California

Limit on rent increases

Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.12State law

An owner may not increase the gross rental rate during any 12-month period by more than 5 percent plus the percentage change in the cost of living, or 10 percent, whichever is lower, calculated from the lowest gross rental rate charged during the prior 12 months. Accepted rent discounts, incentives, concessions, or credits are excluded from that lowest rate.

Answers the question “How much can my rent go up?”

The source

… 1988, Ch. 160, Sec. 14. ) PART 4. OBLIGATIONS ARISING FROM PARTICULAR TRANSACTIONS [1738 - 3273.91] ( Part 4 enacted 1872. ) TITLE 5. HIRING [1925 - 1997.270] ( Title 5 enacted 1872. ) CHAPTER 2. Hiring of Real Property [1940 - 1954.071] ( Chapter 2 enacted 1872. ) 1947.12. (a) (1) Subject to subdivision (b), an owner of residential real property shall not, over the course of any 12-month period, increase the gross rental rate for a dwelling or a unit more than 5 percent plus the percentage change in the cost of living, or 10 percent, whichever is lower, of the lowest gross rental rate charged for that dwelling or unit at any time during the 12 months prior to the effective date of the increase. In determining the lowest gross rental amount pursuant to this section, any rent discounts, incentives, concessions, or credits offered by the owner of such unit of…

Official law: Open the official source
Document: D024, retrieved Oct 1, 2026
Dates: In force since Apr 1, 2024
Status on Oct 1, 2026: In force

What it depends on

Covers: Applies to subsequent increases after an initial rental rate is established; subject to the statutory exceptions.
Key value: 5% plus the percentage change in the cost of living, capped at 10%, whichever is lower
Exemptions: Does not apply to specified affordable housing, educational dormitories, qualifying recently constructed housing, qualifying separately alienable property with required notice, qualifying owner-occupied duplexes, or mobilehome homeowners. Housing covered by stricter local rent controls yields to those local controls.
Other levels: Steps back where a stricter local rule covers the building.
What you can do next: Read the law at its official source

Audit trail

The model reads the law; code decides who it covers. The line between them stays visible.

Extracted by the model

What the model read from the source text, checked by code (the quote must appear word for word).

Category: Rent increases
Requirement: An owner may not increase the gross rental rate during any 12-month period by more than 5 percent plus the percentage change in the cost of living, or 10 percent, whichever is lower, calculated from the lowest gross rental rate charged during the prior 12 months. Accepted rent discounts, incentives, concessions, or credits are excluded from that lowest rate.
Key value: 5% plus the percentage change in the cost of living, capped at 10%, whichever is lower
Effect: protection_or_duty
Quote found in source: yes
Confidence: 90%

reasoning boundary

Decided by code

Deterministic: same rules, facts and date give the same answer.

Jurisdiction: listed only for addresses whose state or legal city is CA.
Dates: in force from 2024-04-01 until 2030-01-01; before that, not yet in force.
Coverage: tested against whether the building is subsidised, what the building is used for, the number of units, whether the owner lives in the building; a missing fact gives "unknown", never a guess.
Precedence: replaced where a stricter local rule covers the building; unknown when the local rule's coverage is unknown.

Housing subject to rent or price control through a public entity’s valid exercise of its police power consistent with Chapter 2.7 (commencing with Section 1954.50) that restricts annual increases in the rental rate to an amount less than that provided in subdivision (a).

As of Oct 1, 2026Engine run

Sources retrieved Oct 1, 2026.

Which buildings it reaches

All 250 sample addresses in California on Oct 1, 2026.

127 unknown
118 replaced by a stricter rule
5 not covered

San Francisco and Berkeley

Los Angeles

San Diego

Every dot is the rule engine’s result for that address. The larger dots are the example addresses listed below. 2 addresses have no coordinates and are counted but not drawn.

Decided by code for the example addresses

On Oct 1, 2026. Rules that don’t apply are left out.

3515 Fillmore St, San Francisco: Replaced by a stricter rule. Covered by Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.12, but the stricter local San Francisco Rent Ordinance § 37.3 governs here: built 1926 (year_built, DataSF wv5m-vpq2 (2025 roll)), before the June 13, 1979 cutoff. Governed by Annual rent increase limit: March 2026–February 2027.
145 Taylor St, San Francisco: Unknown. Unknown whether Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.12 covers this address: depends on whether the building is subsidised and whether the owner lives there (neither is in the data); and on a condition in the text we can't check from the data ("Dormitories owned and operated by an institution of higher education o…"). Check whether the building has a subsidy or affordability restriction (city housing department) and whether the owner lives in the building (ask the landlord).
10635 Sherman Grove Ave, Los Angeles: Unknown. Unknown whether Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.12 covers this address: depends on whether the building is subsidised and whether the owner lives there (neither is in the data); and on whether the local LAMC § 151.06 covers the unit, which would govern instead (built 1978 (year_built, LA County eGIS parcels), but the cutoff is on or before October 1, 1978 and the year alone can't settle it). Check the certificate-of-occupancy date (city building department or the landlord) and whether the building has a subsidy or affordability restriction (city housing department).
1609 Addison St, Berkeley: Unknown. Unknown whether Cal. Civ. Code § 1947.12 covers this address: depends on whether the building is subsidised, the build date and whether the owner lives there (none is in the data); and on a condition in the text we can't check from the data ("Dormitories owned and operated by an institution of higher education o…"). Check whether the building has a subsidy or affordability restriction (city housing department) and the certificate-of-occupancy date (city building department or the landlord).