Santa Monica rent control 2026 2026 General Adjustment to the MAR = 0.8%, adopted by the Santa Monica Rent Control Board for rent increases effective Sept 1, 2026 through Aug 31, 2027 under Charter §1805.

The 2026 cap, in one paragraph

Santa Monica's annual General Adjustment is set by the Rent Control Board under Charter §1805(b) using 75% of the percentage change in the BLS CPI-U for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim MSA, all items, not seasonally adjusted, measured from March of the prior year to March of the publication year, capped at 6.0% under Charter §1805(b) as amended by Measure RC (2002). For the 2026-27 cycle the March 2025 — March 2026 LA-Long Beach-Anaheim MSA CPI-U change of approximately 1.07% multiplied by 75% yields 0.80%, rounded to 0.8%. The Rent Control Board adopted the 2026 General Adjustment in mid-2025; it takes effect September 1, 2026 and applies through August 31, 2027.

Recent Santa Monica General Adjustment history: 2026 = 0.8% (this page); 2025 = 0.9%; 2024 = 3.0%; 2023 = 3.0% (formula 6.0% binding cap reduced by Board action under §1805(b)(2)); 2022 = 3.0%; 2021 = 0.6%; 2020 = 2.8%; 2019 = 2.5%. The arc reflects the 75% × CPI base formula with the 6.0% cap binding during 2022-23 inflation and Board discretion at §1805(b)(2) used to set lower-than-formula General Adjustments in some cycles. The 75% multiplier sits between Berkeley's 65% (BMC §13.76.110) and Oakland's 100% (OMC §8.22.070(A) capped at 3%) — making Santa Monica's effective ceiling structurally tighter than Oakland's in low-inflation years and looser than Berkeley's in high-inflation years.

Who is covered, and who is exempt

Santa Monica's Charter Article XVIII reaches a narrow set of residential rentals. Coverage triggers under Charter §1801(c) require the building to be a residential rental unit AND the building's first certificate of occupancy issued ON OR BEFORE April 10, 1979 (the date Santa Monica voters approved Article XVIII as the Rent Control Charter Amendment). The April 10, 1979 cutoff is the EARLIEST CoC cutoff in the California rent-control catalogue:

• Santa Monica: April 10, 1979 (today's page).
• San Francisco: June 13, 1979 — see SF page.
• West Hollywood: July 1, 1979 — see WeHo page (forthcoming).
• LA RSO: October 1, 1978 — but only reaches buildings of TWO OR MORE units; see LA RSO page.
• Oakland: December 31, 1982.
• Berkeley: February 1, 1995 — see Berkeley page.

Costa-Hawkins (Cal. Civ. Code §§1954.50-1954.535) EXEMPTS a unit from Article XVIII's MAR cap (and shifts it to AB 1482's 8.8% LA-Long Beach-Anaheim cap) where:

• §1954.52(a)(1): the building's first CoC issued AFTER February 1, 1995 — but Santa Monica's Article XVIII already excludes post-April-10-1979 buildings, so this exemption is generally redundant with the underlying coverage rule.
• §1954.52(a)(2): the unit is a condominium that is separately alienable when sold to a bona fide purchaser.
• §1954.52(a)(3): the unit is a single-family home AND the current tenancy commenced on or after January 1, 1996. This is the most active Costa-Hawkins exemption in Santa Monica because many pre-April-10-1979 SFRs have been re-tenanted post-1996 and now fall under AB 1482's 8.8% statewide cap instead of Article XVIII's 0.8% General Adjustment.

Owner-occupied buildings with one or two rental units, government-subsidized units, hospital and dormitory accommodations, and post-April-10-1979 buildings are excluded from Article XVIII rent control entirely under Charter §1801(c)(1)-(7). Single-family homes built before April 10, 1979 are nominally covered but are typically Costa-Hawkins-exempt with post-1996 tenancies under §1954.52(a)(3).

The Maximum Allowable Rent (MAR) framework

Santa Monica's rent-control framework is built around the Maximum Allowable Rent (MAR) — a per-unit figure tracked by the Santa Monica Rent Control Board for every controlled rental unit since Article XVIII's adoption in 1979. The MAR is the lawful ceiling for rent that may be charged on the unit; collecting rent above the MAR is unlawful regardless of any lease term that purports to authorize it. The MAR rises by the published General Adjustment each September 1 under Charter §1805. Each January 1 a separate Charter §1806.1 cost-of-living adjustment may apply to certain pre-1999 increases. Capital improvements, fair return, and utility-pass-through increases are tracked separately on the unit's Rent Control Board record under Charter §1805(c).

