Inglewood Rent Increase Rules for Owners: The Certificate, the Two-Tier Cap, and the 15-Year Clock

For Owners · Inglewood · September 2026 · 9 min read

Most owners who call us about Inglewood have read that the city caps rent increases and have found a percentage somewhere. That is the easy half. The half that actually voids increases and stalls evictions is the registration certificate, and the rule about it is stricter than almost anywhere else in Los Angeles County: the certificate is not just something you file with the city, it is something you have to hand to your tenant.

Inglewood’s Housing Protection Ordinance, Ordinance 21-09, took effect June 10, 2021 and sits in Chapter 8 of the Inglewood Municipal Code. Three of its provisions catch owners repeatedly. Here they are, with the section numbers, so you can check the language yourself rather than take our word for it.

1. Without a served registration certificate, you cannot advertise, collect, or evict

Section 8-126 requires a registration statement for every rental unit offered or rented for more than thirty consecutive days. Then it goes further than a registry usually does. No owner may advertise a unit for rent, demand or accept rent for it, or evict a tenant “without first procuring and serving a copy of a valid registration certificate on the tenant.”

Read that as a sequence, because the order matters. Filing is step one. Serving the certificate on the tenant is step two, and step two is the one owners skip. The same section says a granted rent increase does not take effect for a unit unless the owner has procured and served the certificate. So an owner can file on time, pay the fee, calculate the increase correctly, serve a clean thirty-day notice, and still have nothing, because the certificate never reached the tenant.

One more thing about the fee. Inglewood allows an owner to pass 50% of the registration fee through to the tenant on a monthly basis. That is unusual. Several neighboring cities forbid passing their fee along at all. If you own in more than one city, do not carry a habit from one rent statement to the other.

2. The cap has two tiers, and which one you are in depends on the unit count

Section 8-127 sets different ceilings by building size, which is the opposite of how most people assume rent caps work.

The cost-of-living figure is defined in Section 8-127(g) as the Consumer Price Index average for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area for the twelve-month period ending April 30 of each year. The city publishes the resulting percentage after the April figure comes out in May, so the number you used last year is not the number you use this year. We do not print a percentage on this page for that reason. Pull the current one from the Housing Protection Department before you calculate anything, and write the date you pulled it in the file.

Two rules sit on top of the arithmetic. Section 8-127(h) allows only one increase per twelve-month period, so you cannot stack a small increase in March and another in October. And the notice itself is a thirty-day notice of change in terms served on the tenant, with the increase recorded through the Inglewood Residential Registry afterward.

A smaller building is not a lighter obligation here. The four-or-fewer tier allows a larger number, which is precisely why owners of duplexes and fourplexes get comfortable and stop checking. The ten percent ceiling is absolute in that tier, and the registration and just-cause rules apply the same way they do to a thirty-unit building.

3. The single-family exemption depends on who holds title and what you told the tenant

This is the one that costs the most money, because owners assume the exemption is automatic and structure around it.

Section 8-125 excludes units exempt under the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, and separately excludes owner-occupied residences where the owner rents no more than one unit, single-family residences, and units alienable separate from the title to any other dwelling unit. But that category comes with conditions attached. All owners must be natural persons. And the tenant must have received written notice stating that the property is not subject to the rent limits imposed by Section 8-127, by addendum for tenancies that began before June 1, 2021, and inside the rental agreement for tenancies that began after.

Two consequences follow. If the house is held in an LLC, a partnership, or a trust with a corporate trustee, do not assume the exemption. If the notice never went into the lease, the exemption may not hold even when the ownership qualifies, and the increase you took on that theory is exposed. Owners often discover both problems at once, usually when a tenant disputes an increase and a lawyer reads the lease.

If you are in this position, the fix is forward-looking rather than retroactive, and it is worth an hour with a California landlord-tenant attorney before you serve anything further.

The 15-year clock, and why new Inglewood construction is not permanently exempt

Section 8-125 also excludes housing issued a certificate of occupancy for new construction within the previous fifteen years. Note the wording. It is not a fixed date like the February 1995 line in Costa-Hawkins or the 1978 line in the City of Los Angeles. It is a rolling window measured backward from now.

That matters more in Inglewood than in most cities, because of what has been built here since the stadium district went up. A building that received its certificate of occupancy in 2010 is inside the ordinance today. A building certified in 2014 crosses the line in 2029. If you underwrote a newer Inglewood property on the assumption that it sits outside the local cap forever, the assumption has an expiration date, and it is worth knowing which year yours falls in before it arrives rather than after.

Just cause, and the 15-day relocation clock

The eviction side runs on its own section. Section 8-121 lists both at-fault grounds — nonpayment, material breach after written notice, nuisance, waste, unauthorized subletting, refusal of reasonable access after written notice, and others — and no-fault grounds, which are owner or close-relative occupancy, compliance with a government order to vacate, Ellis Act withdrawal, and intent to demolish. The protections attach once a tenant has continuously and lawfully occupied the unit for twelve months or more.

