Ending a Tenancy in Culver City: The Grounds, the Paperwork, and What a No-Fault Costs

For Owners · Culver City · October 2026 · 11 min read

Say you own a triplex off Jefferson. Your daughter is finishing school and you want her in the back unit by January, so you draft a 60-day notice. Reasonable plan, wrong sequence. In Culver City, moving a relative into an occupied unit is not something you notice the tenant about and then do. It is something you apply to the city for, and the city decides whether you qualify.

That is the part of the ordinance owners most often miss. The grounds for ending a tenancy here are narrow, and two of them come with a filing process that runs on its own clock. Below is how it actually works, with the figures and deadlines the city publishes as of October 2026.

Nothing applies for the first twelve months

Culver City’s eviction protections attach once a tenant has lived in the unit for twelve months. Before that, the city’s just-cause rules do not apply to the tenancy. After that, a tenancy can only end for a reason written into the Tenant Protections Ordinance, and the list is short.

This cuts both ways. A tenant who turned out badly in month four is a different problem from the same tenant in month fourteen. If you are going to act, the calendar matters, and it is worth knowing the move-in date of every tenant you inherited when you bought the building.

One more thing that is not a ground: selling the property. Once a tenant has lawfully and continuously occupied a unit for twelve months or more, a sale does not end the tenancy, and neither does a buyer’s preference for a vacant building. The tenancy goes to the new owner. If you are selling, price it as an occupied building, because that is what you are selling.

The at-fault grounds

Section 15.09.315 of the municipal code lists the for-cause reasons. There are five:

• Failure to pay rent
• Breach of the rental agreement
• Failure to provide reasonable access to the unit
• Using the unit to create a nuisance or for an illegal purpose
• The tenant was the resident manager and has been terminated

That is the whole list. There is no catch-all. A tenant who is difficult, who argues about the landscaping, who has a dog you did not approve but that the lease arguably permits, who declines to sign a new lease when the old one runs out: none of that is on the list by itself. A lease breach has to be an actual breach of a term in the actual lease, which is why the lease you use matters more here than in a city with looser rules.

The last ground is worth flagging for anyone with an on-site manager. If you employ a tenant as a resident manager and the employment ends, the tenancy can end with it. Keep the employment agreement separate from the rental agreement and in writing. Owners who blur the two end up unable to do either cleanly.

The no-fault grounds, and the two that need the city

Section 15.09.320 covers no-fault terminations. Also five:

• Demolition of the unit
• Removing the unit from the rental market
• Move-in by the landlord or an eligible relative, who must occupy the unit as a primary residence for at least three years
• Compliance with an affordable housing deed restriction or regulatory agreement
• Compliance with a government or other order requiring the unit be vacated

Every one of these triggers relocation assistance, with two narrow exceptions covered below. And the first three involve the city before anything is served on a tenant.

Owner and relative move-in

This is the one that catches people. Under section 15.09.320.B.1 the owner files an Eligibility Application to Recover a Rental Unit with the Housing and Human Services Department. You certify the facts under penalty of perjury. Then two deadlines run from the date you file, not from the date the city answers:

• Within five calendar days of filing, mail a copy of the application to the tenants by first class mail.
• Within ten calendar days of filing, file proof of that service with the city.

Miss either and you are starting over. The city also limits who counts as an eligible relative: a spouse or registered domestic partner, children, grandchildren, parents, or grandparents. A sibling is not on the list. Neither is a niece, a nephew, or an in-law. If the person who needs the unit is not in that set, this ground is closed to you and you are looking at a negotiated exit instead.

The occupancy commitment is real, not nominal. The landlord or relative has to move in within three months of the household vacating and occupy the unit as a primary residence for at least three years. If the plan is that your daughter uses the place for eighteen months and then you re-rent it at market, this is the wrong ground, and the three-year certification you signed is a document the city and the former tenant both have a copy of.

