Inglewood Property Management

Property Management in Inglewood, CA

Bessa Properties manages rental homes and apartment buildings in Inglewood: rent collection, maintenance, leasing, and the city’s own registry and rent rules, handled by a California DRE-licensed company.

Inglewood is not the same job as the rest of LA County

Inglewood is its own city with its own housing department, and that changes how a rental has to be run. Run it like unincorporated county or like the City of Los Angeles and a city filing gets missed, and in Inglewood a missed filing can mean you cannot legally collect rent until it is fixed.

The city’s Housing Protection Ordinance, Ordinance 21-09, took effect in June 2021. Since then, buildings with two or more units are generally covered by a local rent cap, just-cause eviction rules, and an annual registration requirement that is enforced through the Inglewood Residential Registry. Single-family homes and condos owned by an individual are generally exempt from the rent cap, but only if the tenant was told so in writing. That one sentence in a lease is the kind of detail we check on day one.

At the same time, the location brings renters. SoFi Stadium, the Intuit Dome, and the Kia Forum bring event traffic, LAX is a few minutes away, and the K Line stops at Fairview Heights, Downtown Inglewood, and Westchester/Veterans, which puts jobs at the airport, in Playa Vista and in Culver City within a short commute.

How Inglewood’s rules affect you as an owner

Rent increases

For covered buildings with five or more units, Inglewood caps annual rent increases at 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater. Buildings with four or fewer covered units can go up 5% plus CPI, and the city caps any increase at 10%. The city publishes the current percentage each spring, and every increase needs a 30-day notice of change in terms and has to be recorded in the online Residential Registry. We calculate the increase, serve the notice, and file it, so you are not guessing at the number.

Registration

Every property with two or more units, including mixed-use buildings with apartments over a storefront, must register with the city every year during the January through March window. New tenancies have to be registered within 30 days of move-in. Without a valid registration certificate, an owner is not supposed to advertise the unit, accept rent, or evict. The registry asks for unit details, tenant names and rent amounts, and a copy of the management agreement when a manager is involved. We keep that file current so renewal is a formality.

Business tax is a separate filing

The Residential Registry is not the only city filing. Inglewood’s business tax chapter treats anyone who rents, leases or has available for rent one or more residential units, as owner or as the owner’s agent, as being in the residential rental business (Inglewood Municipal Code section 8-1.42). Section 8-23.4 then levies $20 per unit per year, excluding the owner’s unit if owner occupied. So a single rented house that never touches the rent registry still has a business tax line, and a fourplex where you live in one unit is taxed on three. How the four cities in our area compare is in our guide to city business tax certificates for rental owners. Confirm the current amount and due date with the city’s finance office or your CPA before you file.

Just cause and relocation

Once a tenant has lived in a covered unit for twelve months, the tenancy can only be ended for a reason listed in the ordinance. Nonpayment and lease violations are at-fault reasons. Owner move-in, a government order to vacate, or taking the building off the rental market are no-fault reasons, and those require relocation assistance, starting at three times the monthly rent plus additional amounts depending on how long the tenant has lived there and who lives in the unit. Any notice to cure or notice terminating a tenancy has to be filed with the city’s Housing Protection Department within three days of serving it. We handle the paperwork and the timeline; for anything contested we work with a landlord-tenant attorney rather than improvising.

Lead paint in pre-1978 buildings

Inglewood’s rent rules sit on top of federal lead rules for any building constructed before 1978. Unless a federal exemption applies, a new lease in one of those buildings needs the EPA pamphlet, a signed lead disclosure, and copies of any lead reports you have, and paint-disturbing work in those units, including a repaint between tenants, has to be done by an EPA-certified firm unless it falls under the small-job exclusion. Our guide to lead paint in a pre-1978 Los Angeles rental walks through the disclosure, the repair rule and the dust standard that changed in January 2026.

Repair requests and habitability

State habitability law applies to every Inglewood rental, whether or not the city’s rent rules cover the unit. Civil Code 1941.1 lists what a unit must have, and for leases signed, amended or extended on or after January 1, 2026, that list includes a working stove and refrigerator. A repair the owner leaves undone after notice can lead to repair and deduct, a habitability defense in a nonpayment case, or a retaliation claim if a rent increase or notice follows a complaint. Our guide to repair requests and habitability in a Los Angeles rental covers each of those rules.

The Megan’s Law notice in the lease

A lease of a single-family home, and a lease in a building of more than four units, has to contain the Megan’s Law database notice from Civil Code 2079.10a, word for word and in at least 8-point type. The same database cannot be used to screen applicants: Penal Code 290.46 prohibits using its information for purposes relating to housing. The current wording and the reasons to include it in every lease are in our guide to the Megan’s Law lease notice.

How rent can be paid

State law sets the payment rules for every Inglewood lease. Civil Code 1947.3 requires the owner to accept at least one form of rent payment that is neither cash nor an electronic transfer, bars a fee for paying by check, and requires accepting rent from a third party who signs a short acknowledgment. Late fees are judged under Civil Code 1671. The details are in our guide to rent collection rules.

Leases negotiated in another language

If you or your manager negotiate a lease longer than one month primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean, Civil Code 1632 requires a translation of the entire lease for every signer before it is signed, and a notice in that language at signing. Without it, the tenant may rescind the lease, and the English version still controls the terms. The details, including the interpreter exception, are in our guide to lease translation under Civil Code 1632.

Organics recycling in buildings of five or more units

Inglewood’s Solid Waste Code (section 7-53.5) requires the owner of a building with five or more units to subscribe to and pay for the city franchisee’s collection service, with at least weekly pickup of recyclables, organics and trash, to supply enough properly labeled containers, to give occupants sorting information every year, and to give new tenants that information before or within fourteen days of moving in. Penalties under section 7-53.13 began January 1, 2024. The rest of the rule, including waivers, is in our guide to SB 1383 organics recycling for apartment owners.

What we handle in Inglewood

• Rent collection through an online tenant portal, with monthly owner statements
• Maintenance coordination: tenant requests, vendor dispatch, and follow-up through to completion
• Annual Residential Registry filing and registration of new tenancies
• Rent increase calculation, 30-day notices, and registry recording
• Leasing: pricing, photos, listing syndication, showings, and screening that follows California fair housing law
• Lease documents with the Inglewood just-cause addendum included
• Move-in and move-out inspections with written condition reports
• Notices, filings, and coordination with counsel when a tenancy has to end

Who it suits

A single house or condo

A house or condo owned by individuals can be exempt from the local rent cap, but the exemption has to be stated in writing, and state law still applies. We set the lease up correctly, keep the house maintained, and send you one statement a month.

Duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes

Small buildings need the closest reading of the rules, because a two-unit building still has to register with the city even when the owner lives in one unit and is claiming an exemption from the rent cap. We sort out which rules apply to your building, register it, and run it.

Larger apartment buildings

For buildings with five or more units we handle the city rent cap, unit-by-unit registration, turnover, and vendor contracts. Owners get a clear picture of income, expenses, and what is coming up, without being the one who answers a call at 6 a.m. about a water heater.

One predictable monthly fee

A manager paid a percentage of collected rent costs more every time you raise the rent. We offer flat fee management instead: one fixed monthly amount per property that covers rent collection and maintenance coordination. It does not change when rents go up. Leasing a vacant unit is a separate, one-time fee, charged only when we actually place a tenant.

The amount depends on the building, so we quote it after a short conversation about your property. Request a quote and we will send it to you in writing.

Questions Inglewood owners ask us