Updated August 27, 2026
Two tests, and both are different from the ones you may have read about.
Three or more units, and built before 1 February 1995. Meet both and the relocation provisions of Glendale's Rental Rights Program apply to the property.
Confirm the current scope with the City of Glendale for any specific address — the ordinance took effect 14 March 2019 and was amended effective 7 March 2024, and the city administers it.
October 1978. That is the LA City Rent Stabilization Ordinance's certificate-of-occupancy cutoff, and it governs buildings in Los Angeles. Glendale is a separate city. Its date is 1 February 1995, which is a very different line and captures a much larger share of any city's stock.
If you have been checking your building against 1978, you have been checking against the wrong year for the wrong jurisdiction.
Coverage does not mean a cap on rent increases. Glendale has none. What it means is that the Rental Rights Program's provisions attach: just-cause eviction requirements, the annual offer of a one-year written lease, provisions on intentional disrepair and rent reduction, and the relocation obligation triggered by an increase above 7% in twelve months.
The mechanism is explained in Glendale has no rent cap — it has a threshold, and the arithmetic of the trigger in what the 7% trigger actually costs.
The 1995 line is late. Across the 12 Glendale buildings in this desk's closed record — 224 units, $55.6M — every one holds three or more units, and Glendale's apartment stock is overwhelmingly older than 1995. The city was substantially built out well before then; its postwar apartment inventory along the Central, Brand and Colorado corridors dates from the 1950s through the 1980s.
So for practical purposes, assume coverage and verify rather than the other way round.
The City of Glendale, not LAHD. Los Angeles Housing Department has no role here and its records will not contain your building. Glendale administers its own program, and the city is where registration questions, notice requirements and current relocation figures are answered.
Establish it before you price, not during escrow. A buyer will want to know which units sit below market and what the realistic re-let rent is, because under this ordinance that gap is upside they can act on rather than wait for.
Three or more units, built before February 1995 — almost certainly covered, and coverage here means obligations rather than a ceiling. Verify with the city, and discard the October 1978 test entirely; it belongs to a different jurisdiction.
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