Inglewood rent control 2026 Local RSO (~3% for 2026). No banking. Measure II universal just-cause. Pre-1995 CoC coverage.

Inglewood’s 2026 RSO cap: formula and annual allowance

The Inglewood RSO (IMC §8-420 et seq.) sets the maximum annual rent increase for covered residential rental units using a formula based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim Metropolitan Statistical Area. For 2026, the LA-Long Beach-Anaheim MSA CPI is running approximately 3.0%, producing an Inglewood RSO annual allowance of approximately 3%.

The Inglewood RSO City Rent Stabilization Division (or the City’s Community Development Department) publishes the official annual rent increase allowance each year. Landlords of covered units should verify the current year’s published figure directly with the City of Inglewood before serving a rent increase notice. The annual allowance reflects the CPI-based formula applied to the relevant reference period.

The Inglewood RSO ~3% cap for 2026 sits within a cluster of LA County local overlays that produce approximately 3% maximum increases for 2026:

• Inglewood RSO (IMC §8-420 et seq.) — ~3% for 2026. This page.
• LA City RSO (LAMC §151) — ~3% for 2026 (within LA city limits adjacent to Inglewood).
• Culver City CCTPO (CCMC §15.09) — ~3% for 2026 (lesser of 3% or LA CPI).
• Beverly Hills BHMC Chapter 4 — ~3% for 2026 (lesser of 3% or LA CPI).
• Pasadena Charter Article XVIII (Measure H) — ~2.25% for 2026 (75% × LA CPI capped at 5%).
• West Hollywood WHMC §17.36 — ~0.75% for 2026 (75% × LA CPI June-to-June capped at 4%).
• Santa Monica Charter Article XVIII — ~0.8% for 2026 (75% × LA CPI capped at 6%).
• Glendale (AB 1482 only) — ~8% for 2026. No local RSO.
• Burbank (AB 1482 only) — ~8% for 2026. No local RSO.

Inglewood’s ~3% local RSO cap is dramatically lower than the ~8% AB 1482 statewide cap that would apply to Inglewood units not covered by the RSO (primarily newer construction and single-family homes). This gap — approximately 5 percentage points — is the primary financial consequence of RSO coverage status for Inglewood landlords and tenants.

Coverage: which Inglewood units does the RSO cover?

The Inglewood RSO rent-cap framework covers multi-unit residential rental buildings constructed before the ordinance’s qualifying first-certificate-of-occupancy (CoC) cutoff date. Consistent with the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (Cal. Civ. Code §1954.52(a)(1)), the Inglewood RSO’s rent-cap provisions apply to buildings that received their first CoC on or before February 1, 1995 — the same Costa-Hawkins anchor date used by Berkeley BMC §13.76, Mountain View CSFRA Charter Article XVII, Pasadena Charter Article XVIII, Richmond RMC Chapter 11.100, and Culver City CCTPO. Units in buildings with a first CoC after February 1, 1995 are preempted by Costa-Hawkins and fall to AB 1482’s statewide cap instead.

Units typically excluded from the Inglewood RSO rent-cap (though often still subject to just-cause eviction protections):

• Post-1995 construction. Buildings with first CoC after February 1, 1995 fall under Costa-Hawkins preemption of local rent-cap ordinances. These units are governed by AB 1482’s statewide cap (~8% for 2026) rather than the Inglewood RSO. The 15-year rolling exemption under AB 1482 §1947.12(d) further exempts newly constructed units (first CoC after approximately 2011 for 2026) from the statewide cap.
• Single-family homes and condominiums. Under Costa-Hawkins §1954.52(a)(2)-(3), condominiums lawfully separable when sold to a bona fide purchaser and single-family homes with a post-1996 commencement of tenancy are generally preempted from local RSO rent-cap coverage. These units fall to AB 1482’s statewide cap for rent increases.
• Government-subsidized affordable housing. Units with a recorded affordability covenant (LIHTC, Section 8 Project-Based, BMR, RAD, HOME) are typically exempt from the RSO rent-cap framework.

Inglewood has a large proportion of pre-1995 multi-unit rental housing concentrated in neighborhoods around Inglewood Park Cemetery, South Inglewood, and the areas east and north of SoFi Stadium. This older housing stock means Inglewood RSO coverage applies to a substantial share of the city’s rental market. Landlords uncertain about whether a specific unit is covered should contact the City of Inglewood Community Development Department.

