Understanding Rent Control in Santa Ana

Rent Control in Santa Ana has passed, what does this mean for Rental property owners in Santa Ana??

This article is specifically for property owners in Santa Ana, California, but if you have a rental in Orange County then you want to pay attention because your city might be next. This information only applies to rental property owners in Santa Ana. 

Santa Ana City council adopted two new ordinances that protect renters and hurt property owners. Here we discuss the Rent Stabilization Ordinance. Now what exactly is Rent Stabilization? It’s a nice way of saying rent control. 

This Rent Stabilization ordinance limits residential rent increases to no more than 3% per year or 80% of of the percent change in the consumer price index over the most recent 12 month period. If the CPI is negative, then no rent increase is permitted. Now let me repeat that,  you cannot increase rent more than 3% of the current rent per year, or 80% of the percent change in the consumer price index over the most recent 12 month period. If the CPI is negative, then no rent increase is permitted. 

So lets say you have an apartment that rents for $2000 dollars, the maximum rent increase the following year would be 3% or 60 dollar increase. Because CPI has been more than 4% lately the max would be 3% but remember lets say CPI is at 3% then you can only increase your rent at 80% of the 3% which would cap your increase at 2.4% or $48 dollars. Hopefully that gives you an Idea of what to expect. 

Does this new law apply to all properties or are there some exceptions? Lucky for some… there are some exceptions. The rent cap does not apply to single family homes or individual condos, or any single unit residential property, it also does not apply to duplexes when the owner is living in one of the units. It only applies to for-rent multi-unit residential properties, so if you have a residential property with more than one unit then this rent control ordinance will apply to your property. Also this ordinance does not apply to residential buildings that were built after February 1st, 1995 or mobile home parks after January 1, 1990. So newer construction will not have a cap or a limit to how much they can raise their rents. 

This law went into effect Nov 19, 2021