Tenant rights & required notices

For current residential tenancies, the ordinary deposit limit is one month’s rent. A qualifying small landlord may charge up to two months, subject to the statutory ownership and rental-property limits. Qualifying family trusts may fall within that exception. Servicemembers retain the applicable one-month protection. PCRE’s approved-cosigner option also uses no more than one month of base rent. There is no automatically nonrefundable security deposit.

PCRE offers the applicable initial inspection before move-out. If requested, it is scheduled in the last two weeks of the tenancy with the required written notice, ordinarily at least 48 hours unless properly waived in writing. The inspection gives you an opportunity to address identified cleaning or damage before surrender, subject to the law’s exceptions.

Ordinarily within 21 calendar days after vacancy, management must return the remaining deposit and provide the itemized accounting and required supporting documents. Ordinary wear, preexisting damage and unlawful charges cannot be deducted. Applicable move-in, pre-work move-out and after-work photographs support repair and cleaning deductions. Qualifying good-faith estimates require timely follow-up; an unresolved dispute or missing forwarding address does not restart the deadline.

If the landlord received rent or your deposit electronically, the remaining deposit is returned electronically to the destination designated in writing, unless another method is agreed in writing. Management provides the applicable written notice of this right. Email delivery of the accounting requires the appropriate agreement. For multiple adult tenants, the statutory joint-payee or equal electronic-return rules apply unless all affected adults agree in writing to another permitted arrangement. Arrange payment details privately; do not upload bank credentials.

Owner remains responsible for habitability and legally required repairs. Report leaks, unsafe wiring, heating, plumbing, smoke or carbon-monoxide alarm problems and other unsafe conditions promptly. The supplied appliance inventory is identified in your property documents. Applicable 2026 agreements require a working stove and refrigerator, with landlord maintenance duties and recalled-appliance rules.

A tenant may voluntarily request a separately documented tenant-provided refrigerator arrangement with the required statement and right to request a landlord refrigerator on 30 days’ written notice. Providing your own refrigerator cannot be a condition of tenancy. This arrangement does not waive the stove requirement.

Entry is allowed only for a lawful purpose, with reasonable timing and the required notice or consent. For ordinary noticed entry, 24 hours is presumed reasonable; emergencies and other statutory exceptions have different rules. An online appointment record does not by itself serve a legal entry notice or authorize unrestricted inspection.

You may use Resident area → Private protected request for a sensitive request and its supporting documents. Those records are visible only to the requesting adult and PCRE management. Ordinary household records remain shared with invited adults. If someone else has access to your device or email, use a safe contact method and end your private access when finished. You may instead contact PCRE directly or provide documents through another appropriate method.

California provides lock-change protections for qualifying abuse or violence. A qualifying written request and documentation require Owner-paid changes to the exterior locks and a new key within 24 hours. When the alleged perpetrator is another tenant of the same dwelling, the applicable court order must exclude that person from the dwelling. In other covered circumstances, the tenant chooses among the permitted documentation, which may include a protective order, police report, qualified third-party documentation or other reasonably verifying documentation, including a signed tenant statement. Management will review the actual circumstances; an upload is not the only method of providing documentation.

If the landlord does not timely change the locks, applicable law allows the tenant to arrange a workmanlike change with comparable or better locks, notify management and provide a new key by an agreed reasonable method. Required reimbursement is due within 21 days after the tenant changes the locks. Protected early-termination rights also remain available under Civil Code section 1946.7 and any applicable housing-assistance protections.

PCRE does not retaliate for repair complaints, requests for accommodation, lawful internet opt-outs or exercising protected housing rights. The statutory 180-day provision and other retaliation protections apply according to their actual conditions; they do not remove lawful tenant obligations or authorize retaliation at another time.

For a qualifying declared disaster, rent is discharged for the period you cannot occupy the home because of a mandatory evacuation order. Prepaid rent for that period must be returned within 10 calendar days after the order is lifted, or you may deduct it from the next month’s rent. Agency-paid rent and program requirements are reconciled separately. A voluntary evacuation advisory has a different legal effect.

Owner must undertake required debris removal and hazard mitigation within a reasonable time, follow applicable official cleaning protocols and provide the required written completion notice and access to environmental reports. Disaster debris is presumed to make the unit untenantable until the specified public-health determination. Unless lawfully terminated, the tenancy continues and you may return at the pre-disaster rent when safe and practicable. The statute does not require rebuilding a destroyed residence. Applicable advance rent after termination is returned within 21 days.

PCRE applications are free. Review advertised base rent, refundable deposit, utility responsibilities and any optional provider charge before paying. PCRE’s property documents describe actual water billing and required housing-authority approval; undisclosed penalties or processing charges are not created by these notices. No fee is charged for payment by check or for preparing, serving, posting or delivering a tenancy-termination notice.

The delivered rent-law notice identifies coverage or a supported exemption under the Tenant Protection Act. Where covered, annual rent increases are limited to the lesser of 5% plus the applicable CPI or 10%, and statutory just-cause and no-fault relocation requirements apply. Construction year alone is not the certificate-of-occupancy record. Assistance-program and other applicable protections remain controlling.

Tenants may opt out of paying for covered landlord-arranged third-party internet subscriptions under Civil Code section 1942.8. The current recorded shared Wi-Fi arrangement charges tenants $0; Owner pays the subscription. Owner’s camera equipment does not remove lawful provider choice or opt-out rights. Any positive rent-reporting offer is voluntary and states the actual bureau, lawful fee and election methods. Applicability depends on the owner/building test; managing multiple properties alone does not establish it.

Management must actually provide applicable property disclosures, including bed-bug information, mold information, flood information, management/service and payment information, and any required lead, shared-meter or program documents. Downloading this page does not establish receipt of an unprovided property-specific document.