Banking: the no-banking forfeit rule

The Inglewood RSO does not permit banking of unused annual rent increase allowances. The RSO follows the same permanent-forfeit model used by:

• LA City RSO (LAMC §151.06.A) — explicit forfeiture clause: increases not taken in the applicable rental year are permanently forfeited.
• Santa Monica Charter §1805(d) — named forfeit provision: “a landlord who fails to implement all or any portion of a permitted rent increase in the rental year in which it was awarded shall not be entitled to retroactively collect such increase.”
• Culver City CCTPO (CCMC §15.09) — annual allowance forfeits at end of cycle.
• Beverly Hills BHMC Chapter 4 — no banking under either Chapter 5 or Chapter 6 framework.
• AB 1482 (Cal. Civ. Code §1947.12) — no banking provision; each year’s cap calculated fresh from the current base rent.

Under the forfeit model, an Inglewood landlord who does not implement the annual RSO allowance in a given cycle permanently forfeits that amount. It cannot be carried forward to a future year or added to a subsequent notice. A landlord who skips increases in 2022, 2023, and 2024 cannot issue a 9% (3% × 3 years) notice in 2026 — the maximum for 2026 is still approximately 3%.

This no-banking rule distinguishes Inglewood from the four California jurisdictions that allow rent banking: San Francisco (SF Rent Board Rules §4.12 stacked ceilings), Berkeley (BMC §13.76.110(C) unlimited rent-ceiling accumulation), West Hollywood (WHMC §17.36.030(c) 8% per-notice ceiling), and Mountain View (CSFRA §1707(c) 10% per-notice ceiling). For Inglewood landlords managing multi-city portfolios, it is critical to correctly identify whether any given jurisdiction permits banking and what ceilings apply — applying an SF or Berkeley banking calculation to an Inglewood unit would be an error.

Notice requirements for Inglewood rent increases

All Inglewood residential rent-increase notices are governed by California Civil Code §827(b) for timing and form:

• 30-day rule under §827(b)(2)(A) — increases of less than 10% take effect 30 calendar days after service. Inglewood’s ~3% RSO cap is well below the 10% threshold.
• 90-day rule under §827(b)(3) — increases of 10% or more require 90 calendar days. Not applicable to RSO-compliant Inglewood increases (~3% cap), but relevant if a landlord claims an exemption and seeks a larger increase for an uncovered unit.
• §1013 mailing-add — 5 additional days when notice is served by U.S. Mail. Effective period: 35 days.
• RSO citation requirement — a rent increase notice for a covered Inglewood RSO unit should cite the controlling Inglewood Municipal Code section (IMC §8-420 et seq.) and state that the proposed increase does not exceed the current year’s published RSO annual allowance. A notice that fails to cite the applicable ordinance may be challenged administratively.
• AB 1482 §1947.13 disclosure — for covered multi-unit buildings, landlords should also include the AB 1482 tenant-rights disclosure required under §1947.13.
• 12-month frequency rule — under AB 1482 and consistent with RSO practice, a landlord may not implement more than two increases in any 12-month period, with the combined total not exceeding the annual cap.

Just-cause eviction in Inglewood under Measure II

Measure II (November 2020) strengthened and entrenched Inglewood’s just-cause eviction protections beyond the Council-adopted RSO baseline. The Inglewood RSO’s just-cause provisions apply broadly to Inglewood rentals, including units that are not covered by the RSO rent-cap framework (i.e., newer-construction units and some single-family homes). This is the same universal just-cause pattern used by Culver City CCTPO, Mountain View CSFRA Charter §1709, and Pasadena Charter Article XVIII — in contrast to LA City RSO and Beverly Hills, which restrict just-cause protections only to RSO-covered units.

Under the Inglewood RSO universal just-cause framework, a tenant who has continuously occupied a unit for 12 or more months cannot be evicted without one of the following qualifying reasons:

1. Non-payment of rent
2. Material breach of a lease term not cured after written notice
3. Maintaining a nuisance or causing substantial damage to the unit
4. Refusal to permit lawful access (Cal. Civ. Code §1954)
5. Unauthorized sub-letting in violation of the lease
6. Refusal to renew a written lease at expiration on substantially similar terms
7. Criminal activity on the premises
8. Owner or qualifying family member intends to occupy the unit as their primary residence (with advance notice and relocation assistance)
9. Withdrawal of the unit from the rental market (with advance notice and relocation assistance)
10. Substantial rehabilitation under permit requiring temporary vacancy
11. Demolition with permit

Inglewood’s Measure II voter-initiative entrenchment means that weakening or eliminating these just-cause protections requires a subsequent voter action, not merely a City Council vote. This political durability is one of the key distinctions between Measure II’s voter-passed protections and the Council-enacted RSO baseline that existed before November 2020.

