Rent control in Palm Springs, in plain English.

Palm Springs rent control reaches a narrower set of units than most people expect, because state law limits it. Your unit is most likely covered if all of the following are true:

• The building is inside the City of Palm Springs.
• It was built and first occupied before February 1995.
• The same household has lived there continuously, without a full turnover.
• It is not a single-family home exempt under state law.

If your unit turned over to a new tenant after the mid-1990s, or the building is newer, the local cap usually does not apply. State law, not the city, is what pulls those units out. We can tell you where your unit lands on a free call.

On a covered Palm Springs unit, the ordinance limits the annual increase to 75 percent of the change in inflation. In plain terms, your rent can rise, but by less than inflation, which is meant to keep long-term tenancies from being priced out.

• The increase is capped at 75 percent of the inflation figure.
• Landlords must give 90 days’ written notice before an increase.
• Covered units have to be registered with the city each year.

A landlord who never registered the unit, or who skipped the 90-day notice, has a problem, even before you get to the size of the increase.

The biggest question in Palm Springs is not how much, it is whether. The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a state law, blocks local rent control on units built after February 1995 and lets a landlord reset the rent to market once a unit fully turns over.

That means two apartments in the same building can be treated differently. One has been home to the same family since the 1980s and stays under the cap. The one next door turned over in 2010 and does not. It is confusing on purpose, and it is worth a careful look before you assume you are or are not covered.

The Palm Springs problems we see most:

• An increase above 75 percent of inflation on a genuinely covered unit.
• No 90-day notice before the increase.
• A unit the landlord never registered.
• A landlord claiming Costa-Hawkins removes a unit that actually still qualifies.

1. Save the notice, the envelope, and your rent and tenancy history.
2. Confirm the building’s age and your tenancy timeline.
3. Talk to a tenant attorney about whether the cap reaches your unit.