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Published July 15, 2026
Unincorporated LA County has its own just cause list and relocation rules, and they are not the same as the statewide law.
If you own a rental in unincorporated Los Angeles County, you are covered by the County's Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections Ordinance (Chapter 8.52 of the County Code), not just the statewide Tenant Protection Act. That ordinance has its own just cause categories, its own notice math, and its own relocation assistance rules administered by the County's Department of Consumer and Business Affairs (DCBA). Get the wrong list and you can owe relocation money you did not budget for.
Most South Bay owners know the statewide rule: after a tenant has lived in a unit for 12 months, Civil Code section 1946.2 requires a valid just cause reason to end the tenancy, and no-fault terminations (owner or family move-in, withdrawal from the rental market, demolition or substantial remodel, or compliance with a government order) trigger a relocation payment equal to one month's rent, either paid directly or waived from the final month.
Unincorporated LA County stacks its own ordinance on top of that. Chapter 8.52, administered by the DCBA, applies to residential rental units in the County's unincorporated areas (areas like East Los Angeles, Athens, Willowbrook, Val Verde, and other pockets that are not inside a cityline such as El Segundo, Hawthorne, or Torrance). If your property sits inside an incorporated city, Chapter 8.52 does not apply to you and you follow that city's own rules plus the statewide law.
The County ordinance splits eviction reasons into at fault grounds and no fault grounds, similar in structure to the statewide law but not identical in detail. At fault grounds include nonpayment of rent above a monetary threshold, material breach of the lease, creating a nuisance or using the unit illegally, refusal to sign a substantially similar renewal lease, and exceeding income limits in a government regulated unit. No fault grounds, the ones that can trigger relocation assistance, include the owner or a qualifying family member moving in, withdrawal of the unit from the rental market, and vacating under a government or court order.
One detail that has changed recently: the County raised the rent debt threshold that protects a tenant from eviction for nonpayment. As of April 16, 2026, a landlord cannot evict for unpaid rent below two months of the unit's Fair Market Rent (FMR), up from one month's FMR previously, and the termination notice must state the applicable FMR and bedroom count. Confirm the current FMR figure for your unit's bedroom count directly with DCBA or HUD before you serve a notice, since FMR is published and updated annually.
Under Chapter 8.52, when a no-fault termination requires relocation assistance, the ordinance sets up a two-tier structure. Tenants who do not fall into a protected category receive a standard relocation payment. Tenants who qualify as "Qualified Tenants," meaning a household that includes someone 62 or older, a person with a disability, or a household with a minor child under 18, are entitled to a higher relocation amount, and importantly, if any one tenant in the unit qualifies, all tenants in that unit collectively receive the higher Qualified Tenant amount.
The exact dollar figures are set out in the DCBA's relocation fee schedule under section 8.52.110 and are periodically adjusted, so we are not going to guess at numbers here. Before you serve any no-fault notice in the unincorporated County, pull the current relocation fee schedule from DCBA's Rent Stabilization Program page and confirm the amount that applies to your tenant's category. Relocation funds generally must be deposited into an escrow account and coordinated with the notice, per the Department's procedures, which is a different mechanical requirement than the statewide law's simpler "pay or waive one month's rent" approach.
The practical gaps that trip owners up are the coverage area (unincorporated pockets only, not the whole county and not incorporated cities), the escrow mechanics for relocation funds, the tiered Qualified Tenant amounts (versus the statewide law's flat one month's rent), and the FMR based nonpayment threshold that just doubled in April 2026. A notice that is valid under the statewide law is not automatically valid under Chapter 8.52 if your property happens to sit in an unincorporated pocket.
Before you serve any termination notice, confirm two things: whether your address is inside an incorporated city or in unincorporated County territory, and if unincorporated, whether your tenant's household includes anyone in a protected Qualified Tenant category. That second fact alone can change what you owe. Pull the current relocation fee schedule from DCBA before you serve anything, not after.
If you would rather not track which side of a city line your property sits on and which ordinance applies, that is exactly the kind of detail we manage for our owners every day.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm with a licensed professional before you act.
Last verified: July 2026.
Topics: compliance, eviction, just cause, los angeles county, relocation assistance, rent stabilization
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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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