Inglewood in context: rent pressure, SoFi Stadium, and the RSO

Inglewood is a predominantly renter city in Los Angeles County, situated immediately west of the LA City limits (adjacent to South Los Angeles and Hawthorne), south of Culver City, and north of El Segundo and Hawthorne. With a population of approximately 110,000, Inglewood is one of the most densely rented cities in Los Angeles County.

The opening of SoFi Stadium (2020, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers) and the adjacent Hollywood Park mixed-use development created significant upward rent pressure in Inglewood neighborhoods near the stadium — particularly in the neighborhoods of Morningside Park, Downtown Inglewood, and areas along Century Boulevard and Prairie Avenue. Rents in these areas increased substantially between 2018 and 2022 as speculative demand anticipated the stadium’s opening, creating the conditions that led to Measure II’s passage in November 2020.

Inglewood’s RSO places the city in the cluster of LA County cities that enacted or strengthened rent stabilization between 2018 and 2022 in response to post-2016 rent increases: alongside Culver City (CCTPO, January 2020), Inglewood (RSO strengthened by Measure II, November 2020), and Pasadena (Charter Article XVIII Measure H, November 2022). All three of these newer ordinances use the Costa-Hawkins February 1, 1995 first-CoC anchor, placing them in the same structural cluster as the older Berkeley (1980) and Mountain View CSFRA (2016) ordinances that also use that date.

A critical cross-border implication: the LA City RSO (LAMC §151) applies to units within LA city limits. Inglewood is a separate incorporated city; units in Inglewood are governed by the Inglewood RSO, not the LA City RSO. Despite being adjacent to LA City and producing similar ~3% caps for 2026, the administrative frameworks, registration systems, and petition processes are distinct. Landlords with units on both sides of the city limit must maintain separate compliance tracks.

Looking west to Hawthorne, Gardena, and Lawndale (all adjacent to Inglewood): these cities have no local RSO and are governed by AB 1482 at the statewide ~8% cap for 2026. Inglewood tenants in covered pre-1995 buildings face ~3% maximum annual increases; tenants in adjacent Hawthorne or Gardena buildings face ~8% under AB 1482 — a ~5 percentage point gap for identical 1980s-era apartment buildings separated by a city limit.

Penalty for exceeding the Inglewood RSO cap

An Inglewood landlord who charges rent above the lawful RSO annual allowance faces both administrative and civil remedies:

1. Administrative complaint to the City of Inglewood. Tenants may file a complaint with the Inglewood Community Development Department or the Rent Stabilization Division. The Division can order the landlord to roll back the rent to the lawful rate and repay unlawfully-collected amounts with interest.
2. Civil action in Los Angeles County Superior Court. For amounts also in excess of the AB 1482 statewide cap, the tenant may seek civil remedies under Cal. Civ. Code §1947.12(h): refund of over-cap rent with 10% interest (Cal. Civ. Code §3289(b)); treble damages where the violation is willful (up to three times the over-cap rent, minimum $250 per violation); attorney fees to prevailing tenants under §1947.12(i).
3. Defense to unlawful detainer. A tenant served with an unlawful-detainer action for non-payment of rent above the RSO cap may raise the overcharge as an affirmative defense, voiding the eviction predicate. The tenant’s obligation to pay is limited to the lawful RSO maximum.

The three-year statute of limitations under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §338 applies to civil claims for overcharged rent. Inglewood tenants who believe they have been charged above the RSO cap should document monthly rent payments and contact the Inglewood Community Development Department as early as possible.

How RentCeiling handles Inglewood RSO compliance

The free California calculator routes Inglewood units to either the local RSO framework (for covered pre-1995-CoC multi-unit buildings, cap approximately 3%) or the AB 1482 statewide framework (for uncovered units, cap approximately 8%), with the Costa-Hawkins coverage determination applied before computing the cap. The California notice generator emits a §827(b)-compliant Inglewood rent-increase notice with the RSO citation and the AB 1482 §1947.13 disclosure attached. The LA City RSO page walks the neighboring LA City overlay (LAMC §151) that governs units within LA city limits adjacent to Inglewood. The Culver City CCTPO page covers the comparable newer LA County overlay at the same ~3% cap. The AB 1482 banking comparison page explains why the Inglewood RSO’s no-banking rule means landlords with mixed-city portfolios must track each jurisdiction separately. Open rule-set at /rules/california.json.

Run the California 2026 cap calculator (free)

Common questions about Inglewood rent control