Key Insights
- The California Legislature adjourned at midnight on August 31, 2026. Now, the Governor has until September 30 to sign or veto the bills that reached his desk.
- The AB 1482 rent cap reset on August 1 with no legislative action. The new regional ceilings run through July 31, 2027.
- Two bills affecting rental housing are awaiting signatures, but neither one changes much about daily property operations.
- The measures that would have lowered the rent cap and expanded just cause coverage didn’t pass this session.
- The change most impactful to eviction practice was signed nearly a year ago and takes effect January 1, 2027.
Yes, changes still occur even when legislation doesn’t pass
The California Legislature adjourned at 11:59 p.m. on August 31, closing the 2025-2026 session. Governor Newsom now has until September 30 to sign or veto everything delivered to his desk. For anyone who manages rental property in California, the natural question is “What passed?” For eviction practices specifically, that answer this year is not much.
But that doesn’t mean that nothing is changing.
There are two notable changes this year that didn’t require any votes. The statewide rent cap reset on August 1, which means the increase worksheets many operators are still using are based on last year’s numbers. And a law signed back in October 2025 rewrites how service of process must be documented in California, including in unlawful detainer cases. This change takes effect on January 1, 2027.
Aside from the rent cap increase, the change taking effect in January is perhaps the most significant to be aware of. But the new requirements don’t necessarily ask you to do anything you aren’t already doing. What they’re asking is that you be able to prove what you’ve done.
This article covers the rent cap increases, what actually reached the Governor’s desk, what didn’t pass legislation, and what changes we might expect fifteen months from now.
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Educating yourself is crucial and can help streamline and reduce your legal risk. However, seeking professional legal counsel consolidates your efforts and pre-emptively ensures compliance whenever issues inevitably arise.
What Happened When the Session Ended on August 31?
The Legislature’s work is finished for the year, and the only action left is the Governor’s.
California operates on a two-year legislative cycle, and the 2025-2026 session closed permanently on August 31. Any bill that had not cleared both houses by that moment is dead and would have to be reintroduced in a future session.
Bills that did clear both houses are “enrolled and presented to the Governor,” which means they’ve been finalized and delivered for signature. He has until September 30 to sign or veto them. A bill he neither signs nor vetoes becomes law without his signature.
Did the Rent Cap Change on August 1?
Yes, and it changed on its own, without any action by the Legislature.
Under Civil Code Section 1947.12, rent increases on covered property are limited over any 12-month period to 5 percent plus the regional change in the cost of living, or 10 percent, whichever is lower. The cost-of-living figure resets every August 1, which means the ceiling changes annually whether or not anyone in Sacramento does anything.
For most of the counties we serve, the ceiling moved from 7.7 percent to 8.6 percent. Contra Costa County is the exception, because it sits in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward index area rather than the statewide remainder. Its cap moved from 6.3 percent to 8.8 percent, following a 12-month increase of 3.8 percent reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period ending in April 2026. If you operate on both sides of that line, you’re working from two different ceilings this year.
Our CPI Rent Increase Calculator reflects the current period.
What Reached the Governor’s Desk?
As of September 3, 2026, two measures affecting rental housing are awaiting action, and only one of them changes anything you do.
SB 1160, eviction data reporting
SB 1160 would require county court systems to report unlawful detainer case data to the Judicial Council, aggregated by ZIP code, and would require the Judicial Council to publish that information annually in a spreadsheet on its website.
However, nothing about this bill changes your operation in the foreseeable future. The Judicial Council’s initial assessment isn’t due until July 1, 2032. The first county reporting begins January 1, 2033. And statewide reporting isn’t required until January 1, 2034. Implementation is also contingent on the Legislature appropriating funds for it.
AB 2025, digitally altered images in rental advertising
This one is different and, if signed or unattended, will require some changes. AB 2025 would add Civil Code Section 1940.11. This requires anyone advertising a rental with a digitally altered image to conspicuously disclose the alteration on or next to the image. In addition, the original, unaltered image or a link, URL, or QR code must be provided to access it. AB 2025 extends to rentals what AB 723 already did for property listed for sale, which took effect on January 1, 2026.
Assessing whether or not this affects you:
- Who it covers: any person advertising real property for rent, not only licensed brokers and salespersons. For licensees, a violation is also a violation of the Real Estate Law.
- What counts as altered: adding, removing, or changing elements such as furniture, appliances, flooring, paint color, landscaping, or views through windows. Cropping, lighting, white balance, and color correction don’t count, as long as they don’t change how the property is represented.
- The rendering exception: if the image was never created with a camera, such as a pure AI-generated or artistic rendering, there’s no original to post. The disclosure requirement still applies.
If signed, it takes effect January 1, 2027.
What Didn’t Pass?
Several measures that would have changed the rules you operate under failed to reach the Governor.
- AB 1157 (Kalra): would have cut the rent cap to 2 percent plus cost of living, extended coverage to single-family homes and condominiums, and removed AB 1482’s 2030 repeal date. Failed in Assembly Judiciary in January 2026.
- SB 1243 (Durazo): would have paused unlawful detainer actions tied to immigration enforcement hardship. Held in committee in May 2026.
- SB 493: would have imposed emergency rent restrictions during wars and military actions. Stopped on the final day of session.
- AB 878 (Kalra): would have required landlords to provide reasonable accommodations to survivors of abuse or violence within five days of a request. Became a two-year bill and did not advance.
