Berkeley rent increase 2026 RY 2026 AGA = 1.0%, adopted Oct 16, 2025 by the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board (Item 8E). Effective Jan 1 — Dec 31, 2026. Lowest cap in the catalogue.

The 2026 cap, in one paragraph

Berkeley Rent Board Regulation 1271 sets the AGA each year as 65% of the percentage change in the BLS CPI-U for the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA metropolitan statistical area, all items, not seasonally adjusted, measured from July of the prior year to June of the publication year. For 2026 the July 2024 — June 2025 CPI window produced approximately 1.5% growth: 65% × 1.5% ≈ 0.98%, rounded to 1.0%. The Rent Board adopted the 2026 AGA at its meeting on October 16, 2025 as Item 8E and published the implementing Rent Board Order shortly thereafter. The Order applies to all covered units for rent increases effective on or after January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026. Berkeley landlords serving notice today should be working from the published 1.0%, not their own CPI calculation — and certainly not from the 2025 AGA of 1.6%, which lapsed at year-end 2025.

Recent Berkeley AGA history: 2026 = 1.0% (this page); 2025 = 1.6%; 2024 = 5.0% (the highest in over a decade, reflecting post-pandemic Bay Area CPI surge); 2023 = 4.5%; 2022 = 1.0%; 2021 = 1.7%. The arc reflects the 65% multiplier acting against an oscillating CPI series: the rent cap is structurally less reactive than statewide AB 1482 (which uses 5% + regional CPI capped at 10%) and more reactive than DC's RY 2026 standard cap of 4.1% (which uses CPI-W + 2% capped at 10%). For 2026 specifically the 65% multiplier acted against modest 1.5% Bay Area CPI growth to deliver the lowest Berkeley AGA since 2022.

What's covered under BMC §13.76

The Berkeley Rent Stabilization Ordinance covers most multi-unit residential buildings in Berkeley with a first certificate of occupancy on or before February 1, 1995. Six categorical exclusions remove a unit entirely from coverage:

• Owner-occupied small buildings. A building where the landlord lives in the principal dwelling AND the building has three or fewer total units is excluded from the rent-cap provisions, though the §13.76.130 just-cause-eviction protections still apply to most units in such buildings.
• Government-subsidized units. Units under HUD, California HCD, Berkeley Housing Authority, or other federal/state/local subsidy regulatory agreements operate on their own rent rules. Project-based Section 8 and inclusionary BMR units fall here.
• BMR-regulated units. Below-market-rate units regulated under Berkeley's inclusionary ordinance or comparable affordability covenants are excluded — the regulatory agreement displaces §13.76.
• Hospital and dormitory rooms. Rooms operated by a hospital, sanitarium, religious institution, or accredited educational institution as part of medical or educational housing are excluded.
• Transient lodging. Hotels, motels, and transient lodging operations of fewer than 14 days occupancy are excluded — §13.76 covers residential tenancies, not transient stays.
• Buildings with first CoC after Feb 1, 1995. Costa-Hawkins (Cal. Civ. Code §1954.52(a)(1)) preempts Berkeley's rent cap for buildings whose first certificate of occupancy issued after February 1, 1995. AB 1482's statewide 8.8% cap typically applies instead.

Beyond the categorical exclusions, three Costa-Hawkins exemptions remove the rent-cap (but not necessarily the just-cause and anti-harassment) protections from individual units within otherwise-covered buildings:

• Single-family homes with post-1995 tenancy. A unit that is a single-family detached home, where the current tenancy commenced on or after January 1, 1996, is exempt from the BMC §13.76 rent cap under Cal. Civ. Code §1954.52(a)(3). AB 1482's 8.8% statewide cap typically applies instead.
• Condominiums. A unit that is a condominium lawfully separable when sold to a bona fide purchaser is exempt from the BMC §13.76 rent cap under Cal. Civ. Code §1954.52(a)(2).
• Buildings with first CoC after Feb 1, 1995. Already noted above as a categorical exclusion — listed here for completeness because the statutory citation is Cal. Civ. Code §1954.52(a)(1) of Costa-Hawkins.

Even when Costa-Hawkins exempt from the rent cap, the BMC §13.76.130 just-cause-eviction protections, the BMC §13.79 anti-harassment regime, the BMC §13.76.080 registration requirement, and the BMC §13.76.070 security-deposit interest requirement may still apply. Costa-Hawkins preempts only the rent-cap subset of the ordinance, not the broader landlord-tenant rights framework. The free Berkeley calculator walks the categorical and Costa-Hawkins exemptions in order and either returns the 2026 AGA of 1.0% or surfaces the controlling exemption.

Berkeley's rent-ceiling-accumulation model under §13.76.110(B)

Berkeley's banking model is fundamentally different from every other California rent-control jurisdiction. Under BMC §13.76.110(B) the lawful rent ceiling for each covered unit AUTOMATICALLY rises by the published AGA each January 1, regardless of whether the landlord applies the increase to the actual collected rent. The ceiling persists from year to year as a running total — there is no expiration, no forfeiture, no cap on accumulation, and no per-notice ceiling like San Francisco's §4.12 with its 7%/year and 10%/notice limits.