Section 8-122 requires that a curable violation get a notice of violation and an opportunity to cure before a termination notice issues, and it requires the termination notice to state each just cause basis relied on. Strict compliance is the standard, which in practice means a notice that is vague about its grounds is a notice you may have to serve again.

For a no-fault termination, Section 8-123 sets relocation assistance at three months’ rent plus additional amounts that depend on how long the tenant has lived there and whether the household includes minors, seniors, or disabled tenants. Payment is due within fifteen calendar days of service of the termination notice. Confirm the current dollar schedule with the Housing Protection Department before you serve, because the flat amounts are set by the city and the timing does not leave room to gather funds afterward.

A note on the filing deadline

Here is a discrepancy worth knowing about rather than guessing at. The codified ordinance says registration statements and claims of exemption must be filed annually on or before October 1 of each year. The city’s own Residential Registry page describes the annual open registration period as running January through March, and says new tenancies must be registered within thirty days of the start of the tenancy.

Those are not the same instruction. Call the Housing Protection Department at (310) 412-4330 and confirm the cycle that applies to your property this year, and keep the confirmation. On a rule where non-compliance means you cannot accept rent, being able to show what the city told you and when is worth the phone call.

Questions Inglewood owners ask

I filed with the registry. Do I really have to give the certificate to my tenant?

Yes. Section 8-126 conditions advertising, demanding or accepting rent, and evicting on having procured and served a copy of a valid registration certificate on the tenant. Filing alone does not get you there, and a granted increase does not take effect without it.

My fourplex can go up 5% plus CPI. Can I take part of it now and part later?

No. Section 8-127(h) limits you to one increase per twelve-month period. Decide the full number, serve one thirty-day notice, and record it.

I own a single-family rental in Inglewood through an LLC. Am I exempt from the cap?

Do not assume so. The ordinance’s exemption for single-family and separately alienable units carries conditions, including that all owners be natural persons and that the tenant received written notice that the property is not subject to the Section 8-127 rent limits. Have an attorney look at the title and the lease before you rely on it.

My building was finished in 2013. Is it exempt?

For now. The exemption covers housing issued a certificate of occupancy for new construction within the previous fifteen years, and it moves with the calendar rather than sitting on a fixed date. Find your certificate of occupancy date and mark the year the building comes into the ordinance.

What is the current allowable increase percentage?

It depends on your unit count and on the cost-of-living figure for the twelve months ending April 30, which is published after the April index comes out in May. Get the current number from the Housing Protection Department rather than from a blog post, this one included, and note the date you got it.

I want to move into my own duplex. What does that cost me?

Owner or close-relative occupancy is a listed no-fault just cause, which means relocation assistance: three months’ rent plus additional amounts tied to tenancy length and household, due within fifteen calendar days of serving the notice. Confirm the current schedule with the city and budget it before you serve, not after.

Does Inglewood have short-term rental rules too?

It does, and they are separate from everything above. We covered them in Inglewood’s short-term rental rules for owners. We manage long-term tenancies only.

Nearby, and not the same: Culver City sets a single annual percentage and runs its own registry, on a different calendar and a different formula from Inglewood’s. Cross La Brea or Centinela going north and east and you leave city jurisdiction altogether: Ladera Heights and View Park-Windsor Hills are unincorporated Los Angeles County, where the County ordinance governs, the registry is the County’s, and the deadline is September 30. If you own in more than one of these, keep the files separate.

More on how we work in the city: Inglewood property management.

Sources and disclaimer. City of Inglewood Municipal Code, Chapter 8, via Article 10, Residential Rent Regulations (§ 8-125 definition of rental unit and exemptions, including Costa-Hawkins units, owner-occupied and separately alienable units with the natural-person and written-notice conditions, and housing issued a certificate of occupancy for new construction within the previous fifteen years; § 8-126 registration, service of the registration certificate on the tenant, the prohibition on advertising, demanding or accepting rent and evicting without it, the annual October 1 filing date, the registration fee and the 50% monthly pass-through; § 8-127 rent increase maximums, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim CPI for the twelve months ending April 30, and the one-increase-per-twelve-months limit) and Just Cause Eviction Protections (§ 8-121 at-fault and no-fault grounds and the twelve-month occupancy threshold, § 8-122 notice and cure, § 8-123 relocation assistance and the fifteen-calendar-day payment timing); City of Inglewood Housing Protection Department, Allowable Rent Increases (the two tiers, the ten percent ceiling, the April CPI published in May, the thirty-day notice of change in terms and recording the increase through the registry) and Inglewood Residential Registry (annual registration for properties with two or more units and entity-owned properties, the January through March open period, new tenancies registered within thirty days, and the prohibition on advertising, collecting rent or evicting without a valid certificate); Housing Protection Ordinance 21-09, effective June 10, 2021. Current as of September 2026. This is general information for property owners from a California DRE-licensed property management company, not legal or tax advice. Percentages, fees and relocation schedules change, and the ordinance and the city’s published guidance do not describe the filing deadline the same way, so confirm your own situation with the Inglewood Housing Protection Department and with a California landlord-tenant attorney before registering, calculating an increase, or serving any notice.