By Jorge Casuso
November 13, 2025 -- The City Council on Tuesday is set to give final approval to an ordinance that requires landlords of market-rate apartment buildings to register their rental units with the City.
As part of the annual registration, property owners would be required to provide information on the occupancy status of each rental unit, the date the current tenant moved in and what the tenant is paying.
They also would have to provide the reason the prior tenant moved, what amenities are provided, who pays the utilities and when and why the prior tenant vacated the unit, according to the ordinance.
Landlords who fail to register their units are "subject to injunctive relief and be liable to the City in a civil action for a civil penalty" of $200 a month per unit.
The law, which kicks in January 1, was approved with little discussion as part of City Manager Oliver Chi's ambitious "realignment plan" to address Santa Monica's fiscal "distress ("Council Approves Ambitious Plan to Revitalize City," October 30, 2025).
Currently, only the owners of buildings subject to Santa Monica's rent control law are required to register their units with the Rent Board. Buildings constructed after the law took effect in 1979 have remained outside of government oversight.
Th ordinance, which is all but certain to be approved on second reading, notes that "a large number of rental housing units in the City are exempt from the protections of the City’s Rent Control Law."
It also notes that "rental rates for market rate rental housing units within the City continue to increase even as the market rate housing supply grows."
The rental registry enables the City to maintain a "single, comprehensive database" that allows "more effective monitoring and enforcement" of tenant protections under City, County and State laws.
Paving the way for the registry is a provision added to the City Charter in 2010 that provides eviction protections "for tenants living in multi-family rental housing units that are not subject to the City’s Rent Control Law," according to the ordinance.
The Charter amendment also prohibits landlords from "engaging in self-help to force a tenant to vacate a rental unit," the ordinance states.
Under the provision, landlords must file with the City Attorney’s Office all notices to terminate tenancies and unlawful detainer complaints whenever a landlord endeavors to evict a tenant from any rental housing unit in the City."
Data show landlords are engaging in "significant noncompliance," with landlords filing only 66 unlawful detainer complaints with the City Attorney’s Office, far fewer than the 236 complaints filed in LA County Superior Court in the course of only six months, according to the ordinance.
In 2019, State law also extended rent control protections to "units that were issued a certificate of occupancy at least 15 years ago" effective in January 2020.
To enforce those protections, "the City must know which units are subject to the Act, the date of vacancy, rent amount charged, and
the reasons why tenants vacate such units," according to the ordinance.
The registry also will allow the City to monitor "statewide rental housing price gouging protections" that "limit rent increases during a declared state of emergency" to no more than 10 percent.
Landlords who fail to register must pay a penalty of $200 per unregistered unit per month and "reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs as determined by the court." The penalty amount can be increased by the Council.
The fees are "intended to recover the City’s reasonable costs associated with the administration and enforcement" of the ordinance.
The ordinance largely mirrors a charter amendment proposed by the Rent Control Board in 2022 that was not placed on the ballot ("Proposed Charter Amendment Requires All Units to Register with Rent Board," March 16, 2022).