A worked example: a Berkeley landlord who took 0% in 2024 (when the AGA was 5.0%), 0% in 2025 (when the AGA was 1.6%), and is preparing a 2026 notice finds the rent ceiling cumulatively risen by approximately 6.7% over the two skipped years; layering 2026's 1.0% brings the cumulative ceiling rise from a 2024 baseline to approximately 7.7%. The landlord may serve a 2026 notice raising the actual rent up to that 7.7% headroom — a single notice — subject to: the once-per-12-months rule under BMC §13.76.110(C); California Civil Code §827(b) notice (30 days for under-10%, 90 days for 10%+); and current registration under BMC §13.76.080.

Note the §827(b) 30/90-day flip-point: a 7.7% notice stays in the 30-day regime under §827(b)(2)(A); a 12% catch-up notice triggers the 90-day regime under §827(b)(3). The ceiling-accumulation model means a landlord who skipped multiple high-AGA years (2024's 5.0%, 2023's 4.5%) might find a single catch-up notice exceeding 10%, flipping into the 90-day rule. Each unit's ceiling is also subject to the BMC §13.76.110(B)(2) denial conditions detailed below — a landlord can have substantial accumulated ceiling but be denied the AGA for a particular calendar year if any one of the four conditions is met.

The four AGA-denial conditions under §13.76.110(B)(2)

Even with current registration and a substantial accumulated rent ceiling, BMC §13.76.110(B)(2) denies the AGA increase on a particular unit for a particular calendar year if any one of these four conditions is satisfied:

1. Non-current registration. BMC §13.76.080 requires every covered unit to be registered with the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board on the Board's prescribed annual form, with payment of the annual per-unit fee (approximately $280 in 2026, set by Rent Board Order each year). The registration must be current as of the AGA effective date. A unit that lapsed registration after a failed mid-year tenant transition is not eligible to receive the 2026 AGA on Jan 1, 2026; cure by re-registering and paying back-fees, with effective date of the next calendar AGA.
2. Non-compliance with a Rent Board order. Where the landlord is subject to an outstanding Rent Board order — a final IRA decision, a wrongful-increase rollback order, an arrears assessment, a habitability-cure order — and has not satisfied the order's terms by the AGA effective date, the AGA is denied for that year on the affected unit. Cure by satisfying the order; effective date of the cure controls the unit's AGA-eligibility reset.
3. Substantiated habitability violations. Where the unit has substantiated habitability violations on the Rent Board's record — health, safety, or building-code violations affecting the unit, formally filed and not cured — the AGA is denied for that year. Cure by remediating the violations and confirming closure with the City of Berkeley building/health departments. Note that violations that affect common areas of a multi-unit building, not just an individual unit, can sweep multiple units into denial.
4. Unpaid security-deposit interest. BMC §13.76.070 requires the landlord to pay the tenant annual interest on the security deposit at the rate published by the Rent Board each year (approximately 0.4% for 2026, tracking 90-day Treasury rates). Where the landlord has failed to remit annual deposit interest, the AGA is denied. Cure by remitting back interest with a written calculation supporting the rate-times-years math.

The four conditions are independent — any one of them blocks the AGA for that calendar year on that unit. A landlord with current registration but an outstanding habitability violation is denied. A landlord with all violations cured but lapsed registration is denied. The Rent Board enforces these denial conditions through tenant petitions filed under BMC §13.76.150, and the Board itself can identify unregistered units through routine cross-checks against the City of Berkeley business license records and the BPD utility-billing rolls. The Berkeley calculator takes registration status and habitability flags as inputs and surfaces the specific subsection blocking the AGA when applicable.

Cal. Civ. Code §827(b) notice and §1013 service

California Civil Code §827(b) governs all residential rent-increase notices in California — Berkeley's ordinance does not displace state notice rules. The notice must be in writing and must state the amount of the new rent, the effective date, and the unit address. The notice-period flip-point under §827(b)(2)(A) and §827(b)(3) is the cumulative percentage of the increase from the rent in effect 12 months prior, not the percentage of any single notice in isolation:

• 30 days under §827(b)(2)(A) — for increases of less than 10% from the rent in effect 12 months prior. The 2026 Berkeley AGA of 1.0% always falls in this window when applied as a single-year increase. Multi-year ceiling catch-up at the once-per-12-months rule can stay in the 30-day window if the cumulative 12-month increase remains under 10%.
• 90 days under §827(b)(3) — for increases of 10% or more from the rent in effect 12 months prior. Only possible by stacking multi-year unused ceiling at the once-per-12-months rule; the ceiling-accumulation model can deliver headroom in excess of 10% for a landlord who has skipped multiple high-AGA years.

