply with the accounting rules forfeits the right to claim any of the security (§1950.5(h)(7)), and bad-faith claim or retention exposes the landlord to statutory damages of up to twice the security, on top of actual damages, with the landlord bearing the burden of proving each claim was reasonable and authorized (§1950.5(m)). And no part of any security may ever be made “nonrefundable” (§1950.5(n)).

Habitability: The Duty That Cannot Be Waived

The lessor of a dwelling must put it into a condition fit for human occupation and repair later dilapidations that render it untenantable (Civil Code §1941); the tenant cannot waive that duty (§1942.1). A dwelling is untenantable if it substantially lacks any item on the §1941.1(a) list:

• Effective waterproofing and weather protection of roof and exterior walls, including unbroken windows and doors;
• Plumbing and gas facilities that conformed to law when installed, in good working order;
• An approved water supply producing hot and cold running water to appropriate fixtures, connected to an approved sewage system;
• Heating facilities that conformed to law when installed, in good working order;
• Electrical lighting, wiring, and equipment that conformed to law when installed, in good working order;
• Building, grounds, and landlord-controlled areas kept clean, sanitary, and free of debris, filth, rubbish, garbage, rodents, and vermin;
• An adequate number of appropriate garbage receptacles in clean condition and good repair (see Trash below);
• Floors, stairways, and railings in good repair;
• For leases entered into, amended, or extended on or after January 1, 2026 (AB 628): a stove and a refrigerator, each maintained in good working order — a recalled appliance does not count. There is no tenant-own-stove opt-out; for the refrigerator, landlord and tenant may agree in the lease at signing that the tenant provides their own. Supportive housing, single-room-occupancy units, residential hotels, and facilities with shared kitchens are exempt (§1941.1(b)).

Locks are their own statute: an operable deadbolt (extending at least 13/16 inch) on each main swinging entry door, operable locking devices on openable windows, and code-compliant locks on common-area exterior doors in multifamily developments (§1941.3). Smoke alarms and carbon-monoxide devices are Health and Safety Code duties (HSC §§13113.7, 17926, 17926.1). A building with conditions that endanger life, limb, health, property, safety, or welfare — inadequate sanitation, structural hazards, defective wiring or plumbing, fire hazards, visible mold beyond minor growth on moisture-accumulating surfaces — is declared substandard under HSC §17920.3.

If you do not repair: the tenant’s remedies, and the retaliation bar

After notice and a reasonable time without repair (acting after the 30th day is presumed reasonable), the tenant may repair and deduct up to one month’s rent, or vacate and be discharged — the remedies are capped at twice in any 12-month period and are unavailable for tenant-caused conditions (§1942). Retaliation is separately barred: within 180 days after a tenant in good faith complains, reports, or sues over tenantability, the landlord may not recover possession, force the tenant out, raise rent, or cut services; reporting or threatening to report a tenant to immigration authorities is retaliation by statute. Liability runs to actual damages plus punitive damages of $100 to $2,000 per retaliatory act involving fraud, oppression, or malice, plus fees (§1942.5).

Rent Increases and Ending a Tenancy: AB 1482, Read Carefully

The Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB 1482) has two halves that are constantly confused — a rent cap (Civil Code §1947.12) and just-cause termination rules (§1946.2). Both sunset January 1, 2030 unless extended. They do not exempt the same properties, and the ADU answer is different for each half. That asymmetry is the most misstated point in ADU landlord copy, so it gets its own table below.

The rent cap (§1947.12)

• Over any 12-month period, rent may not rise by more than 5 percent plus the change in the cost of living, or 10 percent, whichever is lower — measured against the lowest rent charged at any time in the prior 12 months (discounts and concessions accepted by the tenant do not lower that baseline).
• No more than two increases in any 12-month period for a continuing tenant, within the same total cap. The cost-of-living figure is the CPI for the metropolitan area where the property sits (Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim for LA and Orange Counties), or the California CPI where no metro index exists; it changes annually, so no fixed “this year’s cap” percentage is stated here.
• The first rent of a new tenancy is not capped. When no prior tenant remains in lawful possession, the owner sets the initial rent freely; the cap governs increases after that (§1947.12(b)). A tenant also may not sublease for more than the allowable rate (§1947.12(c)).
• Exemptions include deed-restricted affordable housing, dormitories, housing already under a stricter local rent control, housing issued a certificate of occupancy within the previous 15 years (a rolling window), and separately alienable property owned by a non-corporate owner who gave the statutory exemption notice.

