State-by-state landlord guides

California caps the security deposit at one month's rent (AB 12, effective July 1, 2024), with a narrow two-month exception for a natural-person landlord who owns no more than two residential properties totaling four units or fewer. You have 21 days after move-out to return the deposit with an itemized statement under Civ. Code § 1950.5, and AB 2801 now requires move-out photographs to back your deductions. Rent increases on most units 15 years or older are capped at 5% plus the local CPI, never more than 10% a year, under the AB 1482 Tenant Protection Act, which also requires a just cause to end a tenancy of 12 months or more and pays a no-fault tenant one month's relocation. The single most expensive California landlord mistake is a self-help lockout: Civ. Code § 789.3 exposes you to the tenant's actual damages plus $100 per day. Only the sheriff can remove a residential tenant, and since AB 2347 the tenant gets 10 days to answer the eviction, not five. Source of income is a protected class, so a blanket refusal of Section 8 vouchers is unlawful. Local rent control (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Berkeley, Santa Monica) sits on top of all of this, limited by Costa-Hawkins, which survived the failed Prop 33 repeal in November 2024. Wildfire has reshaped landlord insurance: after the January 2025 Los Angeles fires, the FAIR Plan is the backstop many owners now rely on.