Journal ·
Selling a Tenant-Occupied House in Pasadena: What the Charter Allows
A seller in Pasadena can list a house with tenants in it, show it, and close on it. What a seller cannot do is end the tenancy because the house is being sold. The rules run from a charter amendment, not an ordinance the council can quietly revise, and the list of reasons a landlord can end a covered tenancy is closed.
Sale is not a reason to evict
Article XVIII of the Pasadena City Charter sets out eleven just cause grounds at Section 1806(a). Subsections (1) to (7) are at-fault, (8) to (11) are no-fault. Sale is not among them.
That is not an interpretation. A full-text search of Article XVIII returns zero occurrences of "sale", "sell", "sold" and "buyer". The word "purchaser" appears exactly once, at Section 1806(a)(6), and it works the other way: refusing the owner access to show the unit to a prospective purchaser is itself an at-fault ground. The charter contemplates showings. It does not contemplate vacancy. State Civil Code 1946.2 has no sale ground either.
Two rulebooks, and they do not cover the same properties
Pasadena has rent control and just cause, and they apply to different buildings.
Rent control is limited by the state Costa-Hawkins Act, which exempts single-family homes and separately alienable condominiums, plus anything with a certificate of occupancy after February 1, 1995. Just cause is not limited that way. Section 1954.52(c) says nothing in that section affects a city's authority "to regulate or monitor the basis for eviction", and Section 1954.53(e) carries a near-identical clause about grounds for eviction.
| Property | Rent control | Just cause |
|---|---|---|
| Single-family home | No, Costa-Hawkins | Yes |
| Condominium, already sold separately | No, Costa-Hawkins | Yes |
| Condominium never sold separately by the subdivider | Yes | Yes |
| Duplex, certificate of occupancy before Feb 1 1995 | Yes | Yes |
| Duplex with owner in one half, occupancy before Feb 1 1995 | Yes | Yes |
| Anything built after Feb 1 1995 | No | Yes |
Pasadena has no owner-occupied duplex exemption. Under state AB 1482 an owner living in one unit of a duplex is exempt from just cause. Under Section 1805(b) the exemption reaches only a tenant who shares a bathroom or kitchen with the owner. Sharing a wall is not sharing a kitchen.
One carve-out the table assumes away: under Section 1805(a) an owner-occupant of a single-family home who created a properly documented temporary tenancy of no more than twelve months is fully exempt from Article XVIII, including just cause and relocation. The paperwork has to exist from the start of the tenancy.
Also worth knowing: February 1, 1995 does not appear in Article XVIII at all. It reaches Pasadena only through Costa-Hawkins by reference.
What the buyer inherits
Section 1803(m) defines the landlord to include a successor, so obligations run with the property. The Base Rent does not reset at closing. If the previous owner took an unlawful increase, that defect travels with the building. Tenancy length carries over too, and it drives the relocation tier.
The new owner registers the unit within 30 days under Section 1812(b) and identifies themselves to the tenant within 15 days under Civil Code 1962. Miss the second one and Section 1962(c) is harsher than people expect: the owner can never evict for rent that accrued during the period of noncompliance. Curing later does not revive that right. The tenant still owes the money, and rent accruing after disclosure is unaffected.
If the unit genuinely has to be empty
Three lawful routes. Two are eviction grounds, and neither is fast.
Owner move-in, Section 1806(a)(9), is open only to a landlord who is a natural person holding at least a fifty percent recorded ownership interest, so an LLC or a trust cannot use it at all. The occupant must move in within 60 days and stay at least 36 consecutive months as a primary residence. And it is barred outright where the tenant has lived there five years or more and is 60 or older, disabled, or certified terminally ill.
Withdrawal from the rental market, Section 1806(a)(10), runs through the state Ellis Act at Government Code 7060 and following. Notice runs 120 days, or a year for tenants 60 and over or disabled, and Section 7060.2 attaches rent limits and damages exposure for years if the units come back.
The third is a negotiated buyout under Section 1810. It is voluntary, requires a Board-form disclosure notice before any offer, gives the tenant 45 days to cancel, and must be filed with the Rental Board within 60 days of execution. Violations carry a private right of action and a $1,000 penalty.
For many sellers the real answer is none of these: sell with tenants in place and price it accordingly. Our seller page covers how that changes the listing, and buyers should start on the buyer page.
The relocation numbers change on October 1
No-fault grounds trigger relocation assistance, tiered by unit size and tenancy length. Watch the date, because two schedules are in play this autumn.
Through 30 September 2026 base payments run from $6,720 to $22,075, with moving costs of $1,620 or $4,890. From 1 October 2026 base payments run from $7,935 for an efficiency with a tenancy under three years to $25,833 for a unit with four or more bedrooms and a tenancy longer than ten years. The Special Circumstances supplement adds $7,935 to $15,500, and moving costs become $1,657, or $5,000. A notice served before 1 October is priced on the old schedule.
Add the top tiers together and the arithmetic maximum for one tenancy is $46,333. The city publishes no such cap as a figure. On top of it the landlord pays the relocation agency invoice, $608 or $978 by household type, plus $325 for right-of-first-refusal service, and those are paid before the notice is served. The security deposit is separate: refunded within 21 days after the tenant vacates, less only what repairs intentional or negligent damage beyond ordinary wear and tear.
One struck-down rule the city still publishes
Two official sources disagree right now, so this needs saying plainly.
In California Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025) 117 Cal.App.5th 187, filed 18 December 2025 and certified for publication, the Court of Appeal held two provisions preempted: the relocation assistance requirement at Section 1806(b)(C), and the Written Notice to Cease requirement for nonpayment evictions at Sections 1803(cc) and 1806(a)(1). The Supreme Court denied review and depublication on 1 April 2026.
The two have since diverged. The relocation trigger is still published as current, in Board regulations revised 15 January 2026 and in the Rental Housing Board agenda packet of 3 September 2026. The Written Notice to Cease requirement has been dropped from those regulations, which now require it only for breach of lease and nuisance under Sections 1806(a)(2) and (a)(3). It survives only in the uncorrected charter text. Anyone relying on the city's handout for the relocation trigger is relying on text a court has set aside.
Before you list
- Pull the registration status and the Base Rent on file, not the rent you believe you are charging.
- Reconstruct each tenancy's start date. It drives the relocation tier.
- Confirm whether the building is in rent control, just cause, or both.
- Check whether any prior increase exceeded the allowed adjustment.
- Decide the route early. Owner move-in and Ellis run on the buyer's clock.
- Price relocation against the right schedule for your notice date.
Burbank handles the same situation under a different instrument: see selling a tenant-occupied house in Burbank. For the other obligations that attach at closing, see Pasadena vs Glendale point-of-sale requirements.
Q: Can I ask my tenant to leave so the house shows better? Not as a ground for ending the tenancy. Refusing reasonable access for a showing is itself an at-fault ground, so access is protected. Vacancy is not.
Q: Does the tenant have a right to buy the property? Article XVIII creates no general right of first refusal on sale. The rights of first refusal in the charter attach to no-fault grounds, not to a sale.
This is general information about a city charter provision, not legal advice. Coverage, payment schedules and effective dates change, and a court decision has already unsettled part of the published guidance. Confirm current requirements with the city and with your own attorney before serving any notice. Call Alla at (818) 699-5367 or use the enquiry form.
More on buying and selling in the area: the Pasadena area guide.