IMPORTANT UPDATE: 2025’s New State Housing Laws
IMPORTANT UPDATE: 2025’s New State Housing Laws
By far, California wins the prize as the most regulated state in the nation. Each year, our California state legislators, made up of our Governor, 40 state senators and 80 state assembly members, propose more than 3,000 new laws or bills that amend existing laws. Invariably, out of this pool of thousands our organization reviews and acts on dozens of housing and tax related bills that impact our members. The 2025 legislative session was no different than past years in terms of the volume of bills, but fortunately for this year, only very few of the “troubling ones” made it past the goal line.
This article provides a summary of new laws passed and many of the proposed bills your Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles was involved in preventing through our strong advocacy efforts taking place up in Sacramento.
The Bills That Are Most Concerning for 2025
Assembly Bill 246 (Bryan) | Affirmative Eviction Defense for Delayed Social Security Payments. This new law allows tenants facing eviction for non-payment of rent to use a “Social Security hardship” as a legal defense when Social Security benefits are interrupted due to federal government action. The bill provides relief for tenants by allowing them to use this defense in court, and it also includes provisions that require tenants to show evidence of the hardship and a plan for repayment once benefits are restored.
Assembly Bill 628 (Mc Kinnor) | Required Appliances in Rental Units. This new law requires every residential rental unit in California, including for leases entered into, amended, or extended, on or after January 1, 2026, to have a working stove and refrigerator, with certain exceptions, to be deemed habitable. Now, along with heating, water, electricity, etc., a working stove and refrigerator are required to meet habitability standards in California.
Under this law, to be habitable and fit for occupancy, a rental unit must have: (i) a stove that is maintained in good working order (which is not defined) capable of safely generating heat for cooking purposes, and (ii) a refrigerator that is maintained in good working order (once again, this term is not defined) and capable of safely storing food. This law further specifies that a stove or refrigerator that is subject to recall by the manufacturer is not capable of safely generating heat for cooking purposes or storing food, respectively.
The new law also requires a property owner to repair or replace a stove or refrigerator within thirty (30) days written notice by the tenant should that appliance not safely generate heat for cooking purposes or safely store food in a refrigerator. This new requirement will prove to be problematic in circumstances where replacement parts and/or scheduling technicians to diagnose and/or repair the appliance cannot be made within thirty (30) days. Moreover, the lacking clarity of what is meant by “working order” will be problematic should, for example, one stove burner fail to be in “good working order.”
Moreover, , tenants have an option, subject to owner approval, to provide a refrigerator, but not a stove. This new law; however, requires the following statement in substantially the following form to be included in lease agreements: “Under state law, the landlord is required to provide a refrigerator in good working order in your unit. By checking this box, you acknowledge that you have asked to bring your own refrigerator and that you are responsible for keeping that refrigerator in working order.” Should a tenant supply their own refrigerator, under the new law, tenants will also have the unilateral right to later require that owners provide a refrigerator upon a thirty (30)-day written notice. The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles will soon update its lease form to comply with this new requirement.
Assembly Bill1414 (Ranson) | Opt-Out of Bulk Subscriptions. This new law allows tenants to opt out of mandatory internet, cellular, or satellite service subscriptions imposed by landlords. For any residential tenancy starting or renewing on or after January 1, 2026, landlords must allow tenants to opt out of paying for an internet service subscription provided through a bulk-billing arrangement. Landlords are also prohibited from retaliating against a tenant for exercising their opt-out right, and allows tenants to deduct the cost of the subscription from their rent if a landlord violates the opt-out provision.
The new law does not; however, ban bulk billing arrangements entirely. Instead, it prevents landlords from forcing tenants to participate. This means that landlords can still offer bulk internet packages, but renters must be given the choice to decline.
Other State Bills for 2025
Assembly Bill 226 (Calderon) | FAIR Plan Stabilization Act. This new law attempts to increase the financial stability and claims-paying capacity of California's insurer of last resort, the FAIR Plan.
Assembly Bill 325 (Aguiar-Curry) | Anti-Trust in Pricing Algorithms. This new law clarifies that California’s Cartwright Act applies to the collusive use of pricing algorithms, including those used to analyze or recommend rent levels, and makes it unlawful to use or distribute a “common pricing algorithm” that restrains trade or coerces competitors to align prices.
