Updated August 2026 | Authored by Scott Engle, Broker DRE #01332676 | Realty Management Group | Serving San Diego County Since 2005
Last verified against primary sources: August 20, 2026. Every statutory citation on this page links to the official text. See Sources and Verification.
Does AB 1482 apply to my ADU? Usually yes, unless the ADU received its certificate of occupancy within the last 15 years, an exemption under Civil Code 1946.2(e)(7). A newly built ADU carries its own 15 year clock from its own certificate of occupancy, even when the main house is decades older.
Does building an ADU affect the main house? It can. The single family exemption applies only to property that is alienable separate from the title to any other dwelling unit. When the house and the ADU remain on the same title and cannot be conveyed separately, that exemption generally does not apply.
Does living on the property fix it? Only halfway. An owner occupied house with an ADU is commonly exempt from the just cause eviction rules under Civil Code 1946.2(e)(5), but that subsection has no counterpart in Civil Code 1947.12, the rent cap statute. The 8.2% cap still applies.
What is the 2026 rent cap? 8.2% for August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027, with 30 days written notice under Civil Code 827.
Can I rent it on Airbnb? Inside the City of San Diego, no, if the ADU was built after 2017. Junior ADUs statewide must be rented for terms longer than 30 days.
San Diego County has one of the most active accessory dwelling unit markets in California, and the result is thousands of first time landlords who have never handled a lease, a deposit, or a rent increase notice. The construction side of ADUs is well covered. What happens after the final inspection is not.
This guide covers the rules that apply once a tenant moves in, with a direct link to the underlying authority at each claim, because the ADU questions that matter most are decided by specific statutory subsections rather than by general principles. If you want to know what your unit should rent for before you set a price, you can get a free ZIP level rent analysis.
ADU and JADU: The Definitions the Statute Uses
Accessory dwelling unit (ADU). An attached or detached residential dwelling unit that provides complete independent living facilities for one or more persons, located on a lot with a proposed or existing primary residence. It must include permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking and sanitation on the same parcel as the primary dwelling.
Junior accessory dwelling unit (JADU). A smaller unit contained within the walls of an existing or proposed single family residence, attached garages included. Limited to 500 square feet of interior livable space, with a separate entrance and an efficiency kitchen. A JADU is subject to different statutory rules than a standard ADU, notably on owner occupancy and minimum rental term, so the distinction is not cosmetic.
Both are governed by California Government Code section 66310 and following, with JADU requirements at section 66333. The California HCD ADU Handbook is the state's own plain language reference.
Key 2026 ADU Rental Rules, San Diego County
Table 1. San Diego County ADU rental rules in effect as of August 20, 2026, with governing authority.
| Issue | 2026 rule | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum rent increase, San Diego County | 8.2%, Aug 1 2026 through Jul 31 2027 | Civ. Code 1947.12 + BLS San Diego CPI, March 2026 |
| Rent increase notice period | 30 days written, plus 5 days if mailed in California | Civ. Code 827 |
| New construction exemption | 15 years from certificate of occupancy, rolling | Civ. Code 1947.12(d)(4) (rent cap) and 1946.2(e)(7) (just cause) |
| Standard ADU owner occupancy | Cannot be required | AB 976, effective Jan 1 2024; Gov. Code 66323 |
| JADU owner occupancy | Only where the JADU shares sanitation facilities | AB 1154, effective Jan 1 2026, amending Gov. Code 66333 |
| Security deposit | One month for most landlords since Jul 1 2024 | AB 12; Civ. Code 1950.5 |
| Short term rental, City of San Diego | Prohibited for ADUs built after 2017 | City of San Diego STRO Ordinance |
| Governing ADU statute | Gov. Code 66310 et seq., not the repealed 65852.2 | SB 477, effective Mar 25 2024; Gov. Code 66310 |
First, the Statute Numbers Changed. Twice.
A note on citations before anything else, because a large share of the ADU guidance in circulation points at a repealed statute.
California ADU law lived at Government Code section 65852.2 and its neighbors for decades. SB 477, effective March 25, 2024, repealed sections 65852.2, 65852.22, 65852.23 and 65852.26 and recodified ADU and JADU regulation at Government Code section 66310 and following. SB 543 then amended and renumbered sections inside that series effective January 1, 2026.
Why this matters to an owner and not just a lawyer. If a contractor, template lease, or online guide presents Government Code section 65852.2 as the current ADU statute, that portion has not been updated for the March 2024 recodification. That is a usable proxy for how current the rest of its advice is. The current sections run from 66310 through roughly 66342, and the California HCD ADU Handbook publishes a correlation table between the repealed numbers and the current ones.
