Richmond Rent Ordinance: 8 Just Causes Sellers Must Know
Richmond requires a landlord to have one of eight specific legal reasons before ending any covered tenancy — there is no such thing as a no-cause eviction notice that holds up here.
If you own a tenant-occupied house in Richmond and are thinking about selling, the city’s Fair Rent, Just Cause for Eviction and Homeowner Protection Ordinance (Richmond Municipal Code Chapter 11.100) controls far more of that process than California’s statewide rules alone, and getting it wrong can stall a sale for months.
What the Richmond Rent Ordinance Actually Covers
Richmond’s Rent Program, created under RMC Chapter 11.100, splits rental housing into three tiers of coverage, and which tier a specific property falls into changes everything about what a seller has to clear before closing.
Fully covered units — generally multi-unit properties built on or before February 1, 1995 — get both rent control and just-cause eviction protection. Partially covered units get just-cause protection only, without rent control; this tier includes single-family homes and condominiums, among other categories.
Fully exempt properties get neither: subsidized units including Section 8 tenancies, retirement homes, units where the landlord and tenant share a kitchen or bathroom, and “new construction” built after February 1, 1995 that holds a final certificate of occupancy under the state’s Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.
A single-family home is therefore typically partially covered — subject to just-cause eviction rules, but not rent control — which is the tier that catches most sellers of an individual tenant-occupied house in Richmond off guard. People who assume state law alone governs a single-family rental, because Richmond’s rent control headlines focus on apartment buildings, often do not realize the just-cause requirement still applies to their property specifically.
The Eight Just Causes, and Which Ones Actually Require a Payout
Under RMC 11.100.050(a), a landlord can only terminate a covered Richmond tenancy for one of eight specific reasons, and the termination notice itself has to state which one applies: failure to pay rent, breach of lease, nuisance, failure to give the landlord lawful access after a written warning, temporarily vacating to undertake substantial repairs, owner move-in, withdrawal from the rental market under the state Ellis Act, or temporary tenancy.
Three of those eight — substantial repairs, owner move-in, and Ellis Act withdrawal — require a relocation payment under the city’s separate Relocation Ordinance (RMC 11.102), because they end the tenancy through no fault of the tenant rather than because the tenant did something wrong.
Three of the fault-based causes — breach of lease, nuisance, and failure to give access — additionally require a written warning notice before the termination notice can even be served, under RMC 11.100.050(d).
That warning has to give the tenant a reasonable period of no less than five days to correct the problem, must state plainly that failing to cure it may result in eviction, must inform the tenant of their right to request a reasonable accommodation, and must include the Rent Program’s contact number and instructions for coming into compliance.
Skipping that warning step, or serving a termination notice that does not name one of the eight causes, gives the tenant a built-in defense in any eventual unlawful detainer action — which means a seller relying on a defective notice can find an eviction stalled in court for months right when they need the house vacant for closing.
A Filing Deadline Most Landlords Do Not Expect
Beyond getting the cause right, Richmond’s Rent Board Regulation 1001 adds a procedural step state law does not require: a landlord must submit a copy of any termination of tenancy notice, along with proof of service, to the Rent Program within two business days of serving it on the tenant.
For properties with five or fewer units, the landlord may mail the notice in; larger properties generally submit it online. The Rent Program does not accept these filings by email.
A landlord who serves a valid notice but misses this filing window has still given the tenant an affirmative defense to raise in an unlawful detainer proceeding — the notice itself can be entirely correct and the case can still stall because of a missed administrative step that has nothing to do with the merits of the eviction.
Enrollment and Registration Requirements Before You Can Raise Rent or Evict
Richmond requires property enrollment for every rental unit covered by the ordinance — a separate enrollment form for each parcel with at least one rental unit, filed through richmondrent.org.
Fully covered (rent-controlled) units additionally require tenancy registration, listing the names of current tenants, which the city treats as confidential under the Information Practices Act of 1977.
These filings are not just paperwork for its own sake: substantial non-compliance with enrollment, registration, or payment of the city’s Residential Rental Housing Fee can prevent a landlord from taking a lawful rent increase or can become an affirmative defense raised against an eviction.
The Rental Housing Fee itself is set annually by the City Council on the Rent Board’s recommendation, and it has moved meaningfully over time — $145 per unit across fiscal years 2016 through 2018, rising to $207 in 2018–2019, $212 in 2019–2020, and $226 per fully covered unit by fiscal year 2022–2023, with partially covered units billed at a lower rate.
