Concord’s rent stabilization ordinance now caps annual increases on covered units at a flat 5%. That cap replaced a weaker CPI-linked formula in mid-2025. The ordinance also requires every rental unit in the city — even exempt ones — to be registered.

If you own a rental in Concord and you’re thinking about selling, the ordinance changes two things. It affects what you can do with rents before a sale and what obligations a buyer takes on afterward. Here’s what actually changed and who it covers.

We’ll also show what the relocation numbers look like if a no-fault move-out is part of your plan. Pasadena runs its own version of this trade-off too — its tenant protection ordinance sets different notice periods and a split relocation-payment structure.

Table of Contents

A Program That’s Still Young — and Already Amended Once

Concord’s rent stabilization and just-cause framework took effect April 19, 2024. That makes it one of the newer local rent ordinances in Contra Costa County. The city council already amended it on May 22, 2025. That amendment replaced the original rent-increase formula with a flat 5% annual cap, effective August 1, 2025.

The original formula capped increases at 3% or 60% of the local Consumer Price Index, whichever was lower. You may be relying on an older description of Concord’s rent control, including some still-circulating summaries from 2024. If so, the cap percentage you’re reading is very likely out of date.

Confirm the current figure with the City of Concord’s Housing Division before relying on any secondhand number, including this one. Cities that adopted rent control recently amend their ordinances more often than long-standing programs in cities like Los Angeles or San Francisco.

Which Buildings Are Actually Covered

Rent stabilization under the ordinance applies to multifamily buildings of two or more units built before February 1, 1995. Buildings built on or after that date are not subject to the rent cap. That matches the state Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act’s protection for newer construction.

Those buildings can still be subject to the ordinance’s just-cause eviction rules. Single-family homes and condominiums are not subject to rent stabilization at all under the local ordinance or under Costa-Hawkins. But, as the next section covers, that doesn’t mean they’re entirely outside the ordinance’s reach.

Single-Family Homes and Condos: The Three-Property Threshold

Just-cause eviction protections extend to rented single-family homes and condominiums in Concord. But this applies only when the landlord owns three or more such properties. A landlord who owns one or two rented single-family homes or condos in the city is exempt from the local just-cause requirement for those properties.

Statewide protections under Civil Code 1946.2, where applicable, are a separate layer that can still apply regardless of portfolio size. You may be an individual owner with a single rental house in Concord. If so, confirm this threshold carefully before assuming you’re either fully exempt or fully covered.

The answer depends on your total count of qualifying properties, not just the one you’re selling.

The 5% Cap, in Practice

For covered multifamily units, increases are limited to once every 12 months per tenancy. They’re capped at 5% of the existing rent, effective August 1, 2025. Notice requirements follow a sliding scale tied to the size of the increase. Increases under 10% need 30 days’ notice, and larger ones need 90 days.

Larger increases matter mainly where a state-law increase or a permitted exception pushes above what the local cap alone would allow. Some landlords believe their operating costs justify a bigger increase. They can petition for added adjustments tied to documented extraordinary costs.

That’s a real but narrow exception, not a general escape hatch from the cap.

How This Compares to the Statewide AB 1482 Default

Without a local ordinance, most California rentals fall under the statewide Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482). It caps annual increases at 5% plus local CPI, up to a maximum of 10% total. It also applies its own just-cause framework to buildings generally 15 years or older.

Concord’s local ordinance is stricter than that statewide default in two ways that matter to an owner. First, it uses a flat 5% cap rather than a CPI-linked formula that can reach 10% in high-inflation years.

Second, it extends just-cause coverage to single-family homes and condos once a landlord owns three or more. AB 1482 exempts most single-family homes and condos from its own just-cause and rent-cap provisions regardless of portfolio size. That exemption holds as long as the required state-law notice is given.

In other words, owning three or more single-family rentals in Concord puts you under a stricter local rule. The same portfolio would face less in a city with no local ordinance at all, even though state law alone might exempt those same properties.

Run this distinction past an attorney if your portfolio is near that three-property line and spans multiple cities with different local rules.

