Beverly Hills runs two separate rent stabilization chapters on top of state law, and which one applies to your rental changes how much you can raise rent, how much notice a tenant is owed, and whether you owe a relocation fee before you can deliver the unit vacant.

Chapter 5 of the Beverly Hills Municipal Code (BHMC) covers tenancies that began at $600 a month or less in buildings built before September 20, 1978; Chapter 6 covers most other multifamily rentals with two or more units.

Sellers who assume West Hollywood’s or Los Angeles’s rules apply here are usually wrong — Beverly Hills’ Rent Stabilization Division runs its own registration portal, its own annual increase formula, and its own relocation fee schedule, and a sale does not pause any of it.

We’ve covered the broader California just-cause framework in what a no-fault eviction means if you’re trying to sell, and the cash-for-keys alternative many Beverly Hills landlords consider instead in how cash for keys actually works in California, but neither replaces reading the local ordinance first.

Table of Contents

Chapter 5 or Chapter 6: The First Thing to Confirm

The two chapters exist because Beverly Hills’ original 1979 rent control law (Chapter 5) only ever covered a narrow slice of the city’s housing stock: units in pre-1978 buildings where the tenancy started at $600 a month or less.

Everything else in a building with two or more units generally falls under Chapter 6, added later to extend coverage citywide.

A single-family home or a duplex where the owner occupies one unit is typically outside both chapters, but “typically” is doing real work in that sentence — BHMC Sections 4-5-102 and 4-6-1 set out the actual exemptions, and a seller should pull the specific unit’s registration record rather than guess based on the building’s age or size.

Getting this wrong matters because the two chapters set different annual increase caps and are updated on different schedules, so applying Chapter 6’s formula to a Chapter 5 tenancy (or vice versa) can produce a rent increase that is later challenged as invalid.

How Much You Can Raise Rent — and How Often

Chapter 6 tenancies are capped at an annual increase the city recalculates each June; Chapter 5 tenancies are capped at a figure recalculated monthly.

As of the city’s most recent published updates, the Chapter 6 rate stood at 3.2% (set June 2023) and the Chapter 5 rate at 3.1% (effective April 2024) — both numbers the Rent Stabilization Division revises on its own schedule, so a landlord should confirm the current figure directly with the Division before serving any notice rather than relying on a number from a prior cycle.

Only one increase is allowed per tenant in any rolling 12-month period, and it takes effect on 30 days’ written notice delivered personally or by mail under California Civil Code Section 1013.

A seller who wants to raise rent before marketing a tenant-occupied building — to make the in-place rent roll look more attractive to a buyer — needs to check both the timing restriction and the current-year percentage before doing it, since an increase that exceeds the applicable cap is void regardless of whether the tenant objects at the time.

Annual Registration Through BHRent Is Not Optional

Every covered unit must be registered through the city’s BHRent portal (bhrent.beverlyhills.org), and the window is short: landlords have 35 days from the date they receive the annual registration notice to complete it.

The city mails that notice to owners of record each January, and a returning owner logs in with the email address used in a prior year’s registration, while a new owner needs both the parcel’s Assessor Identification Number (AIN) and the BHRent Personal Identification Number (PIN) printed on the notice itself.

This is where a sale in progress creates a real trap: if title transfers between the January mailing and the registration deadline, the PIN goes to whoever was the owner of record when the notice was generated, not necessarily the person who needs to file.

Missing the window exposes the owner to fines of up to $500 per unit, and an unregistered unit is exactly the kind of defect a buyer’s title company or escrow officer will flag once they see an existing tenancy disclosed on the property.

Just-Cause Eviction: The Shared Grounds Under Both Chapters

Both Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 require a landlord to have a legally recognized reason before ending a covered tenancy — a pending sale is not one of them.

The grounds that do qualify include nonpayment of rent, an uncured lease violation (Chapter 6 requires the tenant get a chance to cure first), nuisance or illegal use of the unit including exceeding occupancy limits, refusal to sign a comparable new lease, keeping an unapproved subtenant, an owner or qualifying relative moving in, a change of building manager, demolition or a condominium conversion, a major remodel, or withdrawing the building from the rental market entirely under the Ellis Act.