Annual unit registration with the Santa Monica Rent Control Board under Charter §1803 is mandatory. The registration confirms the unit's MAR and tracks every prior General Adjustment, capital-improvement increase, fair-return adjustment, and tenancy turnover. The registration form is filed each year by the landlord; the unit's MAR appears on the registration certificate and on the public Rent Control Board database. Tenants can verify the lawful MAR through the public database before paying any rent increase notice.

Vacancy reset under Costa-Hawkins §1954.53(a) permits a market-rate reset on lawful vacancy — the new tenancy's starting rent becomes the new MAR for that tenancy going forward. Each subsequent September 1 the MAR rises by the published General Adjustment. Vacancies caused by unlawful eviction, tenant harassment under §1806(c), or owner-move-in evictions that fail their §1806(a)(6) statutory requirements do NOT qualify for the Costa-Hawkins vacancy reset; the prior MAR continues to govern the next tenancy.

Banking under Charter §1805(d): forbidden

Santa Monica DOES NOT PERMIT BANKING. Skipped General Adjustments are forfeited permanently under Charter §1805(d). A landlord who declined to apply the 2024 3.0% and the 2025 0.9% General Adjustments cannot recover them in 2026's 0.8% notice — those forgone increases are gone forever, with no petition mechanism to recoup. The MAR rises only by the September 1 General Adjustment of each year (and any approved capital-improvement / fair-return increases).

Santa Monica's no-banking model places it alongside LA RSO §151.06.A as the most restrictive of the four California overlay banking models. See the AB 1482 banking comparison page for the full cross-jurisdictional walk:

• SF Rent Board Rules §4.12 (full banking): skipped AGAs accumulate indefinitely, no balance cap, no expiration; release pace constrained by 7%/year and 10%/notice ceilings. See SF Rent Banking deep-dive.
• Berkeley BMC §13.76.110(B) (rent-ceiling-accumulation): the lawful rent ceiling automatically rises each January 1 by the AGA, persists indefinitely, no per-notice ceiling.
• Oakland OMC §8.22.070(B) (petition-gated): banking permitted but a notice exceeding the current year's CPI Rent Adjustment requires an approved RAP petition before service.
• Santa Monica Charter §1805(d) (no banking): skipped General Adjustments forfeited permanently (today's page).
• LA RSO §151.06.A (no banking): skipped CPI rates forfeited permanently.
• AB 1482 statewide (no banking): no banking statute; skipped statewide caps forfeited permanently.

§827(b) notice + the MAR-citation requirement

California Civil Code §827(b) governs all residential rent-increase notices in California — Santa Monica's Article XVIII 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. Service must be per Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §1013 with a 5-day mailing-add presumption when served by U.S. Mail. See the AB 1482 90-day notice rule page and the 30 or 90 days notice blog for the full §827(b) walkthrough.

The 30-day / 90-day split tracks the notice percentage:

• §827(b)(2)(A) — 30 days: increases of less than 10% take effect 30 calendar days after service. The 2026 General Adjustment of 0.8% always falls in this window when served alone or combined with a single-year capital-improvement increase not exceeding 10% cumulatively.
• §827(b)(3) — 90 days: increases of 10% or more require 90 calendar days. In Santa Monica this is essentially only reachable through approved capital-improvement or fair-return increases under Charter §1805(c) on units that have not received a General Adjustment for many years (typically through long-tenured tenancies where the MAR has rebased upward through §1806.1 cost-of-living-adjustments to the §1805 General Adjustments) — but even then, banking is forbidden so multi-year stacking is not possible.

Santa Monica also requires that every rent-increase notice cite the specific Rent Control Board-published General Adjustment percentage AND the controlled-unit's currently-effective MAR. A rent-increase notice that omits the MAR citation is voidable through a Rent Control Board petition under Charter §1809 — the MAR-citation requirement is the most stringent notice-content requirement in the California overlay rent-control catalogue.

Just-cause eviction under Charter §1806

Santa Monica Charter §1806 establishes just-cause-for-eviction protections for every controlled rental unit. The eight enumerated just causes under §1806(a) are:

1. Tenant fails to pay rent.
2. Tenant violates a material lease term not cured after written notice giving a reasonable opportunity to cure.
3. Tenant commits or permits a nuisance or substantial property damage.
4. Tenant refuses to permit lawful access.
5. Tenant refuses to extend or renew an expiring lease on substantially the same terms.
6. Owner seeks to recover possession in good faith for owner or close-relative occupancy (§1806(a)(6) — includes relocation-assistance and senior/disabled/long-tenured protections).
7. Owner seeks to demolish the unit pursuant to a Rent Control Board permit.
8. Owner seeks to permanently withdraw the unit from rental market under the Ellis Act (Cal. Gov. Code §§7060-7060.7).