Concord in the Wider East Bay Pattern

Concord is one of several Contra Costa and East Bay cities that have adopted their own local rent and tenant-protection ordinances in recent years. They don’t rely only on the statewide AB 1482 floor. Others include Richmond, Antioch, and Oakland.

Each city’s ordinance differs in its covered-unit definitions, its cap formula, and its relocation amounts. Oakland’s rent-increase cap, for comparison, is tied to a different CPI calculation entirely. Oakland also has its own separate relocation payment schedule, with figures that run into the thousands of dollars per unit.

An owner who holds rental property across more than one of these cities should not assume the rules are interchangeable. What’s compliant in one city can be a violation in the next one over.

Just Cause: At-Fault and No-Fault Grounds

Covered tenancies can only be ended for a recognized just-cause reason. At-fault grounds include:

nonpayment of rent
material breach of the lease that isn’t cured after written notice
creating a nuisance or causing damage
criminal activity on the property
refusing the landlord lawful entry
unauthorized subletting

No-fault grounds trigger relocation assistance obligations, covered next. They include:

the owner or a qualifying relative moving in
withdrawing the unit from the rental market (an Ellis Act-style withdrawal)
compliance with a government order to vacate
substantial rehabilitation or demolition requiring permits

No-fault eviction rules generally under California law set a statewide floor. Concord’s local ordinance layers added requirements on top for covered tenancies specifically.

Relocation Assistance: Two Months’ Rent Plus $2,000

Take a no-fault, permanent relocation from a covered single-family home or condo. Concord’s ordinance requires the landlord to pay the tenant the equivalent of two months’ contracted rent plus a $2,000 moving stipend. For covered multifamily units, relocation assistance may also apply.

But public summaries of the ordinance document the multifamily formula less clearly than the single-family/condo figure. You may be facing a no-fault relocation in a covered multifamily building. If so, confirm the exact current amount directly with Concord’s Housing Division before calculating your costs. Don’t assume the single-family figure applies across the board.

The Citywide Registry — Even for Exempt Units

One detail catches owners of exempt properties off guard. All rental properties in Concord must be registered with the city’s rent registry. That includes units that are entirely exempt from rent stabilization and just-cause coverage.

Examples are a newer-construction building, or a single-family home owned by a landlord with fewer than three qualifying properties. Being exempt from the rent cap is not the same as being exempt from the registration requirement.

Some sellers assume “my property isn’t rent-controlled, so none of this applies to me.” They may still be sitting on an unregistered property. That’s the kind of gap a buyer’s attorney or lender can flag during due diligence, even when no rent-cap violation is at issue.

What a 2030 Sunset Clause Actually Means

Some summaries of California local rent ordinances reference a January 1, 2030 sunset date. It traces back to the state’s AB 1482 framework. Similar urgency-ordinance patterns have been used by multiple California cities adopting tenant protections in recent years.

Concord’s specific ordinance may or may not carry its own sunset provision, and the terms could vary. The city council can amend or clarify that kind of detail before any sunset date arrives. That already happened once with the rent-cap formula itself in May 2025.

Treat any sunset date as subject to change. Don’t plan a long-term hold or sale strategy around an assumption that the ordinance will lapse on a specific day. Confirm directly with the city before making decisions that depend on it.

Why a Buyer Cares About All of This

A buyer evaluating a Concord rental property needs to know three things before making an offer:

whether the building is covered by the rent cap (which depends on unit count and construction date)
whether just-cause protections apply to any single-family or condo units involved (which depends on the seller’s total portfolio size, information a buyer may not have independent access to)
whether registration is current

Disclosure requirements around tenant-occupied property in California generally obligate a seller to share known, material facts about the tenancy. A buyer may discover mid-escrow that the registration lapsed, or that a relocation obligation is pending. That buyer renegotiates price or walks away. They don’t simply proceed on the original terms.

