California’s statewide just cause eviction law, Civil Code Section 1946.2, requires a landlord to state a specific, legally recognized reason before ending most residential tenancies, and in many cases to pay the tenant relocation assistance equal to one month’s rent within 15 calendar days.

The law was most recently amended effective January 1, 2026, and by its own terms it sunsets on January 1, 2030 unless the Legislature acts again before then.

Here is exactly what the statute requires, which properties it reaches, and what a landlord selling a tenant-occupied property needs to confirm before serving any termination notice.

Table of Contents

The 12-Month Threshold Before Just Cause Applies

Under subdivision (a) of Section 1946.2, once a tenant has continuously and lawfully occupied a residential property for 12 months, the owner can no longer terminate the tenancy without just cause, and that cause must be stated in the written termination notice itself.

If an additional adult tenant is added to the lease before an existing tenant reaches 12 months of occupancy, the protection only kicks in once either all tenants have occupied the unit for 12 months or more, or at least one tenant has occupied it for 24 months or more.

This threshold is what separates an ordinary month-to-month tenancy a landlord can end with a simple 30- or 60-day notice from a protected tenancy that now requires a specific, statutorily defined reason.

At-Fault Just Cause: Eleven Specific Grounds

Subdivision (b)(1) lists the at-fault grounds a landlord can rely on without owing relocation assistance: nonpayment of rent, a breach of a material lease term after written notice to cure, nuisance, waste, refusing to sign a renewal lease with similar terms after a written request, criminal activity directed at an owner or agent, unauthorized assignment or subletting, refusing to allow lawful entry, using the unit for an unlawful purpose, an employee or agent failing to vacate after termination of that role, and failing to deliver possession after giving the owner notice of intent to vacate.

For any curable violation, subdivision (c) requires the landlord to first give notice of the violation with an opportunity to cure before a three-day notice to quit without a cure option can follow — skipping that first notice on a curable issue is itself a defect that can void the termination.

No-Fault Just Cause: The Four Categories That Trigger Relocation Pay

Subdivision (b)(2) lists four no-fault grounds: the owner or a qualifying family member intending to occupy the unit as a primary residence for at least 12 continuous months; withdrawing the unit from the rental market entirely; complying with a government or court order to vacate, or a local ordinance that necessitates vacating; and intent to demolish or substantially remodel the property.

Unlike the at-fault grounds, every one of these triggers the relocation-assistance or rent-waiver requirement described further below, because the tenant did nothing wrong — the termination is about what the owner wants to do with the property, not about the tenant’s conduct.

The Owner Move-In Notice: Who Qualifies and What the Notice Must Say

The owner-occupancy ground only reaches an owner’s spouse, domestic partner, children, grandchildren, parents, or grandparents — not a sibling, aunt, uncle, or friend.

For leases signed on or after July 1, 2020, this ground only applies if the tenant agreed in writing to the termination, or the lease itself contains a provision letting the owner terminate for this reason.

The intended occupant must move in within 90 days after the tenant vacates and live there as a primary residence for at least 12 consecutive months; if that does not happen, the owner must offer the unit back to the tenant who left, at the same rent and terms, and reimburse reasonable moving expenses beyond whatever relocation assistance was already paid.

The written notice itself must name the intended occupant and their relationship to the owner, and must tell the tenant they can request proof of that relationship.

The Substantial Remodel Rules and the Exact Notice Language Required

“Substantially remodel” has a narrow statutory meaning: replacing or substantially modifying a structural, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical system that requires a permit, or abating hazardous materials like lead paint, mold, or asbestos, where the work cannot be done safely with the tenant remaining in place and requires vacating for at least 30 consecutive days.

Cosmetic work like painting or minor repairs never qualifies.

The termination notice for this ground must include a specific statutory sentence verbatim: that if the remodel or demolition described in the notice is not commenced or completed, the owner must offer the tenant the chance to re-rent the unit on the same terms and at the same rent that was in effect when they vacated, with 30 days to accept and 30 more days to reoccupy.

The notice must also describe the remodel’s scope and expected duration, or the demolition’s expected date, together with a copy of the required permits.