Demolition and removal from the market

If the plan is to tear the building down or redevelop it, the replacement-housing rules reach you before the eviction rules do. California’s Housing Crisis Act requires a replacement unit determination for projects that would demolish occupied or recently occupied units, and Culver City processes those through Housing and Human Services. The city tells applicants it takes six to eight weeks once a complete package is in, including the recorded grant deed, owner affidavit, and a tenant information table with occupancy history. Build that into the schedule. Owners who tell tenants a date before the determination is back end up moving the date, which is how an orderly vacancy becomes a dispute.

What a no-fault actually costs

Culver City’s relocation formula, in section 15.09.325, is three times the greater of the current rent in effect or the HUD small area fair market rent for the unit, plus $1,000. The small area figures the city uses are the ones published for the Culver City ZIP codes, 90232, 90230, and 90066, so for a unit renting below market the fair market rent is usually the number that controls, not your rent roll.

Run that before you decide. The arithmetic is simple once you have the right input: if the applicable fair market rent works out to $2,600, three times that is $7,800, and the payment is $8,800. For a long-tenured tenant paying well under market, the relocation payment can approach a year of the rent you are collecting. That is the real cost of the vacancy, and it is due to the tenant, not to the city.

Three adjustments to know about:

• Small owners pay half, on one ground only. The city’s rules say that only in a landlord-occupancy eviction, a small landlord, defined as one who owns three units or fewer counting units inside and outside Culver City, pays 50% of the relocation amount due. The city requires certification of small-owner status. The reduction does not travel to a demolition or a market withdrawal, and Housing Services staff will confirm which figure applies to your filing.
• Some deductions are allowed. Past due rent can be deducted, excluding arrears covered by the city’s residential tenant eviction moratorium, as can extraordinary wear and tear. Ordinary wear is not extraordinary wear, and the burden of showing the difference is yours. Photographs and a move-in condition report are what make that argument work.
• Two exemptions. No relocation is owed if the tenant received notice before signing the rental agreement that a subdivision or condominium conversion had been filed or approved, or if the eviction complies with a government or court order arising from a natural disaster or act of God.

The city confirms the amount when it approves an application, so get the figure in writing from Housing Services before you commit to a date with the tenant or a contractor. For comparison, state law under the Tenant Protection Act requires one month’s rent for a no-fault, or a waiver of the last month. Culver City is several times that. An owner who budgets the state number is short by thousands.

The notice, and the order things happen in

State law sets the notice period for ending a month-to-month tenancy: 30 days when the tenant has lived there less than a year, 60 days at a year or more. Because the city’s just-cause rules only attach at twelve months, essentially every Culver City termination that needs a ground is also a 60-day notice. Mailing adds days. Plan on the vacancy being at least two and a half months out from the day you start, and longer if a city application sits in the middle of it.

The sequence we use on a no-fault is: confirm the ground is genuinely available, get the registration current, run the relocation number, file the application, calendar the five-day and ten-day service deadlines the same hour we file, wait for the determination, then serve the notice with the relocation payment handled the way the city’s approval specifies. Doing it in a different order is how owners end up paying the relocation twice, once in a failed attempt and again in the one that sticks.

On registration: renewal is due July 31 each year, with a grace period to August 31, and the fee is $177 per unit as of July 1, 2026. After the grace period a 20% penalty is added on the first of each month, up to 100% of the fee. A sale triggers a $15 change-of-ownership filing. The registry is where the city has your rents and tenancies on record. Walking in with a lapsed certificate and asking the city to approve a no-fault is a bad opening.

Where this goes wrong

The usual ways it goes wrong:

• A 60-day notice served for a reason that is not on either list, usually “I need the unit” or “the lease is up.” The tenant gets advice, the notice is withdrawn, and the owner has lost three months and some goodwill.
• A move-in notice served before the application is filed, or filed without the five and ten day service steps.
• Relocation budgeted off the current rent when the fair market rent is higher.
• A relative outside the eligible list, discovered after the tenant was told a date.
• A demolition timeline built without the replacement unit determination in it.
• An at-fault ground that the lease does not actually support, because the lease was a form downloaded in 2014.

