February 2026 Updates for Pasadena Landlords
As we start 2026, it feels like a good moment to share the many changes and updates available since Measure H was enacted in 2022 and the Rental Housing Board and their unaccountable Rental Stabilization Department began in 2023 and have taken over $10,000,000 from Pasadena property owners.
Requirements and rules to follow as a rental property owner in Pasadena, CA
You must register your property with the Pasadena Rental Stabilization Department every fall and pay the annual fee. They now require tenant details, owner details, copies of all rent increases and a payment of $238 in 2025/2026. The fee in late 2026 will be known late this summer
You must provide registration information to your tenants and pay them a security deposit interest payment by end of January every year. For January 2026, that amount is 0.12% (example, for deposit if $1,000, the interest is $1.20)
You are restricted to rent increases of 2.25% for restricted properties (any multifamily rental property built prior to 1995) and 8.0% for single family homes or multi-family properties built after 1995 thanks to the state law called Costa-Hawkins that prevents the RHB from controlling them. At PLG, we HIGHLY recommend that you raise the rent to the full allowed amount every year because there is no catch up provision and this is BELOW the rate of inflation.
Habitability hearings are starting to make their way to completion
In Janaury of 2026, the Rental Housing Board saw their first petition hearing where a tenant of a small apartment building in Pasadena was given a rent reduction of $420 per month as a result of losing her garage parking space. Full details of the hearing can be read at their AGENDA packet. Interestingly, at this first ever hearing, Peter Dreier, a person that has long stated his desire to destroy property rights in the city, blatantly ignored the required processes and was both browsing his mobile phone and posting unrelated items on Facebook. I plan to start preparing guides for how to exclude members that have obvious conflicts from hearings. As of today, they have not shown how their conflicts will be addressed.
Fair return hearings are starting to be held
As of February 2026, one petition for a fair return is working through the Rental Stabilization Department systems and we hope to point to positive options in the coming months. For several years, the Rental Housing Board and their department failed to provide guidance or systems to petition for the legal right of a fair return despite promises from the Chairman of the RHB that they would be available by year end 2023. As this comes to the end of the process, there are signs that the legal returns allowed under the highly complex framework may be worthy of your time to complete. In summer 2026, I expect to host information sessions about how to make this a profitable use of your time
Rental property sales are slowing and prices decreasing
As can be fully expected in a marketplace with increasing constraints and a hostile government agency controlling the rules, we are seeing more properties come to market for sale in Pasadena. Since January 2022, before Measure H was fully known and October 2025, we are seeing a large increase in available properties on the market and sales results that indicate cooling buyer demand. If you are contemplating the sale of your tenant occupied rental property in Pasadena, I would HIGHLY recommend working with a locally experienced agent that knows how to minimize your legal exposure when selling here.
Board members finally reporting their financial obligations:
In early 2026, I learned that multiple members of the Rental Housing Board were 2+ years late in filing their required financial disclosure forms. Since then, I believe that at least one ‘tenant’ member of the board is involved in property management in violation of the rules. There are currently two available positions on the Board, one at-large member that can include any property owner that lives in Pasadena and one tenant representative from District 4 in Pasadena.
Ballot Measure to reverse many of the bad policies from Measure H in the works:
My friends at the Pasadena Housing Providers are working on a ballot measure for November 2026 that will ask Pasadena voters to overturn the most egregious items in Measure H while retaining the rent control provisions that were promised by the suporters of Measure H.
Among the key components are:
Remove the majority tenant rules that currently exist for board members. Creating the opportunity for property owners in the rental property industry to bring experience and knowledge to the board decisions.
Remove the incentive to spend as much as they wish on their department designed to help tenants. Placing a cap on the annual fee paid by property owners and allowing the costs to be passed to residents and the city
Correct the creation of a bloated Rental Stabilization Department by putting the work into the existing Pasadena Housing Department infrastructure for a massive cost savings
Protecting Single Family homes and newer construction multi-family from the potential restrictions if Costa Hawkins from 1995 is attacked and removed.
This is a group worthy of your support both financially and with participation. Please reach them at their website:
Pasadena rental income sales details from January 2021 though January 2026.
Measure H passed in November 2022.