A disruptive-tenant ground also exists, but it requires a Rent Board hearing and at least one documented prior written warning before a landlord can act on it — it is not a shortcut around the hearing process.

None of these grounds exists simply because an owner has signed a purchase agreement, which is the single most common mistake a seller makes when trying to deliver a Beverly Hills rental vacant on a tight escrow timeline.

Notice Periods Scale With the Tenant, Not Just the Ground

The required notice period depends on both the eviction ground and who is living in the unit. An owner or qualifying-relative move-in generally requires at least 90 days’ written notice, with additional protection for tenants who are 65 or older or disabled.

Demolition, a unit relocation, or a condo conversion also requires Rent Board-approved notice of at least 90 days. A major remodel requires a full year’s notice.

Withdrawing the building from the market under the Ellis Act requires at least 120 days for most households, extending to a full year where a tenant is 62 or older, disabled, or has lived in the unit more than a year.

A seller working backward from a target closing date needs to calendar from the longest applicable period, not the shortest, since the ordinance does not let a landlord choose the more convenient timeline once a tenant’s status triggers the longer one.

Relocation Payments for No-Fault Evictions

When the eviction ground is no-fault — an owner move-in, demolition, a major remodel, or an Ellis Act withdrawal are the ones a seller is most likely to use — both chapters require a relocation payment to the tenant, made when the tenant vacates and split evenly if more than one tenant lives in the unit.

Beverly Hills recalculates these amounts every July 1, so any figure quoted here should be confirmed against the current schedule published by the Rent Stabilization Division before it is relied on in a notice.

As of the most recently published cycle, the base payments ran roughly $6,700 for a studio, $9,900 for a one-bedroom, and $13,500 for two or more bedrooms, with an additional $2,000 where a senior (62 or older), a disabled occupant, or a child lives in the household.

A landlord can offer a comparable replacement unit instead of the cash payment, but is then responsible for the tenant’s actual moving costs if the tenant accepts it.

Treating this payment as negotiable, or assuming a smaller side payment satisfies the ordinance, leaves the termination vulnerable to a later Rent Board complaint — the relocation fee is a floor the ordinance sets, not a number landlord and tenant can bargain down from.

How This Interacts With AB 1482

California’s statewide Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) also imposes just-cause requirements and its own one-month relocation payment on most rentals statewide, but Civil Code Section 1946.2(g) allows a more protective local ordinance to control instead.

Beverly Hills’ Rent Stabilization Division treats both BHMC chapters as more protective than the state floor, which means a landlord cannot default to AB 1482’s simpler one-month relocation figure and assume it satisfies the city’s requirement — the local, tiered schedule applies instead for any unit the chapters actually cover.

A seller who has only read about the statewide law, without checking whether BHMC Chapter 5 or 6 applies to the specific unit, is working from the wrong rulebook, and a buyer’s attorney reviewing the file will generally catch the discrepancy before closing.

The Tenancy and the Registration Both Transfer to the Buyer

Selling an occupied unit does not end the ordinance’s coverage — it transfers with the property.

A buyer who takes title with a sitting tenant inherits the existing lease terms, the tenant’s just-cause protections, and whatever rent history the unit carries under Chapter 5 or 6, exactly as California law generally treats a change of ownership as irrelevant to an existing tenancy.

What does need to change hands is the BHRent registration itself: the account is tied to the Assessor Identification Number and the owner of record, so a new owner has to re-register under their own name and contact information promptly after closing rather than assuming the seller’s registration carries over automatically.

Title companies and experienced buyer’s agents in Beverly Hills increasingly ask for a printout of the current BHRent registration status as a condition of closing, precisely because a lapsed or stale registration can limit the new owner’s ability to raise rent or pursue a future just-cause eviction until it is corrected.

Disclosing the Ordinance to a Buyer

Beyond California’s standard Transfer Disclosure Statement, a seller marketing a tenant-occupied Beverly Hills rental should be prepared to hand a serious buyer the unit’s BHRent registration confirmation, the current lease, the rent history showing each increase was taken under the correct chapter and percentage, and — if any notice has already been served — a copy of it along with proof the relocation fee was paid.