Because the fee is reset annually, a seller should confirm the current-year amount directly with the Richmond Rent Program rather than relying on a figure that may be a year or two stale.
How Rent Increases Actually Work for Covered Units
For fully covered units, the Maximum Allowable Rent equals the Base Rent — generally the rent in effect as of July 21, 2015, or the first rent charged after that date for a newer tenancy — plus the Annual General Adjustment, plus any Individual Rent Adjustment a Hearing Examiner has separately approved through a petition.
The Annual General Adjustment is Richmond’s cost-of-living increase, set at 100% of the Consumer Price Index for the San Francisco-Bay Area, and it is recalculated every year rather than fixed: it ran 3.0% in 2016, climbed to 3.6% by 2018, dropped to 1.6% in 2021, and jumped to 5.2% in 2022 as regional inflation spiked.
Because it resets annually off a published federal inflation index, a seller or buyer evaluating a rent-controlled Richmond property should pull the current year’s adjustment directly from the Rent Program rather than relying on any single year’s figure as if it were permanent.
A landlord can bank up to 5% of previously deferred adjustments in a given year on top of the current year’s increase, but in a year when the adjustment itself exceeds 5%, banking is suspended until the adjustment drops back below that threshold — a rule that complicates any attempt to estimate future rent growth on a rent-controlled property from past years’ numbers alone.
Richmond rents can also return to market rate under specific circumstances even on a rent-controlled unit: a voluntary vacancy and new tenancy, a complete turnover where only hold-over subtenants remain, or a tenant who no longer uses the unit as a primary residence.
Accessory Dwelling Units Complicate Coverage Further
A Richmond property with an accessory dwelling unit does not get a single coverage answer for the whole lot — it depends on occupancy.
If the main house is the owner’s primary residence and the second unit is a permitted ADU, the ADU is exempt from both rent control and just cause. If that same second unit is unpermitted, it falls under both.
If both units are tenant-occupied and the second unit is a permitted ADU, the main house is rent-controlled and just-cause protected while the ADU itself gets just-cause protection only, without rent control.
If both units are tenant-occupied and the second unit is unpermitted, both fall under full rent control and just cause.
A seller marketing a Richmond property with an ADU needs to work out which of these scenarios actually applies before representing the property’s rental status to a buyer, since getting it wrong in a disclosure can surface as a post-closing dispute.
Rent Adjustment Petitions Can Follow the Property to a New Owner
Richmond’s ordinance gives both tenants and landlords a formal petition process that runs through a Hearing Examiner rather than small claims or unlawful detainer court.
A tenant can petition for excessive rent when a landlord has failed to roll back rent to the lawful Maximum Allowable Rent, or for a rent reduction tied to a decrease in housing services or habitability, or because the number of tenants allowed in the unit has been reduced.
A landlord, in turn, can petition to increase the Maximum Allowable Rent for an increase in the number of occupants, for added space or services, for increased net operating and maintenance costs, or for an increased security deposit tied to adding a pet.
Either side can object to the other’s petition, most contested petitions and nearly all habitability petitions go to a hearing, and either party can appeal the Hearing Examiner’s decision.
What matters for a seller is that an open or recently decided rent adjustment petition does not disappear at closing.
A new owner takes the property with whatever Maximum Allowable Rent and petition history the Rent Program has on file, which means a buyer’s due diligence on a Richmond rental should include asking directly whether any petition is pending or was decided in the past year — this is not something a standard title search or a seller’s ordinary disclosure package necessarily surfaces on its own.
How Richmond Compares to Its East Bay Neighbors
Richmond is one of several East Bay cities that layered a local rent and just-cause ordinance on top of California’s statewide Tenant Protection Act, but the details differ enough between neighboring cities that a seller who also owns rentals elsewhere in the region should not assume the rules transfer.
Oakland runs its own Rent Adjustment Program with a different base-year structure and its own separate 3-R Report requirement before a sale. Berkeley’s rent board uses its own CPI-based adjustment formula and a transfer tax that, unlike Richmond’s flat city rate, is tiered by sale price.
El Cerrito, just across the Richmond city line, has its own distinct rent program with its own registration fee and notice rules.
A property manager or seller who handles rentals in more than one of these cities is effectively dealing with several separate, non-interchangeable local ordinances rather than one regional standard — what satisfies Oakland’s notice-filing requirement does nothing to satisfy Richmond’s two-business-day filing rule, and vice versa.
