California Residential Lease Agreement

What a California residential lease is for

A lease is the contract that sets the rent, the deposit, the length of the tenancy and the rules both sides live by, but in California it also carries a long list of statements that state law requires the owner to make in writing. Leave one out and the consequences range from a tenant's right to recover the deposit, to a termination notice that is void, to a single-family home that loses the rent cap exemption its owner thought it had.

This template is written for individual owners, small landlords and property managers renting a house, condominium, duplex or apartment anywhere in California. It is current to the laws in force on January 1, 2026: the one-month deposit limit from AB 12, the photograph rules added to Civil Code section 1950.5, the stove and refrigerator requirement from AB 628, electronic return of deposits, the ban on fees for paying by check or serving notices, and the positive rent reporting offer some landlords must now make. Where the law dictates the wording, such as the Megan's Law notice, the Tenant Protection Act notice and the bed bug information, the template quotes the statute instead of paraphrasing it.

When to use it

Use it for every new residential tenancy, whether a one-year fixed term that rolls into month to month or a month-to-month agreement from the start. Use it again when you renew, extend or amend an existing lease, because renewing on or after January 1, 2026, brings the stove and refrigerator requirement into effect for that tenancy.

It is not the right document for a room in the owner's own home rented to a lodger, a commercial or mixed-use space, a mobilehome space, or subsidized housing with a mandatory government lease. If your property is in a city with a rent stabilization ordinance, use this lease together with the notices and registration forms your city requires.

What's inside

The full list of sections and fields in this template, in the order they appear.

1. Parties

   • Owner or ownership entity
   • Agent signing
   • Each adult tenant
   • Other occupants
   • Joint and several liability

2. Premises

   • Address and unit
   • Parking
   • Storage
   • Furnishings
   • Appliances
   • Keys and fobs
   • Stove and refrigerator statement
   • Optional tenant-supplied refrigerator checkbox with statutory wording

3. Term

   • Fixed term or month to month
   • Start and end dates
   • Holdover to month to month
   • 30 and 60 day notice rules

4. Rent

   • Monthly gross rent
   • Due date
   • First month and proration
   • Concessions listed separately
   • Payee name
   • phone and address
   • In-person hours
   • Accepted payment forms

5. Late charge and returned payments

   • Grace period
   • Late charge amount
   • Returned payment charges

6. Security deposit

   • Amount within the cap
   • Permitted uses
   • Photograph schedule
   • Pre-move-out inspection
   • 21-day return
   • Return method
   • Split between tenants
   • Email statement consent
   • Service member note

7. Utilities and services

   • Who pays each utility
   • Shared meter disclosure and agreement

8. Use of the premises

   • Residential use
   • Guest limit
   • Subletting and assignment

9. Maintenance and repairs

   • Landlord duties
   • Tenant duties
   • Repair request contact
   • Emergency number
   • Repair and deduct rights preserved

10. Landlord's entry

    • Permitted purposes
    • Written notice
    • Normal business hours
    • Emergencies

11. Pets

    • No pets or listed pets
    • Service and assistance animal note

12. Smoking

    • Areas where tobacco smoking is prohibited
    • Cannabis rule

13. Alterations and locks

    • Consent required
    • Statutory exceptions

14. Renter's insurance

    • Required or recommended
    • Minimum liability coverage

15. Positive rent reporting

    • Offer or exemption statement

16. Rent increases and the Tenant Protection Act

    • Covered property notice
    • Exemption statement
    • Other exemption
    • Rent increase notice periods

17. Notices and contact information

    • Owner or agent for service
    • Manager
    • Street addresses
    • Phone numbers
    • Copy within 15 days

18. Required disclosures

    • Megan's Law notice
    • Flood hazard
    • Mold and CDPH booklet
    • Bed bug information and reporting procedure
    • Lead-based paint
    • Pest control
    • Demolition permit
    • Ordnance location
    • Death within three years
    • Methamphetamine order
    • Other known conditions

19. Rights this lease cannot waive

    • Habitability
    • Retaliation protection
    • Early termination for abuse
    • Local ordinances

20. General terms

    • Attorney's fees
    • Translation requirement
    • Entire agreement
    • Severability
    • Governing law
    • Attachments checklist

21. Signatures

    • Landlord or agent
    • Up to three tenants
    • Dates

22. Move-In Condition Checklist and Photo Log

    • Room-by-room condition at move-in and move-out
    • Photo numbers
    • Photo log with date
    • room and photographer
    • Signatures

23. Lead-Based Paint Disclosure

    • Lead warning statement
    • Lessor's disclosure
    • Records and reports
    • Lessee's acknowledgment
    • Agent's acknowledgment
    • Certification and signatures

24. Rent Reporting Election

    • Optional reporting statement
    • Reporting agencies
    • Fee
    • How to return the form
    • Opt-in and opt-out rules
    • Tenant signature