Buyers who plan to occupy the property themselves, in particular, frequently underestimate how long the ordinance’s notice periods run and assume they can serve a move-in notice at closing and take possession within 60 days; walking them through the actual 90-day minimum (longer for a senior, disabled, or long-term tenant) before they remove contingencies avoids a dispute mid-escrow over a timeline the contract never should have assumed in the first place.

A Working Example

Say an owner has a four-unit building near Olympic Boulevard, built in 1965, with one long-term tenant who moved in at $2,400 a month — well above Chapter 5’s $600 threshold, so Chapter 6 applies. The owner wants vacant possession to sell to a buyer who plans to occupy the building personally.

A signed purchase agreement with an owner-occupant buyer is not, by itself, a ground under Chapter 6; the seller would need to either deliver the unit occupied (with the tenancy transferring to the new owner, just-cause protections intact) or pursue one of the enumerated grounds, such as the buyer’s own move-in after close of escrow, which still requires 90 days’ notice, a relocation payment, and genuine occupancy by the buyer or a qualifying relative once they take title — not before.

Skipping straight to an informal request that the tenant leave “because the house is being sold” is not a valid notice under the ordinance and can leave an eviction unenforceable if challenged.

Enforcement and What a Defective Notice Costs

Beverly Hills’ Rent Stabilization Division accepts tenant complaints over an invalid termination, an unregistered unit, or an underpaid relocation fee, and a defective notice can leave the underlying termination unenforceable in an unlawful detainer action regardless of how legitimate the seller’s actual reason might be.

For a seller on a timeline, the practical risk is delay: a contested termination can add months to a transaction that a correctly documented one would not, and a buyer’s lender or title company may simply decline to proceed until the tenancy issue is resolved.

Confirming registration status and the applicable chapter before listing — rather than after an offer is already in hand — avoids discovering a defect at the worst possible point in escrow.

Pre-Listing Checklist for a Tenant-Occupied Beverly Hills Property

Confirm whether the unit falls under BHMC Chapter 5 (pre-1978, $600-or-less move-in rent) or Chapter 6, since the increase cap and update schedule differ.
Pull the unit’s current BHRent registration status and resolve any lapse before marketing the property.
Identify which just-cause ground, if any, actually applies — a pending sale on its own is not one of them under either chapter.
Request the Rent Stabilization Division’s current-year relocation fee schedule rather than relying on a prior year’s figure.
Calendar the required notice period — 90 days, a year for a major remodel, or longer for a senior or disabled tenant — from the date a valid notice is actually served.
Confirm the most recent rent increase was calculated under the correct chapter’s percentage and timing rules before using the current rent roll in marketing materials.

When Selling to a Cash Buyer Is the Wrong Move

A fast, as-is cash sale is not automatically the better outcome for a Beverly Hills rental.

If the tenancy is stable, the rent is near market, and the building is in reasonable condition, a conventional listing can attract investors who specifically want a cash-flowing, rent-stabilized Beverly Hills property and will pay a premium for a long-paying tenant rather than a vacant unit.

An owner who is not under real time pressure, and who has not yet run the math on relocation costs against the price lift from a fully marketed sale, is often better served by an agent experienced in rent-stabilized transfers.

A direct cash sale tends to make more sense when the carrying costs of a slow listing, a contested or pending eviction, or a hard personal deadline outweigh the gap between an as-is offer and a fully marketed price.

Getting a Cash Offer on a Beverly Hills Rental

If a fast sale is the right call — whether the unit is tenant-occupied, mid-notice, or just more than you want to manage through a listing — Cash Home Buyers CA buys directly or brings in a vetted cash buyer, and can structure a purchase around an existing tenancy, a pending relocation payment, or a notice period still running.

When you sell to us, we pay the standard closing costs, including the county and city transfer taxes, escrow and title.

See more on selling a house with tenants in Beverly Hills, request a no-obligation offer at Cash Home Buyers CA, or find us on our Google Business Profile to see how we work. You can also reach us directly at (424) 435-2326.

What Beverly Hills’ Rent Stabilization Ordinance Requires Before You Sell