Inglewood Rental Registry: When You Must Register, What It Costs, and Who Is Exempt

Published August 10, 2026

Inglewood's Residential Registry opens January 3 and closes March 31 every year, and missing it triggers per-unit late fees, a freeze on rent collection, and a possible lien on your property tax bill. Here is who must register, what the fee is, and which units are exempt.

Inglewood's Residential Registry opens January 3 and closes March 31 each year. Registration is mandatory under Inglewood Municipal Code Chapter 8, Article 10, Section 8-126 for any parcel with two or more units and for single family homes or condos not owned by a natural person. The published annual fee is $184 per unit. Penalties begin April 1.

Last verified: August 10, 2026

Who has to register

The rule is narrower than most owners assume, and wider than they hope.

You must register if you own residential property with two or more units on a single parcel. That includes duplexes. It includes mixed use buildings with a residential component. It also includes single family homes and condominiums that are not owned by a natural person, which in practice means anything titled to an LLC, a corporation, an LP, or a REIT (IMC Chapter 8, Article 10, Section 8-126).

You do not have to register a single family home or condo that is owned by a natural person. As of December 9, 2021, those units sit outside the mandatory registration requirement whether the owner lives there or rents it out. A family trust is treated the same way on the fee schedule.

This catches a lot of South Bay owners off guard. The house is exempt. The same house, deeded into your LLC last year for liability reasons, is not. Nothing about the property changed. The registration obligation did.

Registering is not the same as paying

Plenty of units owe no fee and still have to be entered into the system. Read the next two sections together or you will get this wrong.

The registration window

The online Inglewood Residential Registry opens to owners and landlords on January 3 and stays open through March 31. The Housing Protection Department mails notices in December with the portal link and, for first time accounts, the unique pin you will need alongside your Assessor Parcel Number and a valid Business Tax Certificate.

Registration is annual. It is not a one time filing. Owners also have to record transactions inside the system during the year: rent increases, notices served, tenancy terminations, new tenancies, and changes of ownership. Copies of notices go to the Housing Protection Department within three days of being served on the tenant.

New owners get 30 days

If you buy in Inglewood, you have 30 days from the purchase date to register the property, regardless of where that lands relative to the January window. The bill follows title. If the fee comes due while you own the property, you owe it, and the city will not waive penalties or issue a refund because a sale was pending or closed afterward.

What the fee is

The published annual program fee is $206 per residential unit, reduced to $184 per unit until the city's Housing Protection Inspection Unit is established. Units occupied by rent subsidized tenants, such as Section 8, are billed at $92 per unit.

These figures come from the city's Annual Program Fee schedule and its registration FAQ. Fee schedules get revised. Confirm the current figure with the city at 310-412-5111 before you write the check.

Owners may pass through 50% of the registration fee to tenants under Section 8-126, provided the fee is paid in full by the due date. The pass through requires a 30 day notice, and the monthly amount is half the fee divided by 12. Landlords whose tenants receive rent subsidies cannot pass anything through. The pass through is not a rent increase and is tracked outside the registry system.

Who is exempt from the fee and still has to register

This is the trap. Several categories owe $0 and are still required to file.

Fee exempt properties, still registered:

• Owner occupied residences where the owner occupant rents no more than one dwelling unit, including an ADU or JADU, and established residency before the tenant. The property exemption must be claimed.
• New developments with a certificate of occupancy for new construction within 15 years of the current date.

Fee exempt units, still registered:

• Owner occupied units and manager units. These are temporary exemptions and must be requested and renewed annually through the registry.
• Units renting below 70% of Fair Market Rents for a comparable unit, if the unit is timely registered. The system calculates this automatically. Fair Market Rents come from HUD data specific to Los Angeles County.
• Affordable housing units.

Note the condition on the below market exemption. The fee is waived only if the unit is registered on time. Register late and you can owe money on a unit that would otherwise have cost you nothing.

What happens after April 1

The penalty schedule escalates monthly:

• April 1: $100 late fee per unit.
• May 1: $200 total added, and the landlord may not advertise, demand, or accept rent, or evict any tenant, until all fees are paid.
• June 1: $500 total added per month.

Beyond the money, an unregistered owner is not eligible to raise rent, collect rent, advertise a vacancy, or pursue an eviction. No owner may advertise, demand or accept rent, or evict without first obtaining a valid Registration Certificate and serving a copy on the tenant. Certificates must be given to tenants or posted conspicuously, in a lobby or near an entrance.

The city can also refer unpaid amounts to enforcement, which is where the lien comes in. Beginning in April, unpaid registration triggers monthly penalties and a potential lien on the property tax bill.

FAQ

My rent is well below market. Do I still have to register?

Yes. Below 70% of Fair Market Rent removes the fee, not the filing. Landlords must register all residential units regardless of rent amount or who lives in the unit, including a family member.

I own one rental house in Inglewood. Am I in?

Only if the title is not in a natural person's name. A house held personally or in a family trust is outside the mandatory registration requirement. The same house held in an LLC must register.

I sold the building. Do I still owe the bill?

The bill is the obligation of the owner on title. If you owned the property when the fee came due, you pay. The city does not reimburse after a sale and does not waive penalties because a sale fell through.

What if I missed the March 31 deadline entirely?

Register now and pay what is owed. The penalties keep compounding monthly, and the prohibition on collecting rent, advertising, and evicting stays in place until the balance is cleared. Waiting costs more than filing late.

Get it on the calendar

Notices go out in December. The window opens January 3. Put a reminder in the first week of January and treat it as a fixed annual task, the way you treat insurance renewals.

Last verified: August 10, 2026. Fee schedules and program rules change. Confirm current figures and deadlines with the City of Inglewood Housing Protection Department, Long Term Rental Division, at 310-412-5111 or cityofinglewood.org.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rent regulation and registration rules are fact specific. Consult a licensed California attorney or a qualified professional about your particular property before acting.

Topics: Inglewood, rental registry, South Bay property management, landlord compliance, rent control, housing protection ordinance, California landlords

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