Bottom line: guidance that relies on Government Code section 65852.2 as the current governing ADU statute is outdated. California ADU law was recodified beginning at Government Code section 66310 in March 2024.
Does AB 1482 Apply to the ADU Itself?
Three separate questions sit inside "does rent control apply to my ADU," and collapsing them is the most common error we see in ADU rental files. Does it apply to the ADU. Does it apply to the main house. And does it apply to both halves of AB 1482, or only one. Take them in order.
AB 1482 reaches accessory dwelling units the same way it reaches other rental housing, with one exemption that dominates for new construction. Civil Code section 1946.2(e)(7) exempts housing issued a certificate of occupancy within the previous 15 years, and section 1947.12 carries a parallel exemption on the rent cap side.
A newly constructed ADU receives its own certificate of occupancy. That starts its own 15 year clock, independent of the age of the main house. A detached ADU finaled in 2024 on a lot with a 1962 house is exempt until 2039, at which point it becomes covered. The threshold is rolling rather than fixed, so a unit that is exempt this year can become covered later without anything about the property changing.
The garage conversion problem. A conversion or internal subdivision that did not receive its own separate certificate of occupancy sits in a genuinely unsettled area. The 15 year clock runs from a certificate of occupancy, and where no separate one was issued for the converted space, there is no clean date to run it from. If your ADU was created by conversion rather than new construction, pull the permit record and confirm what was actually issued before assuming the exemption applies. This is a records question, and it is answerable.
Bottom line: a new ADU is usually exempt for 15 years from its own certificate of occupancy. A converted garage may not be. The permit record decides it, not the age of the house.
How an ADU Changes the Status of Your Main House
This is the part that catches owners who did everything else right.
The single family exemption is not an exemption for single family homes as a category. Civil Code section 1947.12(d)(5) and section 1946.2(e)(8) exempt residential real property that is alienable separate from the title to any other dwelling unit. Alienable separate means it can be conveyed on its own.
When the main house and the ADU sit on one parcel under one title and cannot be conveyed separately, that exemption generally does not apply. The California Apartment Association's AB 1482 landlord guidance illustrates the same point with a parallel scenario: where an apartment sits over the garage on the same lot as a single family home, the home is not alienable separate from the title to any other dwelling unit, and the single family home is therefore not exempt. That guidance is reproduced in this published AB 1482 question and answer set, and CAA's own single family rent cap page covers the notice and ownership conditions.
The practical consequence: an owner who rented the main house for years under a valid exemption, then built an ADU in the back, may have moved that house from exempt to covered without ever being told.
The duplex exemption does not rescue you
Owners frequently reach for the owner occupied two unit exemption here, on the theory that a house plus an ADU is a duplex. The statute forecloses it in plain language.
Civil Code section 1947.12(d)(6) and section 1946.2(e)(6) exempt a property containing two separate dwelling units within a single structure where the owner occupied one as a principal place of residence at the beginning of the tenancy and continues in occupancy, and neither unit is an accessory dwelling unit or a junior accessory dwelling unit.
Two conditions defeat the ADU case. The units must be within a single structure, which excludes a detached ADU on its own. And the statute carves out ADUs and JADUs by name. This exemption was drafted to exclude exactly this fact pattern.
Bottom line: adding an ADU generally removes the separately alienable exemption from the main house, and the owner occupied duplex exemption does not put it back.
The Owner Occupied Split: Exempt From One Law, Not the Other
AB 1482 is two statutes, not one. Civil Code section 1947.12 sets the rent cap. Civil Code section 1946.2 sets the just cause eviction requirements. Their exemption lists overlap heavily, but they are not identical, and the difference lands directly on ADU owners.
Section 1946.2(e)(5) exempts an owner occupied residence where the owner occupant rents no more than two units or bedrooms, including but not limited to an accessory dwelling unit or a junior accessory dwelling unit. That is the subsection written for this situation, and it names ADUs explicitly.
It sits in section 1946.2, which governs just cause. There is no matching subsection in section 1947.12, which governs the rent cap.
