The California Lease Disclosure Checklist for LA Rental Owners

For Owners · Leasing & Compliance · October 2026 · 13 min read

A new tenant is signing on Saturday. The lease form is the one you have used for years, the deposit is ready, and the keys are cut. Before anyone signs, one question decides whether that lease holds up later: did the tenant get every notice the law says they had to get, at the moment they had to get it?

California spreads its rental disclosures across the Civil Code, the Government Code, federal lead rules and city ordinances. No single form lists them all. This guide puts them in one place, says which apply to every lease and which depend on the building, and points to our longer guides where a topic needs more room. It is written for owners in Los Angeles, Culver City, Inglewood, Beverly Hills and the neighborhoods around them.

The checklist at a glance

Disclosures that go with every lease

Who owns it, who manages it, and how rent gets paid

Civil Code section 1962 requires a written lease to state the name, phone number and street address for personal service of each person authorized to manage the property, and of each owner or the person authorized to accept service of process and notices for the owner. It also has to say who receives the rent, with that person’s name, phone number and address, and the days and hours they are available if rent can be paid in person. Instead, the owner can give an account at a financial institution within five miles of the property, or the details for electronic funds transfer. The lease has to state the forms of payment you accept.

The tenant gets a copy of the signed lease within 15 days, and another copy within 15 days of a request, once a calendar year. For an oral agreement, the same information goes to the tenant in a written statement within 15 days.

This is the one owners feel when a building changes hands. A new owner or manager has 15 days to bring the information current, and section 1962(c) says a successor cannot serve a three-day notice or evict for nonpayment of rent that came due while it was out of compliance. The tenant still owes the rent. The eviction route for that rent is what is lost.

The flood notice

Government Code section 8589.45 applies to every lease or rental agreement for residential property entered into on or after July 1, 2018. The disclosure goes in no smaller than eight-point type and has to tell the tenant:

• that the property is in a special flood hazard area or an area of potential flooding, if you have actual knowledge that it is;
• that the tenant can look up hazards, flood included, on the Office of Emergency Services MyHazards site (myhazards.caloes.ca.gov);
• that your insurance does not cover the tenant’s belongings, and that the tenant should consider renter’s insurance and flood insurance; and
• that you are not required to give more flood information, and that what you gave is deemed adequate.

“Actual knowledge” has a definition. It includes written notice from a public agency that the property is in a flood area, a lender that requires flood insurance on your mortgage, and a flood policy you currently carry. If none of those is true, the flood-zone sentence drops out, but the rest of the notice still goes in.

The bed bug notice

Civil Code section 1954.603 requires a written bed bug notice to every new tenant before the tenancy starts, in at least 10-point type, with your procedure for reporting a suspected infestation. The statute sets the wording. Our guide on bed bugs in an LA rental covers the notice and the inspection rules that come with it.

The Tenant Protection Act notice, or the exemption notice

Civil Code section 1946.2 puts a statewide rent cap and just cause rule on many California rentals. For any tenancy started or renewed on or after July 1, 2020, subdivision (f) requires the owner of a covered unit to give the tenant a notice that those protections apply, in the lease, as an addendum, or as a written notice the tenant signs, in at least 12-point type. The wording is set by statute and opens with “California law limits the amount your rent can be increased.”

A house or condo can be exempt, but only if the owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation or an LLC with a corporate member, and only if the tenant gets written notice in the statutory form, which begins “This property is not subject to the rent limits imposed by Section 1947.12 of the Civil Code.” For tenancies started or renewed on or after July 1, 2020, that notice has to be in the lease itself. Skip it and the exemption does not hold, so the unit carries the state cap and just cause rule even though it would otherwise have qualified. Our guide to rent increase notices covers how the cap works. A unit under a city rent ordinance follows the city’s rules for increases, so check both.

Megan’s Law

Civil Code section 2079.10a requires the statutory Megan’s Law notice, in at least eight-point type, in every lease of single-family residential property and in any lease in a building of more than four units. A duplex, triplex or fourplex lease is outside that list. Once the notice is delivered, you have no duty to tell the tenant more about where registered offenders live. Do not use the Megan’s Law website to screen applicants. Details are in our Megan’s Law guide.