Service rules track Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §1013 — personal delivery, certified mail, or first-class mail with proof of mailing. For mailed notices, §1013 applies a 5-day mailing-add presumption (so a notice mailed March 1 is presumed received March 6, and the 30-day clock starts March 6 — earliest effective date is April 5). Email service without express lease-clause consent is not §827(b)-compliant.

Beyond §827(b) the ordinance imposes its own predicate: BMC §13.76.080 requires every covered rental unit to be registered with the Rent Board within 15 days of any new tenancy on the Board's prescribed form, and BMC §13.76.110(B)(2)(a) (Condition 1 above) makes registration a precondition to AGA-eligibility. The free Berkeley notice generator emits a printable §827(b)-compliant notice with the BMC §13.76 cap percentage, the 30/90-day effective-date math run against the current and prior-12-month rent, and the §1013 mailing-add applied. It also includes a "registration verified" checkbox that pulls the Rent Board's online roll into the audit trail.

Vacancy reset under Costa-Hawkins §1954.53(a)

On a LEGAL vacancy — voluntary tenant move-out, lease expiration without renewal, or a good-cause eviction lawfully served under BMC §13.76.130 — the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (Cal. Civ. Code §§1954.50-1954.535) permits the landlord to reset the unit's rent to market for the next tenancy under §1954.53(a). The 12-month one-increase clock and the AGA then apply going forward to the new tenancy starting from the new market rent — and the rent ceiling rebuilds from each subsequent annual AGA Order.

Vacancies caused by UNLAWFUL eviction, tenant harassment under BMC §13.79, owner-move-in evictions that fail their statutory requirements at BMC §13.76.130(A)(8), or violations of the Ellis Act (Cal. Gov. Code §§7060-7060.7) re-rental restrictions do NOT qualify for the Costa-Hawkins vacancy-reset. The Rent Board can order rent rollbacks to the prior tenancy's lawful rent, recover the difference for the new tenant, and impose civil penalties on the landlord under BMC §13.76.150. Berkeley's vacancy-reset rules are tracked alongside SF's under SF Rent Board Rules §4.12(c) — both jurisdictions key to the same Costa-Hawkins framework but enforce the reset through different local petition processes.

Penalty cascade under BMC §13.76.150 and §13.79

A rent collected above the Berkeley lawful rent ceiling is unlawful. The penalty cascade has five prongs:

1. Rent rollback to the lawful rent. Under BMC §13.76.150, the Rent Board issues a wrongful-increase determination and orders the rent rolled back to the lawful rent ceiling, immediately stopping the over-cap collection.
2. Refund of unlawfully-collected rent. The Rent Board can order refund of the unlawfully-collected portion (with interest in some cases) — measurable from the start of the over-cap notice through the rollback date.
3. Ongoing-overcharge findings. The Board can issue ongoing-overcharge findings that block all future allowable increases on the unit until cured. This is sharper than DC's once-and-done overcharge regime — Berkeley's ongoing-finding pauses the AGA accumulation itself.
4. Per-unit civil penalties. The Board can impose per-unit civil penalties for the violation and for any subsidiary violations (failure to register, failure to pay deposit interest, failure to remediate habitability).
5. Treble damages where willful or in bad faith. BMC §13.76.150(C) authorizes treble damages — three times the unlawfully-collected portion — where the violation was willful or in bad faith. Tenants prevailing in actions under BMC §13.79 (anti-harassment, of which a willful overcharge can be one piece) are also entitled to attorney fees and statutory damages of $1,000 per violation per tenant.

Tenants may also raise the overcharge as an affirmative defense to an unlawful-detainer (eviction) action for non-payment — voiding the eviction predicate and preserving the tenancy. Berkeley's attorney-fee-shifting in willful-violation tenant petitions is a key distinction from SF's no-fee-shifting petition framework under SF Admin. Code §37.8 — Berkeley tenants can recover their litigation costs where the landlord acted willfully, which raises the effective deterrent compared to SF's model.

How RentCeiling enforces Berkeley's 1.0% for you

The free Berkeley calculator takes (current rent, building first-CoC era, last-increase date, registration status) and returns the 2026 AGA of 1.0% with the BMC §13.76.110(B) citation, the categorical and Costa-Hawkins exemption checks, the four AGA-denial condition checks, and the 12-month frequency verification. The Berkeley notice generator consumes the same inputs and emits a printable §827(b)-compliant notice with the cap percentage, the §1013 mailing-add applied, and the BMC §13.76 statute language. The Why Berkeley is 1.0% in 2026 explainer walks the formula derivation against actual BLS CPI data in detail. The SF Rent Banking deep-dive shows how Berkeley's rent-ceiling-accumulation model differs from SF's §4.12 banking. The four-California-rent-caps explainer places Berkeley's 1.0% alongside SF's 1.6%, LA RSO's 3.0%/2.8%, and AB 1482's 8.8%. The /compare hub shows how Berkeley's 1.0% sits as the floor of the entire RentCeiling catalogue. Open rule-set at /rules/index.json.

Run the Berkeley 2026 AGA calculator (free)

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