Preview pages

How to fill in the lease

1. Confirm the Tenant Protection Act status first. Decide whether the property is covered by Civil Code sections 1946.2 and 1947.12, exempt as an individually owned house or condominium (which only works if you include the exemption statement), or exempt for another reason such as a certificate of occupancy issued within the last 15 years. Keep the matching statement in Section 16 and delete the others.
2. Name every adult who will live there as a Tenant. List minors and other occupants separately. Use the owner's full legal name, or the name of the trust or LLC that owns the property.
3. Describe the Premises and its appliances. Confirm the stove and refrigerator work. Tick the tenant-supplied refrigerator box only if the tenant asked for it in writing; never offer it as a condition of renting.
4. Set the rent and list concessions separately. Enter the full monthly rent, then any move-in special or discount on its own line with the months it covers. Fill in who receives rent, their phone and street address, and at least one way to pay that is neither cash nor electronic transfer.
5. Set the deposit at or under the cap. One month's rent for most landlords; up to two months only if you qualify as a small landlord and the tenant is not a service member. Choose how the balance will be returned, and offer electronic return if the tenant pays electronically.
6. Complete the utilities table and the shared meter choice. If the tenant's meter serves a hallway light, laundry room or another unit, say so and write down how the cost is handled.
7. Fill in the disclosures in Section 18. Tick the flood statement that matches what you actually know, attach the CDPH mold booklet, keep the bed bug text as written, and complete the lead-based paint pages for any building constructed before 1978.
8. Do the move-in walkthrough together. Complete the Move-In Condition Checklist room by room, take dated photographs, and log each one. These photographs are now required for tenancies that begin on or after July 1, 2025.
9. Sign, then deliver a copy within 15 days. Every adult tenant signs. Give the tenant a fully signed copy, with every attachment, within 15 days, as Civil Code section 1962 requires.

Example: a completed lease excerpt

A fictional owner, Marisol Vega, owns one fourplex in Sacramento built in 1962 and rents Unit C to Dev and Asha Patel. Here is how the key terms read once filled in:

Monthly rent: $2,150, due on or before the 1st day of each month. Rent concessions: $300 credit applied to the March 2026 rent only. Late charge: If rent is not received by the end of the 5th day after it is due, the Tenant will pay a late charge of $65. Security deposit: $2,150, due on or before February 1, 2026, returned by electronic transfer to the account the Tenants designate, split 50% to Dev Patel and 50% to Asha Patel. Section 16: Covered property. California law limits the amount your rent can be increased...

The owner is a natural person with one property of four units, so she could have asked for up to two months' rent as a deposit. She chose one month to stay competitive. Because the fourplex is more than 15 years old and is not a separately titled house or condominium, it is covered by the Tenant Protection Act, so the covered-property notice is the one that belongs in Section 16. The $300 March credit is shown separately from the $2,150 rent, which keeps the gross rent clear for any future increase calculation.

California rules to know

These are the statewide rules this lease is built around. Local ordinances can be stricter, and the lease does not replace advice from a California landlord-tenant lawyer on a specific dispute.

• Security deposits (Civil Code section 1950.5). One month's rent for deposits taken on or after July 1, 2024, or two months for qualifying small landlords when the tenant is not a service member. Nothing may be labelled nonrefundable. Photographs are required at move-in for tenancies beginning on or after July 1, 2025, and at move-out since April 1, 2025. The itemized statement is due within 21 days, with receipts and photographs for repair and cleaning deductions.
• Stove and refrigerator (section 1941.1). Required for leases entered into, amended or extended on or after January 1, 2026, with the tenant-supplied refrigerator option subject to the statutory wording.
• Rent cap and just cause (sections 1947.12 and 1946.2). Covered properties are limited to 5% plus inflation, never more than 10%, in any 12 months, and need just cause to end a tenancy after 12 months. The required notice must be in at least 12-point type. These sections are scheduled to expire on January 1, 2030, unless the Legislature extends them.
• Identification of owner and payee (section 1962). The lease must name who manages the property, who accepts legal notices and where rent is paid.
• Payment by check and notice fees (sections 1947.3, 1946 and 1946.1). Landlords may not charge a fee for paying rent or the deposit by check, or for serving a notice.
• Disclosures. Megan's Law notice (section 2079.10a), flood hazard (Government Code section 8589.45), bed bugs (section 1954.603), mold (Health and Safety Code sections 26147 and 26148), lead-based paint (42 U.S.C. 4852d), smoking areas (section 1947.5), shared meters (section 1940.9), pest control, demolition and former ordnance locations.
• Entry (section 1954). Written notice, normally 24 hours, stating the date, approximate time and purpose, during normal business hours except in an emergency.
• Translation (section 1632). A lease negotiated primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean must be given to the tenant in that language before signing.

Mistakes that cost California landlords

The most expensive errors are quiet ones. Owners of a house or condominium often assume they are exempt from the rent cap without ever giving the written exemption statement, which leaves them covered. Others collect a "cleaning fee" or a second month's deposit that pushes the total over the cap, or describe part of the deposit as nonrefundable, which the statute forbids. Since 2025, a landlord who skips the move-in photographs has little to show when deducting for damage at move-out. And a lease renewed in 2026 without a working refrigerator, or without the proper statement when the tenant brings their own, now falls short of the habitability standard. The checkboxes and guidance notes in this template are there to catch each of these before the tenant signs.