Lead paint in pre-1978 buildings

Federal rules treat housing built before 1978 as “target housing.” Before the tenant is bound by the lease, you give them the EPA pamphlet Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home, disclose any lead paint or hazards you know of, hand over any reports you have, and attach the signed disclosure form with the Lead Warning Statement. Keep the signed form for at least three years. Check the year on the certificate of occupancy before you decide this one is not yours. Our lead paint guide covers the repair-side rules as well.

A translation, if you negotiated in another language

If a lease longer than one month is negotiated primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean, Civil Code section 1632 requires a translation of the whole lease in that language before signing. Our lease translation guide explains the exception for a tenant’s own interpreter.

Disclosures the building decides

A meter that serves more than the unit

In some older buildings, a tenant’s gas or electric meter also feeds a hallway light, a laundry room or a neighbor’s water heater. Civil Code section 1940.9 says that if you know a tenant’s meter serves an area outside the unit, you have to disclose it before the tenancy starts, or as soon as you find out. You then need a written agreement on who pays for that service. The statute gives two routes: the tenant agrees in writing to pay for it, or you make another written arrangement, such as becoming the utility’s customer of record for that meter or putting the outside area on its own meter in your name.

If you do not, a court can order you to become the customer of record and to reimburse the tenant for what they paid toward the outside area, back to the date the duty arose. If you are reviewing utility billing generally, our RUBS and submetering guide covers the cost-recovery side.

Pest control

Two sections apply, and they work differently. Under Civil Code section 1940.8, if you have a contract for periodic pest control service, each new tenant gets a copy of the notice the registered structural pest control company provides under Business and Professions Code section 8538.

Section 1940.8.5 covers pesticide that you or your staff apply without a licensed operator, and everything in this paragraph applies only in that case. The tenant of the unit gets written notice at least 24 hours ahead, naming the pests, the product’s name and brand, the date, time and frequency, and the statutory caution statement that begins “CAUTION – PESTICIDES ARE TOXIC CHEMICALS.” A broadcast application, a fogger or an aerosol spray also requires notice to tenants in adjacent units who could reasonably be affected. Routine scheduled common-area treatments need a written schedule given to existing tenants before the first application and to each new tenant before they sign. A tenant can agree in writing to an earlier application, and the section does not let you enter a unit outside the entry rules in Civil Code section 1954.

A former military site nearby

Civil Code section 1940.7 applies when you have actual knowledge of a former federal or state ordnance location within one mile of the unit. That means an area a government agency has identified as once used for military training that may contain explosive munitions. You give the prospective tenant written notice of what you know before the lease is signed. The statute does not ask you to research it. It asks you to share what you already know.

A demolition permit

If you have applied to a public agency for a permit to demolish a unit, Civil Code section 1940.6 requires written notice to a prospective tenant before you rent to them, collect a screening fee or any other fee, or have them sign anything that starts a tenancy. Current tenants, including anyone who has signed but not moved in, get the notice before you file the application. The notice states the earliest approximate date you expect demolition, and demolition cannot happen before that date, along with the approximate date you will end the tenancy.

The penalty is real money. A tenant who did not get proper notice can recover actual damages and a civil penalty of up to $2,500, plus moving expenses for someone who moved in without the notice, and the prevailing party recovers attorney’s fees. In the City of Los Angeles, demolition sits on top of the Ellis Act and relocation rules, covered in our Ellis Act guide.

A smoking policy

Civil Code section 1947.5 lets any residential landlord prohibit smoking on the property. For a lease entered into on or after January 1, 2012 with a tenant who has not lived in the unit before, on a property where you prohibit smoking, the lease has to say where smoking is prohibited. Culver City and Beverly Hills go further with their own bans and lease language requirements. Our smoking and vaping guide has the city detail.

A death in the unit

Civil Code section 1710.2 says an owner or agent has no liability for not disclosing a death on the property that happened more than three years before the tenant offers to rent, or that a prior occupant had HIV or died of AIDS-related complications. Two limits matter. Inside three years, the section offers no such protection. And at any point, if a prospective tenant asks you directly about deaths on the property, you cannot intentionally misrepresent the answer.

Mold

California has mold disclosure statutes on the books, but they are written so they do not apply until the state health department adopts standards it says do not exist. Our mold guide explains where that leaves owners.