When a Cash Sale Makes Sense — and When It Doesn’t

Your Concord rental may be registered, with rents properly set under the current 5% cap and no pending just-cause dispute. In that case, a conventional listing marketed to experienced local investors will typically bring the strongest price. Compliant, well-documented rent-controlled properties in the East Bay are in active demand. Buyers who already understand how to operate under ordinances like this one want them. A direct cash sale fits better when:

registration has lapsed
a no-fault relocation is pending or already underway and you’d rather not manage the payment and notice obligations through closing
the property needs repair work that would slow down a conventional sale
you’re an out-of-area owner who inherited the property and doesn’t want to take on landlord compliance obligations you didn’t ask for in the first place

This last scenario comes up more often than people expect in Concord specifically, given how recently the ordinance took effect. An heir inherits a longtime family rental and has never operated as a landlord under any local rent ordinance. Only after researching a sale do they discover three things.

The property needs to be registered. Any rent increase since inheriting has to follow the capped process. And ending the tenancy to sell the house vacant (rather than tenant-occupied) may trigger a relocation payment obligation they hadn’t budgeted for. None of this is insurmountable.

But it’s a very different process than selling a vacant inherited house with no tenant involved at all. Sort out the applicable rules before making any promises to a tenant or a prospective buyer.

When It’s the Wrong Move

Your only issue may be that rent has fallen behind market because you haven’t imposed the annual 5% increases available to you. If so, raise rent properly over the next year or two, with correct notice. That is almost always financially better than accepting a lower cash offer.

That offer already prices in the same upside for the buyer. A cash sale solves compliance problems, timeline problems, and the burden of an unwanted tenancy. It does not turn under-market rent into found money. A conventional listing to an investor willing to wait for the increases would do that.

Questions Concord Owners Actually Ask

I only own one rental house in Concord. Does any of this apply to me? The rent-cap provisions don’t. Single-family homes and condos are exempt from Concord’s rent stabilization regardless of portfolio size. Just-cause coverage for single-family/condo owners only kicks in at three or more qualifying properties.

But the citywide registration requirement likely still applies even to a single exempt property. Statewide tenant-protection law may also apply on its own, depending on your tenant’s situation and lease type. “Not rent-controlled” is not the same as “no rules apply at all.”

If I sell to someone who already owns two other rentals in Concord, does my house push them over the three-property threshold? Potentially, yes. The just-cause threshold is based on the landlord’s total qualifying ownership, not the individual property.

Picture a buyer who already owns two covered rentals in Concord and is purchasing a third. They should understand that the purchase itself may change their legal obligations on all three properties, not just the new one. This is worth disclosing and discussing during a sale to an investor buyer specifically.

Can I raise rent to market rate right before listing the property for sale? Only within whatever cap actually applies to the unit, and with proper notice. It also can’t be done in a way designed to evade just-cause protections or retaliate against a tenant for a protected activity.

A large last-minute increase timed suspiciously close to a sale can itself become a point of dispute with the tenant. It can also become a liability a buyer’s attorney flags during review.

If rent is truly under market, the more defensible path is the ordinary annual increase process well before a sale is planned. A rushed increase timed to the listing is not.

Before You List a Tenant-Occupied Concord Property

Confirm your property’s registration status directly with Concord’s Housing Division — don’t rely on a prior owner’s representation if you bought the property yourself
Verify whether your building’s construction date places it before or after February 1, 1995, since that single fact determines rent-cap coverage
If you own a single-family home or condo, count your total qualifying rental properties in Concord to determine whether the three-property just-cause threshold applies to you
If a no-fault move-out is part of your plan, confirm the current relocation payment amount in writing before serving any notice, since the ordinance has already been amended once and may be again
If you own other rental property in Concord or nearby East Bay cities, map out your total qualifying portfolio before assuming any single property is exempt from just-cause coverage

Managing registration status, relocation math, or a pending just-cause question may not be something you want to handle before selling. If so, selling your tenant-occupied Concord property directly lets a buyer familiar with the current ordinance take it on, rent roll, registration, and notice history included.

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

Concord isn’t the only Bay Area city with its own layer of tenant rules — San Jose’s tenant protection ordinance adds a similar set of notice and just-cause requirements for sellers there. To talk through your specific property, Cash Home Buyers CA is available at (424) 435-2326.

Want to know more about who we are? Find Cash Home Buyers CA on Google.

Concord’s Rent Cap and Relocation Rules: What Changed in 2025