Just cause (§1946.2)

After all tenants have continuously and lawfully occupied the property for 12 months (or at least one tenant for 24 months, under the added-tenant rule), the owner may terminate only for just cause stated in the written notice. At-fault causes include rent default, material lease breach (with a chance to cure first, where curable), nuisance, waste, refusing a similar renewal, criminal activity, lease-violating assignment or subletting, refusing lawful entry, and unlawful use. No-fault causes are exactly four: owner or close-family move-in (the occupant must move in within 90 days and stay at least 12 continuous months, with re-rental duties if that fails), withdrawal from the rental market, compliance with a government order requiring vacatur, and demolition or substantial remodel — defined as permitted structural, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical work, or hazardous-materials abatement, that cannot be done safely with the tenant in place and requires at least 30 consecutive days out. Cosmetic work never qualifies.

Every no-fault termination carries relocation assistance of exactly one month’s rent under state law — paid directly within 15 calendar days of the notice, or delivered as a written waiver of the final month’s rent stated in the notice. Failure to strictly comply makes the termination notice void, and a material-violation attempt to recover possession can bring actual damages, fees, and up to treble damages (§1946.2(d), (g), (h)). No relocation assistance is owed for at-fault terminations.

The ADU answer, from the text

Local stabilization and Costa-Hawkins: floor and ceiling

State law is a floor of protection in one direction and a ceiling in the other. A local ordinance that is more protective displaces the state rule: §1947.12(d)(3) steps aside for stricter local rent control, and a more-protective local just-cause ordinance applies instead of §1946.2 under §1946.2(i) — a property is never under both. But the Costa-Hawkins Act (Civil Code §§1954.50–1954.535) caps how far a local ordinance may go: vacancy decontrol — the owner sets the initial rent for a new tenancy and local vacancy control is prohibited (§1954.53) — and local rent control may not reach units with a certificate of occupancy issued after February 1, 1995 (a fixed date, not a rolling one) or separately alienable single-family homes and condominiums (§1954.52), subject to those sections’ exceptions. Practical order of operations: check the city ordinance first, then AB 1482, then Costa-Hawkins’ limits on the ordinance.

Rental Registries and Business Licenses: Two Verified Negatives

California has no statewide rental registry. No statute registers rental properties, tenancies, or rents with the state, and AB 1482 itself imposes no registration duty — it caps rents and requires notices. Registration exists only where a city or county ordinance creates it, characteristically as the compliance mechanism of a local rent-stabilization or just-cause program, usually with unit data filed with a rent board or housing department and an annual per-unit fee. Whether your ADU must be registered is answered by your property’s city or county ordinance, full stop.

California has no state landlord license. No state license, permit, or certificate is required to rent out your own property. What exists instead: a local business license or business tax certificate where the municipal code requires one for rental activity, and one genuine state-license trigger — managing other people’s property for pay. Under Business and Professions Code §10131(b), leasing, soliciting tenants, negotiating leases, or collecting rents for another, for compensation is real-estate-broker activity requiring a DRE broker license (§10130), with statutory carve-outs such as resident managers. Owning and self-managing your own ADU never triggers it; charging a neighbor to manage theirs does.

Utilities in the Lease: Systems Are Law, Bills Are Contract

Keep two questions separate. Working systems are the landlord’s legal duty: §1941.1 requires plumbing, water, heating, and electrical systems that work. Who pays each utility bill is a lease term: no Civil Code section assigns utility costs to landlord or tenant by default, so if the lease is silent there is no statutory default payer to fall back on. Write the allocation for every utility — water, sewer, gas, electric, trash — into the lease before signing.

