Culver City rental registration is due July 31, 2026. Here is what every owner owes.

Published July 25, 2026

Culver City set the annual rental unit registration fee at $177 per unit for 2026, due July 31, and it applies to nearly every rental in the city, not just rent controlled ones.

Culver City's annual rental unit registration is due July 31, 2026, and the fee is $177 per unit. Per the city, the registration covers all residential rental properties, including units that are exempt from rent stabilization but still subject to tenant protections, such as single family homes, townhomes, and condominiums. There is a 30 day grace period after the deadline. After that, the penalty starts.

What is actually due, and when

The number to write down is $177 per unit, effective July 1, 2026, per the Culver City Crossroads summary of the city's notice. Payment has to be postmarked by July 31, 2026. That is the whole ask on the surface. Register the units, pay the fee, keep the confirmation.

I want to flag a wrinkle, because I have seen it trip people up. If you go searching for this online, you will find older references to a $167 per unit fee. That figure is real, but it is old. When Culver City first adopted the registration program, the apartment association reported the fee at $167 per unit with a July 31 deadline. That was the launch number. The program runs on an annual cycle, and the current amount for this cycle is $177. If you are budgeting off a number you saved a few years ago, update it.

The registration itself runs through HdL Companies, which handles the program for the city. Owners use the Rental Unit Registration Portal to manage their account and pay. If you have a question about your specific units, the program line is (424) 348 3733.

This is not just a rent control thing

Here is the part that catches owners off guard, and it is the reason I am writing this instead of a quieter reminder.

A lot of owners assume registration is only for buildings under the Rent Control Ordinance. That was closer to true at the start. It is not the shape of it now. The city is clear that the annual registration reaches nearly every rental in Culver City, including properties with units that are exempt from rent stabilization but still fall under tenant protections. That language pulls in single family rental homes, townhomes, and condominiums that many owners have long treated as outside the rent control conversation entirely.

So if you own a single family home in Culver City and rent it out, you are almost certainly in scope. Owning a nicely kept condo you lease to a long term tenant does not put you outside this. The building being exempt from rent caps is a different question from the building being exempt from registration. They are two separate doors, and this is the registration door.

There are narrow exemptions. Owner occupied units are generally exempt unless they are rented, and vacant units can be handled with a certification rather than a fee. The city routes exemption requests to Rent.Control@CulverCity.org, and per the notice those requests were also due by July 31, 2026. If you think a unit qualifies, do not just skip the payment and hope. File the exemption so there is a record.

What this means for your building

Plain readout, owner to owner.

First, count your doors and multiply. At $177 per unit, a fourplex is $708. A single rental home is $177. It is not a large number per unit, but it is a hard deadline with teeth, and the teeth are where the real cost lives.

Second, mind the grace period, because it is short. The deadline is July 31. A 30 day grace period runs through the end of August, with late processing beginning September 1. Once that starts, the penalty is 20 percent added on the first day of each month, and it keeps stacking until it caps at 100 percent of the fee. In plain terms, a unit that should have cost you $177 can double if the late clock runs its full course. That is a self inflicted cost, and it is fully avoidable.

Third, and this is the one I would not want you to miss, check the units you have mentally filed under "not rent controlled." The condo. The house. The townhome you inherited and rent to a family you like. Those are exactly the properties owners forget to register, precisely because they never think of them as rent control properties. The registration does not care how you have categorized them in your head.

None of this is a reason to think twice about owning here. Culver City real estate is a good asset to hold, and the owners who do the paperwork on time simply keep it a good asset with none of the drama. This is a calendar item, not a crisis. Put it on the calendar, pay it, and move on.

How I would handle it this week

If it were my portfolio, I would do three things before the end of July. Pull the unit count for every Culver City property, including the ones that are not rent controlled, so nothing gets left off. Log into the registration portal, confirm each unit is listed, and pay in one sitting so there is a single confirmation to file. Then, for any unit I believe is genuinely exempt, send the exemption request to the city rather than assuming silence counts as approval.

That is the whole job. It is not complicated. It just rewards being early, and it punishes being late in a way that grows every month.

Common questions

Do I have to register a single family home I rent out in Culver City?

Almost certainly yes. The city's annual registration reaches residential rentals that are exempt from rent stabilization but still subject to tenant protections, and that expressly includes single family homes, townhomes, and condominiums. Being outside rent control does not put you outside registration. If you think your specific unit qualifies for an exemption, file the exemption request with the city rather than skipping it.

What happens if I miss the July 31 deadline?

There is a 30 day grace period after July 31. Late processing begins September 1, and from there a 20 percent penalty is added on the first day of each month, stacking until it reaches a maximum of 100 percent of the fee. So a $177 unit can climb toward $354 if the late clock runs its full course. Paying on time is the cheapest version by a wide margin.

Is the fee $167 or $177?

For this cycle it is $177 per unit, effective July 1, 2026, the amount the city announced for 2026. The $167 figure you may find online is the original amount from when the program launched, and it is out of date. If you saved the older number, update your budget to $177. One caveat: the fee changed this year, and some owners may see a slightly different amount (around $172.17) on the HdL payment portal than the $177 the city announced. If the two do not match, confirm the exact current amount directly with the city at (424) 348 3733 or Rent.Control@CulverCity.org before you pay.

Last verified: July 25, 2026. Fees, deadlines, penalties, and exemption rules for Culver City's rental registration program can change between cycles and can turn on the specifics of your property. This is general information for property owners, not legal advice. Confirm the current registration requirements and any exemption for your units with the city or a licensed professional before you act.

Kellie

Schofield Properties

323 Richmond Street, El Segundo, CA 90245

Topics: market, culver-city, westside, compliance, regulation

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