What the cities add

City of Los Angeles

Under Ordinance 187737, LAHD’s Renter Protections Notice has to be posted in an accessible common area of residential properties and given to tenants whose tenancy starts or renews on or after January 27, 2023. LAHD says a failure to provide it can be raised by the tenant as an affirmative defense in an eviction case. The city revised the notice on October 1, 2026, so download the current version from LAHD’s Protections Notice page instead of reusing an old copy. It comes in English, Spanish, Korean, Farsi, Armenian, Russian, Cantonese, Mandarin and Tagalog.

Rent-stabilized units also carry the annual registration certificate, which has to be served on tenants or posted. Our RSO registration checklist walks through it.

Culver City

Culver City requires landlords to post the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance notice in a conspicuous location in the common area, or at the entries to the building or units, at every property where a rent registration certificate is required (CCMC 15.09.230(B)(5)). The city publishes it in English and Spanish. Owners doing a soft-story retrofit must notify current and prospective tenants about the project on the city’s form, and complete a Tenant Impact Mitigation Plan before the work. Leases also need the city’s smoking provisions. See our Culver City page for registration and the rest of the city’s rules.

Inglewood

Inglewood’s rent rules exempt a single-family home or separately sellable unit only when every owner is a natural person and the tenant gets a written disclosure that the unit is not subject to the city’s rent limits or just cause rule. For a tenancy that started after June 1, 2021, that disclosure belongs in the lease. For an earlier one, it goes in an addendum. Without it, the exemption does not apply. Our Inglewood rent increase guide covers the details, and the Inglewood page covers registration.

Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills bans smoking in multi-unit housing and requires lease language and signs. For rent rules on covered units, start with our Beverly Hills rent increase guide and the Beverly Hills page.

Putting the package together

A lease package that holds up is assembled the same way every time:

1. Pull the certificate of occupancy date. It decides lead paint, rent stabilization and, in Inglewood and under state law, some exemptions.
2. Confirm the owner of record and how title is held. An LLC with a corporate member cannot use the state’s single-family exemption, and Inglewood’s exemption needs natural-person owners.
3. Walk the meters, check the pest control contract, and note any permit applications.
4. Build the lease with the every-lease notices in it, then add what the building and city require.
5. Get signatures on each disclosure that calls for one, give the tenant a complete copy within 15 days, and keep the signed set with the lease.
6. When something changes, such as a new manager, a new owner or a new pest contract, update the notices then and not at renewal.

Questions owners ask

Do I need to redo disclosures when a tenant renews?

Several of these rules apply to leases “entered into” or tenancies “started or renewed” after a date, so a renewal can bring a lease under a rule the original did not meet. The Tenant Protection Act notice and LA’s Renter Protections Notice both name renewals expressly. Renewals are a good time to bring an older lease package current.

Is a fourplex lease required to carry the Megan’s Law notice?

No. The statute names single-family property and buildings of more than four units. Nothing in the statute stops you from including it.

My property is not in a flood zone. Do I still need the flood notice?

Yes. The sentence about the flood zone only appears if you have actual knowledge, but the MyHazards reference, the insurance statement and the adequacy statement go in every residential lease signed since July 1, 2018.

I just bought a rental with tenants in place. What do I do first?

Send each tenant the Civil Code 1962 information within 15 days of taking over: your name or your manager’s, the address for service, and how and where to pay rent. Until you do, you cannot evict for nonpayment of rent that came due during that gap. Then check that the prior owner’s notices and registrations are in the file.

Does a property manager handle these, or do I?

The duty belongs to the owner. A manager can prepare and deliver the package, but the owner is the one exposed if it is incomplete, so ask whoever builds your leases to show you the signed disclosures for each unit.

Sources and disclaimer. California Civil Code sections 1962, 1946.2, 1940.9, 1940.8, 1940.8.5, 1940.7, 1940.6 and 1710.2; California Government Code section 8589.45 as added by AB 646 (2017); Cal OES MyHazards; Los Angeles Housing Department, Protections Notice and the Renter Protections Notice (rev. October 1, 2026); City of Culver City, Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protection Measures; Civil Code sections 1954.603, 2079.10a, 1632 and 1947.5, 40 CFR Part 745 and the Inglewood exemption rules as cited in our linked guides. Current as of October 2026. This article is general information for property owners from a California DRE-licensed property management company, not legal advice. Statutory notice wording changes from time to time, so confirm your lease package with a real estate attorney before you rely on it.