Assembly Bill 414 (Pellerin) | Return of Security Deposits. This new law allows landlords and tenants to agree at any time — rather than only after a move-out notice—on how deposit refunds and itemized statements will be sent, including through electronic means. It also clarifies procedures when multiple tenants share a lease.
Assembly Bill 462 (Lowenthal) | Occupancy of Accessory Dwelling Unit Prior to Primary Dwelling Unit. This new law would require a local agency to issue a certificate of occupancy for an accessory dwelling unit constructed in a county that is subject to a proclamation of a state of emergency made by the Governor on or after February 1, 2025, even if the primary dwelling has not yet been issued a certificate of occupancy, if certain requirements are met, including that the primary dwelling was substantially damaged or destroyed by an event referenced in the state of emergency proclamation.
Assembly Bill 747 (Kalra) | Service of Process Accountability, Reform and Equity (SPARE) Act. This new law aims to improve accountability in the service of legal documents by creating more rigorous standards and protections for defendants. Key provisions include requiring publicly available process server registers, mandating proof of service with photographs and GPS coordinates, and defining "reasonable diligence" for service attempts as at least three good faith attempts on different days and times. The bill also requires more detail in unlawful detainer complaints and provides new ways for defendants to challenge default judgments if they were improperly served.
Assembly Bill 851 (Mc Kinnor) | Temporary Prohibition on Unsolicited Offers. This new law that temporarily prohibits unsolicited offers to buy real estate in specified fire-affected ZIP codes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties until January 1, 2027. The law aims to protect homeowners from predatory buyers after wildfires and includes penalties for violations, such as civil penalties and misdemeanor charges. To close a sale, a written attestation must be signed, confirming that the offer was solicited by the seller, which creates a legal presumption that the offer was not unsolicited.
Assembly Bill 1154 (Carillo) | Junior ADUs. This new law attempts to streamline the development of small, in-home accessory dwelling units (ADUs) by creating a single set of rules and making it easier to build them. Key provisions include removing owner-occupancy requirements for junior ADUs (JADUs) that have their own bathroom, prohibiting parking minimums for small ADUs (under 500 sq ft), and ensuring rental terms are longer than 30 days.
Senate Bill 79 (Weiner) | Transit Oriented Housing Development. This new law requires that a housing development project within a specified distance of a transit-oriented development (TOD) stop be permitted as a transit-oriented housing development on any residential, mixed use, or commercial site. This law is intended to streamline housing development near public transit by allowing taller buildings, increasing density, and reducing parking requirements. The bill sets different height limits based on the proximity to specific types of transit stops and requires projects to meet certain standards to be eligible for faster approvals. Its goal is to address the housing shortage by making it easier to build more homes in accessible, transit-oriented locations.
Senate Bill 293 (Perez) | Generational Home Ownership Protection Act. This new law provides relief to homeowners affected by property reassessments due to disasters by extending the deadline to update transfer records without penalty. Specifically, it extends the deadline from six months to three years for property owners who are eligible for constitutional property tax exclusions and are in the process of inheriting property from a parent, grandparent, or a disaster-damaged property. This aims to prevent unexpected financial hardship for families and ensures continuity for those who have inherited their homes.
Senate Bill 625 (Wahab) | Construction Streamlining. This new law is an attempt to streamline the rebuilding of homes destroyed in a disaster. It does this by removing barriers in common interest developments (CIDs), creating a faster, ministerial approval process for housing developments on disaster-damaged parcels, and temporarily halting restrictions on using mobile homes or recreational vehicles (RVs) for temporary housing during reconstruction.
Senate Bill 655 (Stern) | Safe Maximum Indoor Air Temperature. This new law establishes a state policy that all residential units must be able to achieve and maintain a safe maximum indoor temperature to protect against extreme heat. While the state has long had a minimum temperature requirement for homes, Senate Bill 655 requires state agencies to incorporate a maximum indoor temperature standard into future policies, programs, and building codes, particularly for new constructions, beginning January 1, 2027. The bill is intended to address the public health emergency of deadly heat waves, especially for vulnerable and low-income communities.