Table 2. AB 1482 ADU exemption matrix, California rent cap versus just cause rules, as of August 2026.
| Your situation | Rent cap (Civ. Code 1947.12) | Just cause (Civ. Code 1946.2) |
|---|---|---|
| ADU with its own certificate of occupancy issued in the last 15 years | Exempt under 1947.12(d)(4) | Exempt under 1946.2(e)(7) |
| You live in the house, you rent the ADU, ADU is over 15 years old | Covered. The 8.2% cap applies. | Commonly exempt under 1946.2(e)(5) |
| You do not live on the property, both units rented, ADU over 15 years old | Covered | Covered |
| Tenant shares a bathroom or kitchen with your principal residence | Analyze separately | Exempt under 1946.2(e)(4) |
The practical consequence. An owner occupied property with an ADU can sit in a position where you may end a tenancy without stating a statutory cause and still cannot raise the rent more than 8.2%. Owners who hear "owner occupied is exempt" and stop there tend to get the eviction question right and the rent increase question wrong, which is the more expensive of the two, because Civil Code 1947.12(k) gives the tenant a civil action for injunctive relief, damages equal to the excess, attorney fees at the court's discretion, and up to treble damages on a showing of willfulness, oppression, fraud or malice, with a three year limitations period. Confirm your specific facts with a California licensed real estate attorney.
More on how the exemptions work generally: AB 1482 exemptions in San Diego.
Not sure which row your ADU falls in?
We pull the permit record, read the lease, and check the exemption notice as part of every onboarding.
The Exemption Notice, Word for Word
Where the separately alienable exemption does apply, it is conditional on two things. The owner cannot be a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or a limited liability company with at least one corporate member. Family trusts with natural person beneficiaries are permitted. And the tenant must receive a specific written notice, which for agreements entered into after July 1, 2020 must appear in the rental agreement itself.
Civil Code section 1946.2(e)(8)(B)(i) supplies the statutory language:
"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."
Lease boilerplate that gestures at the idea without this language does not preserve the exemption. In litigation, tenants routinely argue that the landlord cannot rely on the exemption because the disclosure was never properly served.
Serve it at lease signing. Whether serving it later restores the exemption going forward is not settled, and the safe operating assumption is that you cannot repair this after the fact.
Bottom line: the notice is the exemption. Without it, an otherwise qualifying property is treated as covered regardless of property type or ownership structure.
The 2026 Rent Cap and Notice Periods
Under AB 1482, the maximum allowable rent increase in San Diego County is 8.2% for the period August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027 (Civil Code 1947.12; BLS San Diego-Carlsbad CPI, March 2026 release). That is 5% plus 3.2% CPI, using the twelve month change ending March 2026. Increases are capped at 5% plus CPI or 10%, whichever is lower. Civil Code 1947.12(a)(2) permits up to two increases in a twelve month period for a continuing tenant, but the cumulative total may not exceed 8.2%. Two increases of 4.1% each are lawful. Two increases totalling 9% are not.
Why San Diego uses March and not April, and why that is not a workaround. Civil Code 1947.12(g)(1)(A)(iii) names the CPI-U for the San Diego-Carlsbad metropolitan area as the index covering San Diego County. Subdivision (g)(3)(B)(ii) then sets the measure for increases taking effect on or after August 1: April to April, and, where no April amount is published for the applicable geographic area, March to March. BLS publishes the San Diego-Carlsbad index bi-monthly on odd numbered months only, January, March, May and so on, so no April amount exists for San Diego. March to March is therefore the measure the statute itself directs, not an interpretation. It is also why San Diego's cap is knowable as soon as the March data releases in April.
The cap resets every August 1, so any figure carried over from a prior twelve month period is expired. A notice calculated on an expired figure with an effective date on or after August 1, 2026 exceeds the legal limit.
Notice periods
Civil Code section 827 requires 30 days written notice for an increase of 10% or less, and 90 days for an increase above 10%. Add five calendar days if the notice is mailed within California. Because the cap is 8.2%, 30 days is the standard for every lawful increase on a covered property.
A text message is not written notice. An email is not written notice. If your ADU tenant relationship has been running on texts, which is common when the unit is thirty feet from your kitchen, the increase notice is the point where that has to change.
Bottom line: 8.2% through July 31, 2027, 30 days written notice, and up to two increases in a twelve month period provided the cumulative total stays within the cap. Full detail in our San Diego rent cap guide.
