Landlord Rights in Burbank

Both local and state laws impose specific restrictions on how landlords can engage with tenants who have entered a lease or rental agreement. A landlord needs to understand these laws to stay out of legal trouble and proactively protect their property and business interests if they need to sue a tenant.

When you own and rent property in the area, you should speak to a lawyer about landlord rights in Burbank to learn the basics. If you are curious about someone could apply the against you and your property or need help enforcing your rights in court, one of our seasoned landlord and tenant dispute attorneys could help you out.

Changing a Lease

Under the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019, landlords generally can only increase rent for one of their properties once every 12 consecutive months. Increases are generally capped at the lower of five percent (plus inflation) of the prior year’s rent or 10 percent of the lowest gross rental rate charged to the tenant over the preceding year. In both this scenario and in others, landlords in Burbank must provide advance written notice of any planned change to a term of a resident’s lease or rental agreement unless both the landlord and the tenant are in agreement about the change(s).

Security Deposits

For leases and rental agreements beginning on or after July 1, 2024, landlords throughout the state cannot charge tenants more than one month’s rent as determined in the lease or rental agreement for security deposits and other property management fees combined. This is regardless of whether the property comes furnished or unfurnished. The only exception to this rule is for “small landlords,”—meaning a “natural person” or an LLC consisting only of natural persons owning fewer than three residential rental properties with fewer than five total units available for rent. These property owners in Burbank have the right to charge up to two months’ rent.

Property Access

State law gives landlords in Burbank the right to enter a rental property of theirs without notice if the tenant has abandoned the property or if it is necessary to deal with a serious emergency. Outside of those situations, landlords must provide tenants written notice at least 24 hours before entering a property for regular maintenance or inspections and 48 hours before the initial move-out inspection.

Evictions

The state also gives Burbank landlords the right to file an eviction lawsuit against a tenant who does any of the following:

• Fails to pay rent on time
• Commits any crime at the property
• Violates a term of their lease or rental agreement
• Sublets their rental without the landlord’s permission
• Causes unreasonable damage to the property, affecting the landlord’s ability to rent it to other tenants in the future

Landlords must give tenants at least three business days to remedy missed rent payments and lease violations before filing suit, but they can give tenants “unconditional quit notices” requiring them to vacate the property within three days in the other scenarios listed above.

A Burbank Attorney Could Explain and Enforce Landlord Rights

This is far from an exhaustive summary of landlord rights in Burbank, and understanding everything the law allows you to do—let alone enforcing your right to do them—can be far from simple. With help from knowledgeable legal counsel, you could have a much easier time protecting your best interests than you would ever likely have on your own.

Your real estate lawyer could provide further information about how to handle a specific problem with a tenant during a private consultation. Call today to schedule yours.