What Changes at the Point of Sale
Selling a tenant-occupied Richmond property does not by itself end the tenancy or remove the Rent Ordinance’s protections — a new owner takes the property subject to the existing tenancy, the existing Maximum Allowable Rent, and the same just-cause requirements the prior owner faced.
A buyer planning to occupy the house themselves still has to use the owner-move-in just cause, follow its notice requirements, and pay the relocation amount the Relocation Ordinance sets for that category, exactly as the seller would have had to if they tried to move in themselves before selling.
This is a meaningful difference from California’s statewide Tenant Protection Act default, which exempts many single-family homes from just-cause requirements entirely when the landlord provides the proper statutory notice — Richmond’s local ordinance does not carve out that same single-family exemption, which is precisely the gap that catches sellers who assume state law is all that applies.
A buyer intending to occupy the house also needs to understand how a statewide owner move-in eviction differs from Richmond’s local version of the same cause, and a seller weighing whether to end the tenancy before listing at all should first read through what a no-fault eviction actually requires under state law before layering Richmond’s local notice and filing rules on top of it.
State Law That Still Applies on Top of the Local Ordinance
Richmond’s ordinance layers on top of, rather than replaces, California’s statewide landlord-tenant law. The implied warranty of habitability under Civil Code § 1941.1 and Health and Safety Code § 17920.3 still requires a Richmond landlord to maintain a safe, sanitary property regardless of the Rent Ordinance.
Civil Code § 1954 still governs lawful entry — 24 hours’ written notice, during normal business hours, for repairs, showings to prospective buyers, or inspections.
Civil Code § 1946.1 still sets the baseline notice period for most no-fault terminations at 30 days for a tenancy under one year and 60 days for one a year or longer, on top of whichever of Richmond’s eight just causes applies.
Civil Code § 827 still requires 30 days’ notice for a rent increase of 10% or less in any 12-month period and 90 days’ notice for anything above that, in addition to the Rent Program filing Richmond’s own regulations require for a covered unit.
One statewide rule matters specifically at the moment of sale: Civil Code § 1950.5 requires a landlord who sells a rental property to either transfer the existing security deposit to the new owner or return it to the tenant directly — there is no third option, and a seller who simply pockets the deposit and leaves the new owner to sort it out with the tenant is creating a dispute that can surface after closing.
Escrow instructions for a tenant-occupied Richmond sale should specify explicitly which of the two paths the parties are taking, and the amount involved, so it does not get lost among the other prorations handled at closing.
More broadly, a tenant-occupied Richmond property is covered in California’s statewide rules on selling a house with tenants — leases, deposits, showings, and the baseline just-cause framework — before Richmond’s local ordinance adds its own layer on top.
- Confirm which of Richmond’s three coverage tiers your specific property falls into before assuming state law alone applies
- Verify the property’s enrollment status and current Rental Housing Fee payment directly with the Richmond Rent Program before listing
- Match any termination notice to one of the eight just causes under RMC 11.100.050(a), and serve any required written warning before it
- File a copy of the termination notice and proof of service with the Rent Program within two business days of serving the tenant
- Budget for a relocation payment under RMC 11.102 if the cause is substantial repairs, owner move-in, or Ellis Act withdrawal
Richmond’s Rent Program updates its regulations and fee schedule periodically, so nothing here replaces confirming your specific property’s coverage tier and current obligations directly with the Rent Program, or with a California landlord-tenant attorney, before serving any notice.
If the tenancy itself — not just the title work — is what is slowing down a sale, selling a tenant-occupied house in Richmond, CA is something Cash Home Buyers CA handles regularly, including properties where the existing tenancy continues through closing rather than ending before it.
We buy directly or bring 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.
A direct sale is not automatically the right call for every tenant-occupied Richmond property, though.
If the tenancy is current on rent, the relationship is cooperative, and the property is otherwise in good condition, a traditional sale to another investor or an owner-occupant willing to take on the existing lease can still net more once a buyer’s agent markets the in-place rent roll properly.
A direct sale tends to make the most sense specifically when a just-cause termination is contested or unresolved, when the relocation-payment math under RMC 11.102 makes ending the tenancy before listing impractical, or when a seller needs certainty of closing more than the extra weeks a traditional listing process with a tenant in place typically takes.
Find Cash Home Buyers CA on our Google listing, or call (424) 435-2326 with questions about a tenant-occupied Richmond property.