- SB 381 (Wahab): would have restricted rental fees and limited late fees. Became a two-year bill and did not advance.
The cap formula, the coverage and exemption rules, and the at-fault and no-fault just cause grounds you work under today are unchanged heading into 2027.
What Changes on January 1, 2027?
The largest change to the unlawful detainer procedure in decades is already law, and it takes effect in fifteen months.
Picture a routine situation. A manager posts a three-day notice on a Tuesday afternoon, writes the date on the form, drops a copy in the mail, and moves on to the next thing. Under current law, that’s usually enough to support an unlawful detainer filing weeks later.
Starting January 1, 2027, the complaint must state in full the date, time, and location.
That’s one of four changes under AB 747, known as the Service of Process Accountability, Reform and Equity Act, or SPARE Act. It was signed in October 2025.
Here are the four items in detail.
The complaint must state when and where the notice was served
Under the revised Code of Civil Procedure Section 1166(a)(5), stating the method of service is no longer sufficient. The complaint must also describe the date, time, and location of the service of the termination notice.
Reasonable diligence becomes a defined standard
Reasonable diligence has long been a judgment call shaped by case law. But AB 747 explicitly defines it. Before substituted service is available, there must be good-faith attempts at personal delivery on at least three separate occasions, on three different days, at three different times. That means you must document three different dated attempts. Each documented attempt must be on a different date.
Proofs of service require photographs with GPS stamps
A proof of service for personal service, substituted service, or posting in an unlawful detainer action must include at least one photograph of the location, carrying a readable stamp with GPS coordinates, the date, and the time.
Judicial Council materials circulated for comment indicate the photograph should show the door of the residence or business, or the building entrance where the door isn’t reasonably accessible. There’s a safety exception when photographing would endanger the process server, and where no GPS signal is available, a written explanation is required. You can expect that in such instances, written explanations will be used to determine and test whether they’re valid.
Default judgments become harder to keep
A party moving to set aside a default must offer evidence that service wasn’t effected. From there, the burden shifts to the party who obtained the default to prove that service was lawful by a preponderance of the evidence. The court must take evidence and, if either party requests it, hold a hearing with oral testimony.
What’s The Impact on Notices Your Staff Serves?
Three of these four changes affect your process server. However, the first one belongs to you.
Serving the summons and complaint is generally a property management task. The diligence standard, the photograph requirement, and the GPS stamps are problems your process server must address. You should definitely ensure that they plan to incorporate the new requirements.
The termination notice is different. Three-day notices, notices to perform covenants or quit, and lease termination notices are almost always served by property staff. Under the new Section 1166(a)(5), the details of that service have to survive into a pleading filed weeks or months later. Whatever your leasing agent did on a Tuesday in March has to be stated accurately in a complaint in June.
Now combine that with the change to default judgments. A file that used to close quietly on a default can be reopened, and the burden of proving lawful service falls on the landlord. The record supporting that proof has to have been created long before any dispute would have surfaced.
What this means for independent landlords
If you serve your own notices, you have no staff procedure to update and no vendor to lean on. The gap is widest here for you, but the fix is simple. Start recording the date, the time, and the exact location every time you serve a notice, and photograph the posting.
Our article on serving a pay or quit notice covers the underlying service rules that still apply.
What About the New Eviction Summons Form?
AB 863 requires the Judicial Council to create, by January 1, 2027, a single summons form for mandatory use in residential unlawful detainer actions, containing the required information in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean.
“Mandatory use” means the current form stops working on a fixed date. The Judicial Council has already circulated proposed revisions to forms for comment to implement AB 747 and AB 863 together. If you maintain your own document templates, then you should ensure this gets on your calendar.
What Should You Change This Quarter?
None of this requires new software or new staff. It requires writing down what you already do.
- Log the service of notice according to requirements: date, time, exact location, method, and who performed the service. Build the fields into whatever form your team already fills out. A minimum of three separate instances.
- Photograph the posting: timestamped, showing the door or the location where the notice was affixed. Save it with the file, not on someone’s phone.
- Write the procedure down: the quality of your record shouldn’t depend on which employee happened to be working that day. A one-page internal procedure solves most of this.
- Talk to whoever serves your summonses: ask them to walk you through a sample file showing how they capture GPS metadata and how they’d produce it if challenged.
- Review your notice and complaint templates: both will need new fields before January 1, 2027, and the Judicial Council forms are still in progress.
- Update your rent increase worksheets: the August 1 change is already live, and increases calculated on last year’s ceiling are being served right now.
Key Point
The 2026 session ended quietly for eviction law. The bills that would have changed the rent cap and the just cause rules didn’t pass, and the two measures awaiting signature will affect your advertising more than your evictions.
The date to plan around is January 1, 2027, when AB 747, AB 863, and AB 2025 all take effect together. What AB 747 changes most is not what you have to do, but what you have to be able to demonstrate later. A file that can prove exactly when and where a notice was served will prove its value months down the road.
The record has to exist before you know you need it.
Contact Mehigan Law
Mehigan Law has served California property managers and landlords for more than 47 years. We provide guidance based on your specific circumstances and help you make informed decisions that protect your interests and improve your bottom line.
If you have questions about your notice procedures, your documentation practices, or how these changes affect a matter you’re working on now, reach out to our office. Contact us at evictions@mehiganlaw.com or call (916) 646-0800.