Owner Occupancy Under ADU Law, and What Changed in January 2026
Table 3. California ADU and JADU owner occupancy requirements in effect August 2026.
| Unit type | Must the owner live on site? | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Standard ADU, attached or detached | No. Local agencies cannot impose an owner occupancy requirement. | AB 976, permanent since January 1, 2024 |
| Junior ADU with its own bathroom | No, as of January 1, 2026. | AB 1154, amending Gov. Code 66333 |
| Junior ADU sharing sanitation facilities with the main house | Yes. Owner occupancy may still be required. | AB 1154, amending Gov. Code 66333 |
Keep two questions separate here. Owner occupancy as a land use requirement is governed by state ADU law in the Government Code. Owner occupancy as a route to an AB 1482 exemption is governed by the Civil Code. You can be entirely free of any obligation to live on site and find that not living on site is precisely what removed your just cause exemption.
Also effective January 1, 2026, SB 543 changed how ADU size limits are measured, moving to interior livable space, and added a 15 business day completeness check on permit applications. That operates at the construction stage rather than the rental stage, but it is why a plan approved under the older measurement may not match what the current code describes.
Bottom line: no owner occupancy requirement for a standard ADU, and none for a junior ADU with its own bathroom as of January 1, 2026.
Short Term Rental Rules for San Diego ADUs
Most owners who ask us about ADU short term rental are describing a plan that is not available to them.
Inside the City of San Diego, the Short Term Residential Occupancy ordinance requires a license for any rental of a dwelling unit, or part of one, for less than one month. Operating without a license has been unlawful since May 1, 2023. Accessory dwelling units built after 2017 are prohibited from short term rental use. Some companion units permitted before the 2017 prohibition may still qualify, but a new ADU cannot.
Statewide, AB 1154 requires junior ADUs to be rented for terms longer than 30 days, which removes them from short term rental use regardless of what the local ordinance permits. The same requirement applies to ADUs approved under the Government Code section 66323 conversion pathway.
Enforcement changed in 2026. Under SB 346, effective January 2026, hosting platforms must share host and listing data with the city and remove unlicensed listings. The City of San Diego's Building and Land Use Enforcement team cross references platform listings against the licensing database. This is no longer a complaint driven system that a quiet listing can sit inside of.
Outside the City of San Diego, short term rental rules are set city by city and vary substantially. Confirm with the specific jurisdiction before listing.
Bottom line: for practically every ADU built in the City of San Diego in the last several years, long term or mid term rental is the only lawful path.
San Diego County Studio and 1-Bedroom Market Rents, July and August 2026
There is no published rent index specific to accessory dwelling units. What exists is market rent by bedroom count, and since most ADUs are studios or one bedrooms, those figures are the closest defensible proxy.
Table 4. Median asking rents by bedroom count, selected San Diego County ZIP codes, RentCast, July and August 2026.
| City | ZIP | Studio | 1 bedroom | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission Valley | 92108 | $2,340 | $2,760 | Aug 2026 |
| Poway | 92064 | $2,140 | $2,200 | Aug 19, 2026 |
| La Mesa | 91941 / 91942 | $1,870 | $2,360 | Aug 2026 |
| Santee | 92071 | $1,580 | $2,160 | Aug 2026 |
| Spring Valley | 91977 | $1,600 | $1,750 | Jul 2026 |
| Lemon Grove | 91945 | $1,450 | $2,110 | Jul 2026 |
Rental data methodology
Source: RentCast, a rental listing and market data provider. Figures were retrieved by Realty Management Group via direct account pull rather than from a public landing page, so no per-figure public URL is available. Retrieval dates are given below.
Retrieval dates: Mission Valley, La Mesa and Santee, August 2026. Poway, August 19, 2026. Spring Valley and Lemon Grove, July 2026.
Geography: ZIP code level within San Diego County, California.
Measure: Asking rent on active listings, segmented by bedroom count. These are not ADU specific rents. No ADU specific rent index is published for San Diego County, so studio and one bedroom market rents are used as a proxy.
Limitations: Bedroom level figures were not available for El Cajon or Chula Vista in the same pull, so those cities are omitted rather than estimated. Segments drawn from thin listing counts are volatile. Poway is the visible example here, with studio and one bedroom figures roughly $60 apart, which reflects a small studio sample rather than a real market condition. Where a segment is thin, price against the broader range rather than the point estimate.
Next scheduled refresh: Q4 2026.
An ADU's actual position within these ranges depends on four things that move the number more than the ZIP does: whether it is detached or attached, whether it has dedicated off street parking, whether utilities are separately metered, and how private the entry and outdoor space are. A detached unit with its own meter, its own driveway spot, and a gated side entrance prices very differently from a converted garage sharing a driveway and a utility bill.
Utilities, Parking, and Insurance
Three operational decisions that get made once and then live in the lease for years.
