Is Your Auburn Rental Covered by AB 1482 or Exempt?

Why the answer matters before you touch the rent

Say you own a 1970s house off Highway 49 and the same tenant has lived there for three years. You want to raise the rent, or you may want the home back for family. Before you do either, you need to know one thing: is the home covered by the Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) or exempt from it?

The law lives in two sections. Civil Code 1947.12 caps rent increases, and Civil Code 1946.2 requires a stated reason to end a long tenancy. Both stay in force until January 1, 2030, unless the Legislature extends them.

For Auburn owners, state law is usually the whole picture. The Attorney General's chart of local rent caps lists no Placer County city, so there is no extra city rule to layer over AB 1482.

The house-and-condo exemption has three parts

Most Auburn rentals that escape the law do it through one exemption for homes that can be sold on their own. All three parts must be true at once:

• The home can be sold separately from any other dwelling unit. A detached house or a condo usually passes. A house that shares one parcel with an ADU or second unit may not.
• The owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or a limited liability company with at least one corporate member. Owning in your own name, or through an LLC whose members are all people, keeps you eligible.
• The tenants got the written notice in the statute's exact words. For any tenancy that began or was renewed on or after July 1, 2020, the notice must be in the rental agreement itself.

The exemption notice, word for word

Do not paraphrase this statement or trim it. The statute gives the wording, and a shortened version may not count:

"This property is not subject to the rent limits imposed by Section 1947.12 of the Civil Code and is not subject to the just cause requirements of Section 1946.2 of the Civil Code. This property meets the requirements of Sections 1947.12 (d)(5) and 1946.2 (e)(8) of the Civil Code and the owner is not any of the following: (1) a real estate investment trust, as defined by Section 856 of the Internal Revenue Code; (2) a corporation; or (3) a limited liability company in which at least one member is a corporation."

If you cannot find this paragraph in your current lease, the cautious reading is that the home is covered until the notice is properly given. Adding it to a new lease or a renewal is the usual fix, and it works going forward, not backward.

Other exemptions to test on foothill property

Owner-occupied duplex. Two units in one structure, where you lived in one unit when the tenancy began and still live there, and neither unit is an ADU or junior ADU.

Recent construction. Housing that received its certificate of occupancy within the previous 15 years is exempt. The window rolls forward each year, so it rarely helps the older homes common around Auburn, and it ends on its own once the certificate passes 15 years.

You live there and rent part of it. If you live in a single-family home and rent out no more than two units or bedrooms, including an ADU or junior ADU, the just cause section exempts you. That exemption sits in 1946.2(e)(4); the rent cap section has its own list, so read both before you rely on it. The main house versus ADU guide covers that setup.

A Section 8 voucher does not create an exemption. The Attorney General says the caps apply to housing rented by voucher holders.

What changes when the home is covered

Rent. Over any 12 months, an increase may not exceed 5% plus the change in the cost of living, or 10%, whichever is lower, measured from the lowest rent charged in the prior 12 months. Placer County falls under the Attorney General's "All Other Counties" row: 7.7% for increases starting August 1, 2025 through July 31, 2026, and 8.6% for increases starting August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027. You may raise rent in no more than two steps in that period, and you set the starting rent freely when a new tenant moves in after the old one leaves.

Ending a tenancy. Once every tenant has lived there 12 months, or one has lived there 24 months when a new adult was added, you need a cause listed in the statute and must state it in the notice. A fixable lease violation needs a notice to cure first. A no-fault reason, such as moving family in or taking the home off the market, requires one month's rent in relocation help regardless of the tenant's income, paid within 15 calendar days of the notice or given as a written waiver of the final month's rent. Missing any of these steps voids the notice.

Paperwork. Covered owners must give tenants a separate statutory notice, in at least 12-point type, explaining the cap and just cause rules. Since 2026 it may sit in the lease itself.

The owner move-in and remodel details added by SB 567 are explained in our post on Auburn rental laws. How to time and serve an increase on a tenant you inherit is part of the guide to hiring a manager with a tenant in place.