Advocacy Works! Laws That Were Prevented in 2025
Overall, our advocacy efforts this year yielded good results with many proposed bills deemed to be problematic or harmful being stopped in committee meeting or during assembly or senate “floor” votes or postponed as two-year bills. In California, a "two-year bill" refers to legislation introduced in the first year of a two-year legislative session (a biennium) that is carried over into the second year for further action. Bills deemed two-year bills are given until January 31st of the second year of the session to pass their house of origin to remain active; if they don't, they are considered dead for that session.
- Assembly Bill 246 (Bryan) | Right to Redeem Tenancy. This bill was amended and was passed as an affirmative defense from evictions for delayed Social Security payments, which was discussed earlier in this article. However, in its original form, this bill was far worse. As proposed, this bill would have allowed renters who were facing eviction to pay rent owed or provide evidence of rental assistance at any time during unlawful detainer (eviction) proceedings and redeem their tenancy, and without payment of costs (legal or otherwise) incurred by a landlord up to that point and time of redemption of tenancy.
- Assembly Bill 380 (Gonzalez) | Anti-Price Gauging. If passed, this bill would have eliminated exception to anti-price gauging rules for leases with terms of more than 1-year. This bill was held and became a two-year bill.
- Assembly Bill 863 (Kalra) | Translation of Documents. This bill originally intended to require that certain documents, including a summons form, be translated into various languages. The bill was amended to now require the California Judicial Council to create, by January 1, 2027, a single summons form for mandatory use in an unlawful detainer translated in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean.
- Assembly 878 (Kalra) | Reasonable Accommodations. This bill would have required a landlord to make best efforts to provide reasonable accommodations to a tenant who is a victim, or whose family or household member is a victim, of specified acts, including domestic violence or sexual assault, and requires the landlord or landlord’s agent to respond to a request within 5 calendar days of receiving the request. This bill was also held and became a two-year bill.
- Assembly 1157 (Kalra) | Lower Rent Caps. This bill would have reduced the allowable annual rent increase limits from CPI+5% (10% max.) to CPI+2% (5% max.). This bill was held and became a two-year bill.
- Assembly Bill 1240 (Lee) | Limits on Single-Family Home Ownership. This bill would have limited ownership of single-family homes to 1,000 dwellings.
- Assembly Bill 1248 (Haney) | Limitations on Charging for Fees and Optional Services. This bill would have placed limitations on charging certain fees, including the use of Ratio Utility Bills Systems (RUBs). The bill limited the charging of certain fees that were not disclosed up-front in advertising and placed restrictions on use of RUBs allowing for only water and sewer charges to be passed through, and new rules on payment for applications (first to rent) and limits on late fees.
- Senate Bill 36 (Umberg) | Anti-Price Gauging. This bill would have enhanced civil penalties for price gouging by granting public prosecutors greater enforcement tools and extend protections to counties within a 50-mile radius of the affected area.
- Senate Bill 381 (Wahab) | Delayed Late Fees. This bill would have prohibited charging late fees unless specified in the lease agreement and charging more than 2% late fee. Late fee to be assessed only after 7-days.
- Senate Bill 436 (Wahab) | Increased Notice Period. This bill would have increased the notice period (“Pay or Quit” or “Perform or Quit”) from 3 Days to 14 days. Fortunately, this bill was stopped in an Assembly committee.
- Senate Bill 522 (Wahab) | Rent Caps on Replacement Construction. This bill attempted to remove an important exemption from rent increase limitations and just cause regulations under the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (a/k/a, Assembly Bill 1482) for housing built within past 15 years if newly re-built in response to a natural disaster. Fortunately, this proposed, harmful bill was also prevented from moving forward.
As you can see, advocacy works. This year’s efforts stood out and prevented many harmful bills from reaching the Governor’s desk and ultimately becoming law. However, despite our greatest efforts and resources we deploy, we cannot possibly undertake this effort completely on our own. You can help us to prevent harmful legislation from passing by through contributing both your time and money to the effort of advocacy. Get involved and tell your personal story about our current housing regulations make providing housing services more costly and far too risky. Give to the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles’ political action committee at www.aagla.org/candidatespac to help us make real change.