Relocation Assistance: One Month’s Rent, Paid Within 15 Calendar Days

For any no-fault termination, subdivision (d) requires the owner to either pay the tenant a direct relocation payment or waive the final month’s rent in writing before it becomes due — the owner’s choice, not the tenant’s, and the obligation applies regardless of the tenant’s income.

The amount is equal to one month of the rent that was in effect when the termination notice was served.

If the owner chooses a direct payment rather than a rent waiver, that payment is due within 15 calendar days of serving the notice — not 15 days from some later date, and not whenever the tenant actually moves out.

The termination notice itself must tell the tenant which option the owner is using and, if it’s a rent waiver, state the dollar amount being waived.

What Happens If the Owner Gets This Wrong

Subdivision (d)(4) is unambiguous: an owner’s failure to strictly comply with the relocation-assistance requirement renders the termination notice void. Subdivision (g) extends that same consequence to a failure to comply with any other part of Section 1946.2.

A void notice generally means the landlord has to start the termination process over from the beginning, paying or waiving correctly the second time, which can add weeks or months to a sale timeline that depended on vacant possession.

Subdivision (h) also exposes an owner who recovers possession in material violation of the statute to a civil action for actual damages, attorney’s fees and costs at the court’s discretion, and up to three times actual damages plus punitive damages if the violation was willful or done with fraud or malice.

The Attorney General, and the relevant city attorney or county counsel, can separately seek injunctive relief.

The Single-Family Home and Condo Exemption — and Its Mandatory Notice

Subdivision (e)(8) exempts a single-family home or condo that is alienable separate from the title to any other unit, as long as the owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, an LLC with a corporate member, or mobilehome park management, and the tenant has been given a specific written statement that the property is exempt from both the just cause law and the companion rent-cap statute, Civil Code 1947.12.

For any tenancy commenced or renewed on or after July 1, 2020, that exact statutory notice has to appear in the lease itself — it is not enough to mention it verbally or hand the tenant a separate flyer after the fact.

A landlord who never included this language in a lease signed or renewed after that date cannot claim the exemption for that tenancy, no matter how clearly the property otherwise qualifies on paper.

The 15-Year New-Construction Exemption

Subdivision (e)(7) exempts housing that received its certificate of occupancy within the previous 15 years, with one exception: this exemption does not apply to a mobilehome.

This is a rolling exemption, not a fixed cutoff date — a building’s 15-year exemption window is measured from its own certificate-of-occupancy date, so a property that qualified as exempt new construction several years ago can age into just-cause coverage on its own, with no action required by either party, once that 15-year mark passes.

Other Full Exemptions: Dorms, Shared Living, Duplexes, and Deed-Restricted Affordable Housing

Beyond the single-family and new-construction exemptions, Section 1946.2 does not reach transient hotel occupancy, housing in a nonprofit hospital, religious facility, extended care facility, or licensed elder-care facility, dormitories operated by a school or university, a unit where the tenant shares a bathroom or kitchen with an owner who lives on the property as their principal residence, a duplex where the owner occupies one unit as their principal residence at the start of the tenancy and continues living there, and housing that is deed-restricted or subject to a recorded regulatory agreement as affordable housing for very low, low, or moderate income households.

A mobilehome space itself is also excluded from this particular statute, since mobilehome tenancies are instead governed by the separate Mobilehome Residency Law.

When a Local Ordinance Controls Instead of State Law

Subdivision (i) carves out properties already covered by a local just-cause ordinance adopted on or before September 1, 2019 — that local ordinance simply applies instead of the state statute.

For a local ordinance adopted or amended after that date, it only displaces Section 1946.2 if the local government has made a binding finding that its ordinance is more protective, meaning it is consistent with the state law’s just-cause framework but further limits termination grounds, provides higher relocation amounts, or adds protections not otherwise barred by law.

A property is never subject to both the local ordinance and this state statute at the same time; the more-protective local rule takes over entirely, or the state law does.

The Mandatory Tenant Disclosure Every Covered Lease Must Include

Subdivision (f) requires every landlord of a covered unit to give tenants written notice, in no less than 12-point type, summarizing both the rent-cap law and the just-cause law, either in the lease itself, as an addendum, or as a separately signed notice.

