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Published July 15, 2026
Newer buildings dodge AB 1482 and Inglewood rent control for 15 years from certificate of occupancy, then age in automatically.
A rental with a certificate of occupancy less than 15 years old is exempt from both the statewide Tenant Protection Act, AB 1482, and Inglewood's local Housing Protection Ordinance. The exemption is not permanent. It rolls forward year by year, and each unit ages into full rent cap and just cause coverage the day its certificate of occupancy turns 15.
California's Tenant Protection Act of 2019, codified at Civil Code section 1947.12, caps annual rent increases and requires just cause for eviction on most residential rentals statewide. Subdivision (d) exempts housing that has been issued a certificate of occupancy within the previous 15 years, with mobile homes carved back out of that exemption.
The key word is previous. This is a rolling exemption, not a fixed cutoff year. When the law took effect on January 1, 2020, anything built on or after January 1, 2005 was new enough to be exempt. By January 1, 2025, that line had moved to buildings from 2010 forward. Today, in mid-2026, a certificate of occupancy needs to be dated after roughly mid-2011 to stay outside AB 1482. A stadium-corridor or Downtown El Segundo project that felt brand new a few years ago can cross that 15 year line while you are still holding it, and the rent cap and just cause protections attach automatically on that anniversary, no new legislation required.
Owners with mixed-vintage portfolios need to track this per building, and sometimes per unit, since certificates of occupancy can be issued at different times for phased developments. AB 1482's cap, when it applies, limits annual increases to 5 percent plus the regional CPI change, or 10 percent, whichever is lower, and requires a qualifying reason to end most tenancies.
Inglewood layered its own rent stabilization and just cause ordinance, the Housing Protection Ordinance, on top of state law, codified in Article 10 of Chapter 8 of the Inglewood Municipal Code. It carries its own new construction exemption, also built on a rolling 15 year window measured from the certificate of occupancy. A unit that got its certificate on January 1, 2008, for example, was outside the ordinance until it turned 15 in January 2023.
Once a unit ages in, Inglewood's caps depend on building size. Properties with four units or fewer are limited to 5 percent plus the change in the regional Consumer Price Index or 10 percent, whichever is lower. Buildings with five or more units are capped at 3 percent or the CPI change, whichever is greater. Inglewood also requires owners to register every rental unit with the city's Housing Protection Department. Failing to register strips an otherwise-exempt owner of the exemption entirely, meaning an unregistered new building can end up under rent control it never should have been subject to, simply for missing a paperwork step.
Most owners think of an exemption as something that is checked once at purchase and then forgotten. With the 15 year rolling window, that is backward. A property built in 2012 was safely exempt in 2020, 2023, and 2025, and quietly aged in during 2027. The safest practice is to pull the certificate of occupancy date for every building in a portfolio and calendar the 15 year anniversary the same way you would calendar a loan maturity.
If you bought newer construction in El Segundo, Inglewood, or elsewhere in the South Bay specifically to stay outside rent control, mark the certificate of occupancy date now and put a reminder on the calendar for year 15. If you manage in Inglewood, confirm the unit is registered with the city's Housing Protection Department regardless of whether you believe it is currently exempt. If you would rather not track certificate of occupancy anniversaries across a portfolio yourself, that is what we do for our owners.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm with a licensed professional before you act.
Last verified: July 2026.
Topics: compliance, AB 1482, rent control, Inglewood, new construction exemption, El Segundo landlords
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Schofield Properties is a family run property management company at 323 Richmond St, El Segundo, CA 90245. We have managed the South Bay since 1972 and personally oversee about 186 doors today. Book a call to talk about your property.
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