Utilities
Most ADUs are not separately metered, which means the lease has to state how utilities are handled. The two workable structures are a flat monthly utility charge stated in the lease, or a defined allocation formula. What does not work is an informal arrangement where you forward a share of your bill each month with no written basis for the split, because you have no documented method to point to when the tenant disputes it. Whatever you choose belongs in the lease at signing, not in a text message in month seven.
Parking
State ADU law sharply limits when a local agency may require parking for an ADU, including where the unit is within one half mile walking distance of public transit. That is a permitting question, and it is separate from whether you assign the tenant a space. Parking is one of the strongest rent differentiators for a small unit in San Diego County, and if a space is assigned it should be identified in the lease so the arrangement survives a change in either household.
Insurance
A standard homeowners policy is written for an owner occupied single family residence. Adding a rental unit on the parcel changes the risk the carrier underwrote, and coverage for tenant related liability is frequently not included by default. Notify your carrier before the tenancy starts, confirm in writing how the ADU is covered, and require renters insurance from the tenant in the lease. Owners tend to discover this gap at claim time, which is the worst moment to discover it.
Deposits, Photos, and the 2026 Habitability Laws
These apply to an ADU exactly as they apply to any other rental unit. First time landlords miss them at a higher rate than experienced owners, and the deposit rules are where it usually costs money.
Security deposit: one month, not two
Under AB 12, effective July 1, 2024, most landlords may collect no more than one month's rent as a security deposit, furnished or unfurnished (Civil Code 1950.5). A limited exception allows up to two months for qualifying small landlords who own no more than two residential properties totaling four or fewer units. Deposits must be returned within 21 days of move out with an itemized statement.
Deposit photos: two separate effective dates
AB 2801 phases in on two dates, and most published summaries collapse them into one, which produces the wrong answer on move in photos.
Since April 1, 2025, landlords must take move out photos immediately after a tenancy ends and before any cleaning or repair, plus post repair photos where a deduction is claimed. This applies to all tenancies regardless of when they started. Since July 1, 2025, move in photos are also required, but only for tenancies beginning on or after that date.
AB 628: stove and refrigerator
Effective January 1, 2026, leases signed, renewed, or amended on or after that date must include a working stove and refrigerator under Civil Code section 1941.1. For an ADU this is easy to overlook, because a small unit is often marketed around an efficiency kitchen and the appliance question gets treated as negotiable. It is not.
AB 2747: rent reporting
Landlords must offer tenants the option to have rent payments reported to credit bureaus, at lease signing and annually after that.
AB 2493: screening
Under Civil Code 1950.6, as amended by AB 2493 effective January 1, 2025, written screening criteria must be provided to applicants and disclosed before any screening fee is collected, applications are considered in the order received, and the fee may not exceed the actual out of pocket cost of gathering information about the applicant. Refunds are required within seven days of selecting a tenant or thirty days of the application, whichever comes first, except that section 1950.6(c)(2)(A)(iv) provides no refund is owed to an applicant considered and denied for not meeting the established criteria. If you are renting an ADU to the first person who answers a neighborhood post, you still need written criteria on file.
Bottom line: these are documentation failures, not legal misunderstandings. Full detail in our San Diego County security deposit guide and our 2026 California rental law summary.
Which City Ordinance Applies to Your Property
This is the question a countywide guide can answer that a statewide one cannot. Two ADU owners four miles apart can be under completely different eviction and relocation rules.
Table 5. Local tenant protection ordinances by jurisdiction, San Diego County, verified August 2026.
| Jurisdiction | Local ordinance | What it adds beyond state law |
|---|---|---|
| City of San Diego, including Mission Valley | SDMC 98.0701 through 98.0709 | Just cause from day one rather than after 12 months. No fault relocation equal to two months' rent, three months if the tenant is 62 or older or disabled, paid within 15 days. The San Diego Housing Commission must be notified of both at fault and no fault terminations. No local rent cap, so the 8.2% state limit governs. Adopted by Ordinance O-21647, effective June 24, 2023; amended by O-21769, February 27, 2024. |
| Chula Vista | CVMC 9.65 | Just cause plus relocation for no fault terminations. The City must be notified within three business days of a no fault termination or the notice is invalid. Substantial remodel minimum of $40 per square foot. Comply with both state and city rules, and relocation benefits cannot be combined. Code current through Ordinance 3622, passed May 5, 2026. |
| El Cajon, La Mesa, Santee, Lemon Grove, Poway, National City | None | As of our August 20, 2026 review of the applicable municipal codes, we found no separate local residential tenant protection ordinance in these cities, so state AB 1482 alone applies. Applying local requirements where none were found costs owners money for nothing. |
| Spring Valley | None | Unincorporated San Diego County with no city government. State AB 1482 only. |
If your property sits in a San Diego County city not listed above, confirm its ordinance status directly with that city before serving any notice. Ordinance coverage in this county is genuinely uneven, and a template borrowed from a neighboring city is how compliance failures happen. Our city by city rent control breakdown goes further on this.