For a tenancy that existed before July 1, 2020, that notice had to go out no later than August 1, 2020. For any tenancy commenced or renewed since, the notice must be built into the lease or rental agreement directly.

This is a separate, affirmative disclosure obligation from the just-cause protections themselves, and missing it is its own compliance gap distinct from getting a termination notice wrong later.

Why the Law Sunsets in 2030

Section 1946.2 is not a permanent fixture of the Civil Code the way most landlord-tenant statutes are.

Subdivision (m) states the section became operative April 1, 2024, and subdivision (n) states it remains in effect only until January 1, 2030, at which point it is automatically repealed unless the Legislature extends or replaces it before that date.

The statute has already been amended once since its original 2019 enactment, most recently effective January 1, 2026, so anyone relying on an older summary of this law should confirm they are reading the current, amended text rather than the original Tenant Protection Act language from 2019.

A Worked Example: Owner Move-In With Relocation Assistance

Say a landlord’s adult child wants to move into a rental unit where the tenant has lived for three years, paying $2,400 a month.

Because the lease was signed after July 1, 2020 and contains a provision allowing termination for an owner-relative move-in, the landlord can rely on the owner-occupancy ground without needing the tenant’s separate written agreement at the time of termination.

The landlord serves a written notice naming the child and the relationship, offering proof of that relationship on request, and electing to pay relocation assistance rather than waive rent.

Because the amount is one month of the rent in effect when the notice was served, the landlord owes $2,400, due within 15 calendar days of serving that notice — not 15 days after the tenant actually moves out, and not spread across the final weeks of the tenancy.

If the child does not move in within 90 days after the tenant vacates, or moves in but leaves before completing 12 consecutive months as a primary residence, the landlord has to offer the unit back to the original tenant at the old rent and reimburse any moving costs beyond the $2,400 already paid.

Skipping the 15-day payment deadline, understating the amount, or leaving the relationship disclosure out of the notice each independently voids the termination under subdivision (d)(4), regardless of whether the underlying owner-occupancy ground was otherwise legitimate.

How This Affects Selling a Tenant-Occupied Property

A sale by itself is never a just cause to terminate a tenancy — the buyer simply takes title subject to the existing lease unless one of the statute’s specific grounds independently applies, such as a buyer who personally intends to move in under the owner-occupancy ground.

An owner who wants vacant possession before closing has to pick a ground that actually fits, serve a compliant notice with every required element, and pay or waive the relocation amount correctly and on time, or risk a voided notice that delays the whole transaction.

Many sellers find it faster to sell with the tenant still in place rather than gamble a closing date on a termination process that depends on getting every statutory requirement right the first time.

Before You Serve a Termination Notice: A Quick Checklist

Confirm the tenant has actually crossed the 12- or 24-month threshold that triggers just-cause protection in the first place.
Check whether a full exemption applies — single-family home with the required lease notice, new construction within 15 years, or one of the other categories under subdivision (e).
Check whether a local just-cause ordinance, rather than this state statute, actually governs the property.
If relying on a no-fault ground, confirm the notice states the relocation-assistance or rent-waiver amount and that payment goes out within 15 calendar days of service.
For owner move-in or substantial remodel, confirm the notice includes every specific disclosure the statute requires, including the exact statutory sentence for a remodel notice.

If you own a tenant-occupied property anywhere in California and would rather not gamble a sale timeline on getting every element of a Section 1946.2 notice exactly right, Cash Home Buyers CA buys rental property with tenants already in place.

We either buy directly or bring in a vetted cash buyer, and when you sell to us, we pay the standard closing costs, including the county and city transfer taxes, escrow and title.

Our guide to selling a house with tenants in California covers the broader leasing and disclosure side of a tenant-occupied sale, and our piece on no-fault eviction rules in California walks through how a sale and a termination notice interact.

You can find Cash Home Buyers CA on our Google Business Profile at this listing.

California’s Just Cause Eviction Notice: What Civil Code 1946.2 Requires