What Counts as Tenant Harassment Under Inglewood's Ordinance in 2026?

Published July 15, 2026

Inglewood's anti harassment ordinance bans bad faith acts like service cutoffs, abusive entry, and coercion to vacate, with a private right to sue.

Inglewood's tenant anti-harassment protections, adopted through Ordinance No. 21-09 and codified at Inglewood Municipal Code section 8-133, make it unlawful for a landlord to commit a defined list of bad faith acts against a tenant, including cutting off services, abusive entries, offensive threats, or pressuring someone to move out. Under the companion civil remedies section, IMC section 8-132, a tenant who proves a violation can sue for actual and punitive damages, the prevailing tenant recovers attorney fees and costs, and the court awards treble damages when the landlord acted willfully or with oppression, fraud, or malice.

Why Inglewood needed its own ordinance

California already protects tenants from landlord retaliation and requires habitable housing, but state law does not spell out a specific list of harassment acts or hand tenants a private right to sue over it. Inglewood adopted its own Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protection framework, and inside that framework sits a tenant anti-harassment ordinance aimed at landlords who try to push tenants out without going through a lawful eviction. If we manage a property in Inglewood, this ordinance sits on top of, not instead of, state eviction and habitability law.

The enumerated bad-faith acts

The ordinance does not punish every landlord mistake. It targets conduct done in bad faith, meaning done with the intent to get a tenant to leave, give up rights, or stop asserting a legal claim. The acts called out include:

• Interrupting or cutting off housing services required by the lease or by law, such as water, heat, or trash pickup.
• Failing to make repairs, or once repairs are started, failing to use due diligence to finish them.
• Abusing the right of entry, including entries limited to certain units, entries meant to gather evidence for an eviction, excessive or unnecessary inspections, or photographing more of the unit than the entry justified.
• Using offensive words likely to provoke a violent reaction, or threatening a tenant with physical harm.
• Attempting to influence a tenant to vacate through fraud, intimidation, or coercion.
• Serving eviction notices without a good faith basis, or otherwise abusing the eviction process.
• Discriminating against a tenant based on a protected class, or interfering with a tenant's right to quiet enjoyment of the unit.

This list echoes similar tenant anti-harassment ordinances passed in Los Angeles (LAMC Section 45.33) and other Southern California cities, which is not a coincidence. Inglewood built its ordinance in the same wave of local tenant protection laws that followed the statewide Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB 1482, codified largely at Civil Code section 1946.2).

What is different about a bad-faith standard

A single late repair or one unwelcome knock on the door is not, by itself, harassment. The tenant generally has to show a pattern, or at least conduct serious enough to demonstrate the landlord's intent to force them out or punish them for asserting a right, such as requesting a repair or reporting a code violation. That is why documentation matters on both sides. A landlord who keeps a clear repair log, gives proper notice before every entry under Civil Code section 1954, and can show a legitimate business reason for a notice to quit is in a very different position than one who cannot explain a pattern of surprise inspections timed right after a tenant complaint.

Remedies available to tenants

Under IMC section 8-132, a tenant who prevails in a civil action can recover actual and punitive damages and, where the landlord acted willfully or with oppression, fraud, or malice, the court awards treble damages. A prevailing tenant is also entitled to reasonable attorney fees and costs. The ordinance says no administrative remedy needs to be exhausted first, so a tenant does not have to wait on city code enforcement to bring a claim, and a poorly handled maintenance dispute can turn into litigation exposure faster than owners expect.

What this means for you

If you own property in Inglewood, the practical takeaway is not to fear routine landlord tasks. It is to do them the right way: give proper entry notice, document every repair request and when it was resolved, and never use notices, entries, or unfriendly words as leverage to get a tenant to leave outside the eviction process. A legitimate 3-day or 60-day notice served for a real reason, with real records behind it, is not harassment. A pattern of surprise inspections right after a tenant asks for a repair looks very different in front of a judge.

If you would rather not track ordinance compliance across every city we operate in, that is what we do at Schofield.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm with a licensed professional before you act.

Sources

1. City of Inglewood, Ordinance No. 21-09: https://www.cityofinglewood.org/DocumentCenter/View/16268/Ordinance-No-21-09---Executed
2. Inglewood Municipal Code, Chapter 8 Article 10, Residential Rent Regulations (includes sections 8-132 and 8-133): https://ecode360.com/43780419
3. Astanehe Law, "The Inglewood Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance": https://astanehelaw.com/2022/07/24/the-inglewood-tenant-anti-harassment-ordinance/
4. Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 45.33, Tenant Harassment (comparable ordinance): https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/los_angeles/latest/lamc/0-0-0-356199
5. California Civil Code section 1946.2 (Tenant Protection Act of 2019): https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1946.2.&lawCode=CIV
6. California Civil Code section 1954 (landlord entry notice requirements): https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1954.&lawCode=CIV

Last verified: July 2026.

Topics: compliance, Inglewood, tenant harassment, landlord tenant law, South Bay rentals

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