The shared-meter rule (§1940.9) is disclosure, not a price cap

Where gas or electric service runs through the tenant’s meter to an area outside the tenant’s unit — the classic house-plus-ADU arrangement, where the ADU’s meter also feeds the yard lights or the main house’s garage — and the landlord knows it, §1940.9 requires the landlord, before the tenancy begins or promptly on discovery, to explicitly disclose the condition and either sign a mutual written agreement for the tenant’s payment of the outside-area service, or make other mutually agreed written arrangements (the landlord becomes the customer of record, or the outside area is separately metered). A court can order exactly that, plus reimbursement back to when the duty arose. Read the section for what it is: it contains no rate cap — no “shall not charge more than” language at all. Any source telling you §1940.9 caps shared-meter charges is wrong.

Submetering Gas and Electric: §739.5 and Its Real Scope

Public Utilities Code §739.5(a) does contain a rate rule, in the statute’s own scope words: where gas or electric service is provided by a master-meter customer to tenants of a mobilehome park, apartment building, or similar residential complex, each user must be charged at the same rate that would apply if the user received service directly from the utility. Discounts the master-meter customer receives pass through proportionately; the master-meter customer maintains the submeter facilities; and billing must be itemized, with opening and closing readings, rates, and quantities, and the prevailing residential rate schedule posted conspicuously (§739.5(b), (d), (e)).

The scope honesty matters: §739.5 does not mention ADUs, single-family homes, or duplexes, and whether one house plus one ADU on a master meter is a “similar residential complex” is not stated in the statute. We do not publish it as a blanket ADU rate cap. For a house-plus-ADU, the rule that always applies is §1940.9 — disclose any shared meter and put the payment arrangement in writing. There is no Civil Code billing chapter for gas and electric comparable to the water chapter below.

Shared Water Billing: The One Utility With a Billing Code

Water is different, and it is also the most commonly miscited. SB 7 (2016) put measurement rules in the Water Code and billing rules in the Civil Code; pages that cite “Water Code §537” for how much a landlord may bill have the wrong code.

• Measurement (Water Code §§537–537.5). For a newly constructed multiunit residential or mixed-use structure whose water-connection application was submitted after January 1, 2018, the water purveyor must require measurement of water to each dwelling unit, by individual meters or submeters (§537.1(a)). That article says nothing about billing rates or fees.
• Disclosure first (Civil Code §1954.204). Before the lease is signed, the landlord must disclose in writing, in at least 10-point type, that the tenant will be billed separately for water by submeter, the basis of the calculation, that only the charges the chapter allows may be billed, the late-fee terms, and the inspection and calculation information available on request.
• Only these charges (§1954.205(a)): a volumetric charge computed by the proportion method (the tenant’s submeter usage divided by total usage on the purveyor’s bill, times the purveyor’s volumetric charge) or the statutory tier method; the tenant’s proportionate share of the purveyor’s recurring fixed charges; a billing/administrative fee of the lesser of $4.75 — adjusted annually for California CPI since January 1, 2018 — or 25 percent of the volumetric charge (§1954.205(a)(3)); and a late fee only as §1954.213 allows.
• Late fees (§1954.213): only once a bill is 25 days unpaid; up to $7 for the first late bill and $10 for each later one; total late fees in any 12 months capped at 10 percent of the unpaid amount; and water charges billed under this chapter are not rent (§1954.213(d)). Readings must be taken within 3 days of the same point in each billing cycle and bills itemized (§1954.206).
• Ratio billing (RUBS) is neither blessed nor banned. Allocating a water bill by square footage or occupancy instead of a submeter is defined in the chapter (§1954.202) but regulated by it only for submeter billing; §1954.216(c) states the chapter creates no policy favoring or disfavoring ratio systems. Unmetered allocation lives in the lease, general law, and any local ordinance — there is no statewide RUBS rule in either direction.