None of these are exotic. They are all sequence and paperwork, which is the part a manager should be carrying.

Questions owners ask

My tenant’s lease expires next month and I just do not want to renew. Can I let it end?

Not if the tenant has been there twelve months or more. Once the protections attach, the expiration of a fixed-term lease is not by itself a reason to end the tenancy. The tenancy continues month to month and you need a ground from one of the two lists. If you want the unit for yourself or a qualifying relative, that is the application route. If you want it vacant for any other reason, you are looking at a negotiated exit.

I am buying a Culver City fourplex and want one unit for my own use. Can I make vacancy a condition of the sale?

Not by asking the seller to evict for you. The move-in ground belongs to the owner who will actually occupy, and the application certifies your own intent and three-year commitment. Buy it occupied, close, then file as the owner. Price the building on the rents you are actually inheriting, and get the seller’s registration records and rent history as part of due diligence.

How long does the eligibility application take?

The city does not publish a turnaround for the move-in application the way it does for replacement unit determinations, which it says run six to eight weeks. Call Housing Services at (310) 253-5790 and ask about current timing before you promise anyone a date. Your five-day and ten-day service deadlines run from your filing regardless of how long the review takes.

Can I just pay the tenant to leave instead?

Often that is the cleaner path, particularly when no ground is available. Culver City regulates buyouts, with a disclosure the tenant has to receive before any offer and a filing requirement afterward, and the relocation figure effectively sets the floor for what a tenant will accept. We wrote up how the math and the disclosure rules work in our guide to LA tenant buyout agreements, which covers the Culver City procedure alongside the city and county versions.

Does any of this apply to a single-family house or a condo I rent out?

Yes. The city’s rent cap generally does not reach an individually rented house, condo, or townhome, but the tenant protection rules do, and the unit still has to be registered. Owners sometimes assume that being outside the rent cap means being outside the eviction rules. It does not. Which cap applies to your rent is a separate question, covered in our piece on Culver City rent increases.

The tenant has not paid in two months. Do I still need all of this?

Nonpayment is an at-fault ground, so no city application and no relocation payment. You still need a properly served notice and, if the tenant does not pay or leave, an unlawful detainer. The court process is the same one used across the county; we walk through it in how eviction works in Los Angeles. Get the notice right. Most cases that fail, fail on the notice.

If you own in more than one city: the sequences are not interchangeable. Inglewood requires a relocation payment on every no-fault ground and has its own buyout filing window, and Beverly Hills ties relocation to the specific ground rather than to the at-fault label, with no buyout procedure in its ordinance at all. Three cities inside ten miles, three different files.

Sources and disclaimer. City of Culver City, Rent Control & Tenant Protection Measures (grounds for termination, twelve-month vesting, relocation formula and deductions, registration deadline, fee and penalties); City of Culver City, What Landlords Need to Know (2026) and The Latest on Tenant Eviction Protections (for-cause and no-fault lists, relocation amount, small-owner reduction in the landlord-occupancy context); City of Culver City, Eligibility Application to Recover a Rental Unit for Landlords or Eligible Relatives (eligible relatives, three-month and three-year occupancy, five-day and ten-day service deadlines, small area fair market rent ZIP codes) and Replacement Unit Determination application (Housing Crisis Act replacement requirement, six to eight week processing); Culver City Municipal Code Chapter 15.09, § 15.09.315 For cause termination, § 15.09.320 No fault termination, and § 15.09.325 Relocation assistance; Judicial Council of California, Types of eviction notices (30-day and 60-day periods, state relocation under the Tenant Protection Act); California Civil Code §§ 1946.1 and 1946.2. Current as of October 2026. This article is general information for property owners, not legal advice. Culver City adopted clarifying amendments to these ordinances in January 2026, effective February 11, 2026, and the published figures change each year. Confirm your situation with the Culver City Housing Services Division (Rent.Control@CulverCity.org, (310) 253-5790) and with a California landlord-tenant attorney before filing an application or serving any termination notice.