The §1806 protections apply to controlled rental units; Costa-Hawkins §1954.52(a) exempts SFR/condo/post-1995 buildings from the MAR cap but does NOT exempt them from §1806 just-cause-eviction. A landlord who serves a defective rent-increase notice (over-MAR, missing MAR citation, out of compliance with the 12-month frequency rule under Charter §1805(c)) loses the just-cause-eviction posture for that lease term: a subsequent unlawful detainer for non-payment of the over-MAR portion fails because the over-MAR demand is unlawful. See the AB 1482 just-cause page for the full defective-notice / just-cause-loss linkage analysis.

Owner-move-in evictions under §1806(a)(6) require: good-faith intent to occupy as primary residence for at least 12 months; relocation assistance under §1806(c)(1) (currently approximately $25,000 - $35,000 per displaced household depending on tenancy duration and tenant qualifications); written notice with statutory disclosures; and Rent Control Board filing within 10 days of the notice. Senior tenants (62+), disabled tenants, and tenants of 5+ years receive heightened protections.

Ellis Act withdrawals under §1806(a)(8) require notice to the Rent Control Board, notice to all tenants, 120-day minimum notice period (extended to one year for senior and disabled tenants), and trigger the §1954.535 re-rental restrictions: if the landlord returns any unit in the building to the rental market within 5 years, the prior tenants have a right of first refusal at the prior MAR.

Penalty cascade under Charter §1809

A rent collected above the lawful MAR is unlawful. The tenant may file a petition with the Santa Monica Rent Control Board under Charter §1809 within four years of the over-MAR collection (Santa Monica's four-year limitation period is the LONGEST in the California overlay rent-control catalogue, exceeding Oakland's two-year and matching Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §337's general four-year breach-of-contract limit). The Rent Control Board's Hearing Examiner can order a five-prong remedy:

1. Reduction of rent to lawful MAR going forward. The over-MAR collection stops with the next rent period; the tenant's lawful obligation is recalculated to the published MAR.
2. Refund of unlawfully-collected portion with statutory interest at 10% under Cal. Civ. Code §3289(b). The Hearing Examiner typically orders a credit against future rent until the unlawful portion is recouped.
3. Civil penalties up to $500 per violation under Charter §1809(d). Multiple violations across multiple notice cycles each trigger their own penalty.
4. Treble damages where willful or in bad faith. Charter §1809(c) authorizes treble damages — three times the unlawfully-collected portion. The willfulness standard mirrors AB 1482 §1947.12(h)(3) and SF Admin. Code §37.10B(c).
5. Attorney fees to prevailing tenants. Charter §1809(e) authorizes attorney fees, distinguishing Santa Monica from SF (which has no attorney-fee-shifting under §37.8 petitions).

Tenants may also raise the overcharge as an affirmative defense to an unlawful-detainer (eviction) action for non-payment under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §1161, voiding the eviction predicate. The Rent Control Board can refer willful violations to the Santa Monica City Attorney for misdemeanor prosecution under Charter §1809(f) — a criminal-enforcement option not available in any other California overlay rent-control jurisdiction. In practice, criminal referrals are reserved for repeat-violator landlords who continue collecting over-MAR rents after a Hearing Examiner order.

How RentCeiling enforces Santa Monica's 0.8% for you

The free California calculator takes (current rent, building first-CoC era, last-increase date, ordinance overlay) and routes Santa Monica units to the 0.8% 2026 General Adjustment with the Charter §1805(b) citation, the categorical and Costa-Hawkins exemption checks, the no-banking flag under Charter §1805(d), the registration-required check under Charter §1803, and the 12-month frequency verification under Charter §1805(c). The California notice generator consumes the same inputs and emits a printable §827(b)-compliant notice with the MAR citation, the §1013 mailing-add applied, and the Charter §1809 tenant-petition rights notice. The California rent increase 2026 page places Santa Monica's 0.8% in the seven-jurisdiction California catalogue (AB 1482 8.8%, LA RSO 3.0%/2.8%, SF 1.6%, Berkeley 1.0%, Oakland 1.7%, Santa Monica 0.8%, West Hollywood 0.75%). The Costa-Hawkins explainer walks the §1954.52(a) exemption framework that decides whether each Santa Monica unit falls under Article XVIII or AB 1482. The four-California-rent-caps explainer places Santa Monica alongside SF, Berkeley, LA RSO, Oakland, and AB 1482. Open rule-set at /rules/index.json.

Run the California 2026 cap calculator (free)

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