Trash, Mail, and Parking: Three Small Topics, Three Honest Answers

Trash

The one state landlord trash duty is about receptacles: a dwelling is untenantable if it substantially lacks an adequate number of appropriate garbage receptacles in clean condition and good repair at the start of the lease, with the landlord providing serviceable receptacles afterward and responsible for those under its control (§1941.1(a)(7)). No California statute requires a landlord to pay for or arrange trash collection, or allocates its cost — collection runs through the city or county franchise hauler, and who pays is a lease term. Separately, SB 1383’s organics program obliges jurisdictions to offer organics collection and generators — including multifamily properties of five or more units — to participate; that is a jurisdiction and hauler program, not a lease rule.

Mailboxes

USPS rules (Domestic Mail Manual 508) condition delivery on an authorized, USPS-approved mail receptacle: the purchase, installation, maintenance, and replacement of receptacles are the customer’s responsibility, not USPS’s; a locked receptacle needs a slot that fits the normal daily volume; apartment-house receptacles must be USPS-approved; and when a building is substantially renovated or boxes are relocated, obsolete receptacles must be replaced with currently approved ones. The DMM does not impose a duty on “landlords” by name — in practice the property owner provides the box, and new or changed installations should be cleared with the local post office first. California’s only locking-mailbox statute is narrow: §1941.1(a)(9) requires a locking receptacle per unit in a residential hotel, not in ordinary rentals. How the ADU gets its address and unit designator in the first place is covered in ADU vs. Everything Else.

Parking in the lease

No California statute assigns, guarantees, or allocates parking between landlord and tenant. The ADU parking rules landlords know — at most one space per ADU or bedroom, no replacement parking on a conversion (Gov. Code §66314(d)(10)–(11)) — limit what a city may demand at approval; they create no tenant parking right and no lease duty. Parking in a tenancy is whatever the lease says: whether a space is included, whether it is assigned, how many vehicles, and any local permit or guest-parking rules. Write it down; the permit file will not answer it later.

Pets: Allowed to Say No — With Two Hard Limits

California has no statute giving ordinary rental tenants a right to keep pets. A landlord of a market-rate rental may prohibit pets, or limit them by number, size, breed, or area, by lease. (Pet-keeping rights that do exist sit elsewhere: subsidized and state-funded housing programs, and the Davis-Stirling rule at Civil Code §4715, which protects a common-interest-development owner’s right to keep at least one pet — it is not a tenant right.) A bill that would have barred blanket pet bans in rentals (AB 2216, 2023–24) was never chaptered and is not law. Two hard limits do apply:

• Assistance animals are not pets — no pet rent, deposit, fee, insurance requirement, or breed/size/weight limit, per the fair-housing section above.
• Any pet deposit is security. It counts toward the §1950.5 one-month cap (two months only under the small-landlord exception; one month for service members), and it can never be made nonrefundable (§1950.5(n)). “Pet rent,” by contrast, is not regulated by any statute in either direction — it exists only if the lease provides for it as a recurring rent charge.
• A landlord who allows animals may not require declawing or devocalizing as a condition of tenancy (Civil Code §1942.7).

Noise and Privacy: Local Rules, State Backstops

Noise

There is no California noise law for rentals — no statewide decibel limit, no state quiet hours, no lease noise rule in the codes. Noise is governed by your city or county noise ordinance and by your lease’s own clauses. State law supplies only backstops: conduct that interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of property can be a nuisance (Civil Code §3479), the landlord is bound to secure the tenant’s quiet possession (§1927), and a landlord who uses menacing conduct to influence a tenant to vacate violates §1940.2. For an ADU behind your own house, the working tools are a clear lease clause and the local ordinance’s hours and limits — check both before the first tenant, not after the first complaint.

