How Much Relocation Does Culver City Make You Pay for a No Fault Move Out?

Published July 25, 2026

If you end a Culver City tenancy for a reason that is not the tenant's fault, the city sets the relocation check by formula. Here is the exact math and timing.

If you ask a Culver City tenant to leave for a reason that has nothing to do with anything they did wrong, the city does not let you and the tenant negotiate the goodbye check. It sets the number by formula. You owe three times the greater of the tenant's current monthly rent or the HUD fair market rent for a comparable unit in that ZIP code, plus one thousand dollars. Here is exactly how that lands.

The formula, in plain numbers

Culver City's relocation rule lives in Municipal Code section 15.09.325, part of the permanent rent control and tenant protection ordinance. When you serve a termination for a no fault ground, you owe a relocation payment equal to three times the greater of two numbers: the tenant's current monthly rent, or the Small Area Fair Market Rent that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes for a comparable unit in the same ZIP code. Then you add one thousand dollars on top of whichever of those two is larger.

Walk it through with a real building. Say you have a two bedroom renting for $2,500 a month, and the tenant has been there long enough that the rent sits below today's market. Three times $2,500 is $7,500. Add the thousand and you are at $8,500. But if the HUD Small Area Fair Market Rent for a comparable two bedroom in that ZIP is, say, $3,200, then the city makes you use the bigger figure: three times $3,200 is $9,600, plus a thousand is $10,600. The city always reaches for whichever number is higher, which is the point. A tenant paying a deeply below market rent is precisely the tenant the ordinance wants cushioned, so the HUD figure quietly does the heavy lifting.

Two details owners miss. First, this is one payment per household, not per person on the lease. Second, the HUD number moves every year, so the check you would write this month is not the check you would write next spring. Before you budget, pull the current Small Area Fair Market Rent for the unit's ZIP and bedroom count rather than trusting last year's figure.

Which move outs count as no fault

The relocation payment attaches to the no fault grounds, which are the reasons a good tenant can still lose their home through no failing of their own. In Culver City that list covers an owner or a qualifying family member moving into the unit, withdrawal of the whole building from the rental market under the state Ellis Act, demolition or a substantial remodel that requires the unit to be vacant, and compliance with a government or court order to vacate. If your reason to end the tenancy is on that list, the relocation check is owed.

What does not trigger it is an at fault termination. If the tenant stops paying rent, breaches the lease in a material way, or creates a nuisance and you terminate on those grounds, the relocation formula does not apply. The dividing line matters, because serving the wrong kind of notice, or skipping a relocation payment you actually owed, is the fastest way to hand a tenant a defense and turn a clean move out into a contested one.

One more thing that surprises owners. Culver City shields its most vulnerable tenants from the owner occupancy ground rather than by paying them more. Longtime tenants who are seniors, tenants who are disabled or terminally ill, lower income households, and families with school aged children generally cannot be removed for an owner or family move in at all under the ordinance. So the practical picture is not always a bigger relocation check for a protected tenant. Sometimes it is that the no fault path you were counting on is closed, and you owe a licensed attorney a careful read before you serve anything.

The clock and the deductions

The payment is not a lump sum you settle at the end. Culver City splits it and puts it on a tight schedule. One half is due within five business days after you serve the notice of termination. The other half is due within five business days after the tenant actually moves out. Miss those windows and you have created a compliance problem, not just a late payment.

You are allowed a few offsets. The city lets you deduct from the relocation payment for past due rent the tenant owes, for damage beyond ordinary wear, and for cleaning or anything else a security deposit could lawfully cover. The one carve out worth remembering is that back rent that piled up during the city's eviction moratorium period cannot be pulled out of the relocation check. Everything you deduct still needs to be documented the way you would document any deposit charge, because a relocation dispute gets read with the same skeptical eye as a deposit dispute.

What this means for your building

If you own in Culver City, treat the relocation payment as a fixed line item the moment you even consider a no fault move out, not as a closing cost you sort out later. A single no fault termination on a modest unit can run past ten thousand dollars once the HUD figure and the thousand dollar add on are in play, and it is due on a five business day fuse. That reality reshapes decisions. An owner move in to house a family member, a plan to take a building off the market, a remodel that needs the unit empty. Each carries a real, budgetable relocation cost per household, and the tenant's low current rent makes the check bigger, not smaller.

There is one lever in the ordinance that helps genuine small owners. The relocation payment is cut in half when a small landlord, meaning an owner with no more than a handful of units in Culver City who is not tied to a corporation or a real estate investment trust, is ending the tenancy specifically for an owner or family member move in. That cut does not apply to Ellis Act withdrawals or demolitions, and it does not apply to larger portfolios. If you think you qualify, confirm your unit count and ownership structure against the ordinance's exact definition before you rely on the discount, because guessing wrong here is expensive.

The steady way through all of this is simple. Know the ground you are terminating on, price the relocation check off the current rent and the current HUD figure before you commit, respect the two payment deadlines, document any deduction, and have a licensed attorney confirm the tenant is not in a protected category that closes the door entirely. That is the difference between a clean, planned transition and a stalled one. When we manage a building, this is the kind of number we run before an owner ever serves a notice, so the decision is made with the real cost in view.

Common questions

Is the relocation payment three times rent, or three times the HUD fair market rent?

It is three times whichever of the two is larger, plus one thousand dollars. You compare the tenant's current monthly rent against the HUD Small Area Fair Market Rent for a comparable unit in that ZIP code, take the bigger number, multiply by three, and add the thousand. For a tenant paying below market rent, the HUD figure usually wins and sets the check.

Do I owe relocation if I am evicting for unpaid rent?

No. Relocation attaches to the no fault grounds, which are owner or family move in, Ellis Act withdrawal, demolition or substantial remodel, and government orders to vacate. A termination for unpaid rent, a lease breach, or a nuisance is an at fault ground and does not trigger the relocation formula, though the rules for serving those notices are their own careful matter.

When exactly do I have to pay it?

Half within five business days of serving the termination notice, and the other half within five business days after the tenant has moved out. It is not payable all at once at the end, and the front half comes due almost immediately, so the money needs to be ready before you serve.

Last verified: July 25, 2026. Relocation amounts, the HUD Small Area Fair Market Rent figures, and the exact eligibility rules change over time and depend on the specific unit and tenant. This is general information for property owners, not legal advice. Confirm the current formula, deadlines, and any protected tenant status with a licensed professional before serving any notice.

Kellie

Schofield Properties

323 Richmond Street, El Segundo, CA 90245

Topics: market, culver-city, westside, tenant-protections, relocation

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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.