Bottom line: the ordinance question is decided by the parcel, not the mailing address. Plenty of properties with a San Diego mailing address sit in unincorporated county territory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does AB 1482 apply to ADUs in San Diego?
Generally yes, unless the ADU received a certificate of occupancy within the previous 15 years, which is an exemption under Civil Code 1946.2(e)(7). A newly constructed ADU receives its own certificate of occupancy, so it carries its own 15 year exemption clock independent of the age of the main house. A garage conversion that never received a separate certificate of occupancy has no clean date to run that clock from. The threshold is rolling, so a unit exempt this year can become covered later.
Does building an ADU make my main house subject to the AB 1482 rent cap?
It can. The single family exemption under Civil Code 1947.12(d)(5) and 1946.2(e)(8) applies only to residential real property that is alienable separate from the title to any other dwelling unit. When the main house and the ADU remain on the same title and cannot be conveyed separately, that exemption generally does not apply. The owner occupied two unit exemption does not restore it, because Civil Code 1947.12(d)(6) and 1946.2(e)(6) require two units within a single structure and expressly state that neither unit may be an accessory dwelling unit or a junior accessory dwelling unit.
If I live in the house and rent the ADU, am I exempt from AB 1482?
Partly. Civil Code 1946.2(e)(5) exempts an owner occupied residence where the owner occupant rents no more than two units or bedrooms, expressly including an accessory dwelling unit, from the just cause eviction requirements. That subsection sits in section 1946.2, which governs just cause. It has no counterpart in section 1947.12, which governs the rent cap. The practical result is that an owner occupied house with an ADU is commonly exempt from just cause while remaining subject to the 8.2% rent cap. Confirm your specific facts with a California licensed real estate attorney.
How much can I raise rent on an ADU in San Diego in 2026?
If the unit is covered by AB 1482, the maximum allowable increase in San Diego County is 8.2% for the period August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027. That is 5% plus 3.2% CPI, using the BLS San Diego-Carlsbad twelve month change ending March 2026. Civil Code 1947.12 references April, but BLS publishes the San Diego-Carlsbad index bi-monthly on odd numbered months only, so no April figure exists for San Diego and the March to March fallback applies. Thirty days written notice is required under Civil Code 827. Civil Code 1947.12(a)(2) permits up to two increases in a twelve month period for a continuing tenant, but the cumulative total may not exceed 8.2%.
Do I have to live on the property to rent out my ADU in California?
No for a standard ADU. AB 976 permanently removed owner occupancy requirements for standard ADUs as of January 1, 2024, and local agencies cannot impose one. For a junior ADU, AB 1154 amended Government Code 66333 effective January 1, 2026 to limit owner occupancy requirements to JADUs that share sanitation facilities with the main house. A JADU with its own bathroom no longer triggers the requirement.
Can I use my ADU as a short term rental in San Diego?
Generally no inside the City of San Diego. The Short Term Residential Occupancy ordinance requires a license for any stay of less than one month and prohibits accessory dwelling units built after 2017 from short term rental use. Junior ADUs statewide must be rented for terms longer than 30 days under AB 1154. Long term and mid term rental remain available. Rules outside the City of San Diego are set by each city.
How much security deposit can I charge for an ADU in California?
One month's rent for most landlords under AB 12, effective July 1, 2024, furnished or unfurnished, under Civil Code 1950.5. A limited exception permits up to two months for qualifying small landlords who own no more than two residential properties totaling four or fewer units. Deposits must be returned within 21 days of move out with an itemized statement.
Which Government Code sections govern California ADU law?
Government Code section 66310 and following. SB 477, effective March 25, 2024, repealed the former sections 65852.2, 65852.22, 65852.23 and 65852.26 and recodified ADU and JADU law at section 66310 et seq. SB 543 then amended and renumbered sections within that series effective January 1, 2026. Guidance that still cites Government Code section 65852.2 is citing a repealed statute. The California HCD ADU Handbook publishes a correlation table between the repealed sections and the current ones.