Privacy boundaries

A landlord’s keys come with statutory limits. Entry is allowed only for the §1954 purposes, on reasonable written notice, during normal business hours, and never to harass — the full entry rules are in the next section. Self-help is prohibited: a landlord may not, with intent to terminate the occupancy, interrupt or terminate any utility service furnished to the tenant, change locks or otherwise block reasonable access, remove outside doors or windows, or remove the tenant’s property (Civil Code §789.3). Note what §789.3 is: an anti-self-help-eviction statute with that intent element, not a general utility-service standard. (And a citation worth correcting wherever you meet it: §1940.4 protects a tenant’s right to post political signs — it is not a utility statute.) On cameras, no California landlord-tenant statute regulating landlord surveillance of tenant areas was found; what exists is criminal law — Penal Code §647(j) makes it a misdemeanor to view or secretly record into an area where an occupant has a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as a bedroom or bathroom, with intent to invade privacy. The lease practice, stated as practice and not law: disclose exterior cameras in the lease, keep them on exterior and common areas, and never aim one into the unit.

Maintenance Access: Entry Is a Closed List

Civil Code §1954(a) lists the only purposes for which a landlord may enter a rented dwelling: an emergency; to make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements, supply necessary or agreed services, or show the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workers, or contractors (including the §1950.5(f) pre-move-out inspection); after the tenant has abandoned or surrendered the unit; under a court order; to read or inspect a water submeter under the water-billing chapter; and for balcony/deck inspection compliance. A general “routine inspection” is not on the list, and notice does not cure a purpose that is not listed.

• Notice (§1954(d)(1)): reasonable written notice stating the date, approximate time, and purpose, delivered personally, to a person of suitable age and discretion at the premises, or left on, near, or under the usual entry door. 24 hours is presumed reasonable; notice mailed at least 6 days before entry is also presumed reasonable.
• Hours (§1954(b)): except in an emergency or after abandonment or surrender, entry only during normal business hours unless the tenant consents at the time to another time.
• No notice needed (§1954(e)): emergencies; when the tenant is present and consents at the time of entry; after abandonment or surrender.
• Showings to purchasers (§1954(d)(2)): oral notice can suffice if the tenant was told in writing within the preceding 120 days that the property is for sale and oral contact may follow — 24 hours is still presumed reasonable, and written evidence of entry must be left inside the unit.
• Abuse bar (§1954(c)): the landlord may not abuse the right of access or use it to harass the tenant.

For an owner who lives in the main house, the discipline is simple: schedule maintenance like a vendor visit — written notice, business hours, stated purpose — even when the “landlord” is twenty feet away.

Insurance for a Rented ADU: No Mandate, One Conversation You Must Have

No California statute requires a landlord to carry landlord insurance to rent an ADU, and no statute requires a tenant to carry renters insurance. The code is also silent the other way: nothing prohibits a landlord from requiring renters insurance in the lease at signing — that is common practice, labeled here as practice rather than law, and it cannot be imposed mid-term on a fixed-term lease that lacks the clause. If your ADU is mortgaged, your lender will almost certainly require hazard coverage by contract; that is a loan covenant, not a statute.

What the California Department of Insurance’s consumer guidance does establish: a landlord’s policy covers the building and the landlord’s liability — “your landlord does not provide insurance for your personal property” is the CDI’s sentence to tenants, which is exactly why the renters-insurance lease clause exists. A homeowners form is structured for owner occupancy (Coverage A dwelling, B other structures, C personal property, D loss of use — which pays fair rental value for a rented portion left uninhabitable by a covered loss — E liability, F medical payments), and the dwelling limit should be set at replacement cost, not purchase price or market value. The publishable rule is underwriting practice, not a CDI instruction to switch forms: tell the insurer the true occupancy before the first tenant moves in, insure the rental on a dwelling/fire or landlord form — dwelling, landlord liability, and loss of rents — and make sure the ADU is explicitly listed or scheduled; a detached ADU can otherwise sit inside the other-structures coverage by default, which may or may not match its replacement cost. CDI publishes no ADU premium figure, and neither do we.

The Move-In Record: Not Mandated — and Now Half-Built For You

California does not require a move-in condition report. No statute obliges landlord or tenant to complete, sign, or exchange a condition checklist at move-in for an ordinary tenancy, and any checklist claiming otherwise is wrong. But look at what the deposit law now does around that gap: move-in photographs are mandatory for tenancies beginning on or after July 1, 2025 (§1950.5(g)(1)); move-out photographs before and after repair and cleaning are mandatory when deductions will be taken (§1950.5(g)(2)); deductions for preexisting damage are barred (§1950.5(e)); and the 21-day itemized statement must carry the photographs and documentation (§1950.5(h)). The state has, in effect, mandated the evidence while leaving the form to you. The practice that follows: photograph every room at move-in (the statute requires it), walk the unit with the tenant, and both sign a room-by-room condition report anyway — recommended practice, honestly labeled, and the document that decides most deposit disputes before they start.

Occupancy Limits: No State Number

California sets no statewide numeric occupancy cap — there is no “persons per bedroom” statute for ordinary tenancies. The figure everyone quotes, two persons per bedroom, comes from a 1991 HUD General Counsel memorandum (the Keating Memo), adopted as HUD enforcement policy in 1998 (63 FR 70256): HUD treats two-per-bedroom as generally reasonable when it reviews familial-status complaints. It is a rebuttable enforcement benchmark, not a statute, regulation, or safe harbor — HUD weighs bedroom and unit size, children’s ages, other rooms usable for sleeping, and physical limits such as septic and sewer capacity, and a policy that limits children rather than total occupants fares worse. The Fair Housing Act itself preserves reasonable state and local occupancy restrictions (42 U.S.C. §3607(b)(1)). Where binding limits exist in California, they arrive through building and housing codes — minimum room and space standards enforced through the substandard-building law (HSC §§17920.3(a)(9), 17922) — and through local occupancy rules, which is why this is a check-your-city item, not a number we can print. Set your lease’s occupant list by who is actually on the lease; do not write a Keating number into it as if it were law.

The Landlord’s One-Page Checklist

Sources: Civil Code sections 51, 1710.2, 1785.1–1785.36, 1786–1786.60, 1927, 1940.2, 1940.4, 1940.9, 1941, 1941.1 (as amended by AB 628, Stats. 2025, Ch. 342), 1941.3, 1942, 1942.1, 1942.5, 1942.7, 1946.2 (as amended by AB 1529, Stats. 2025, Ch. 203), 1947.5, 1947.12, 1950.5 (as amended by AB 12, Stats. 2023, Ch. 733; AB 2801, Stats. 2024, Ch. 280; AB 414, Stats. 2025, Ch. 340), 1950.6 (as amended by AB 2493, Stats. 2024, and AB 1170, Stats. 2025, Ch. 67), 1954, 1954.201–1954.219 (SB 7, Stats. 2016, Ch. 623), 1954.50–1954.535 (Costa-Hawkins), 1954.602–1954.603, 2079.10a, 3479, 4715, 789.3; Government Code sections 12955, 66314, 66315, 66323, 66333, 8589.45; Health and Safety Code sections 13113.7, 17920.3, 17922, 17926, 17926.1; Water Code sections 517, 537–537.5; Public Utilities Code section 739.5; Business and Professions Code sections 10130–10131; California Code of Regulations, Title 2, sections 12005, 12185, 12264–12271; 42 U.S.C. sections 3604, 3607, 4852d; 15 U.S.C. sections 1681b, 1681m; HUD Occupancy Standards Policy Statement (Keating Memorandum), 63 FR 70256 (Dec. 18, 1998); USPS Domestic Mail Manual 508; California Civil Rights Department, Emotional Support Animals and Fair Housing Law FAQ and Legal Alert 2026-01; California Department of Insurance, Residential Insurance: Homeowners and Renters guide; HCD Accessory Dwelling Unit Handbook, March 2026 edition. Where this guide describes lease or management practice rather than a statute, regulation, or agency guidance, it is labeled as practice in the text; local ordinances are confirmed with the property’s city or county. This page is part of the California Accessory Dwelling Unit Handbook on this site (Rentals and Landlord Obligations, Questions 651–700). Related: ADU Rental Income · Can I Airbnb My ADU? · ADU Plumbing & Utilities · ADU Electrical & HVAC · ADU FAQs