The California Apartment Association has published a series of new and revised forms — along with updated background papers — to help rental housing providers comply with recently enacted laws taking effect in 2025. These resources cover a range of topics, including rent reporting obligations, screening fees, security deposit regulations, and protections for victims of domestic violence. 

Below is a detailed list of the new and significantly revised forms and Industry Insight papers, each tailored to help landlords meet their responsibilities under the updated laws. 

New rent reporting law (AB 2747) resources: 

• Industry Insight: Rent Reporting Obligations. This paper has been updated to cover the new law that applies to most landlords with properties of 15 or more units, effective April 1, 2025. Updates have also been made to reflect minor changes made to the existing law applicable to affordable housing providers. 

• Offer of Positive Rental Payment Information Reporting Addendum (Form CA-103). This new form is used to make the offer of positive rent reporting, as required by the new law, to new tenants. 

• Offer of Positive Rental Payment Information Reporting (Form CA-342). This new form is used to make the first-time offer to existing tenants and on an annual basis, as required by the new law. 

New screening fee law (AB 2493) resources: 

• Industry Insight: Prospective Tenants and Screening Fees and Industry Insight: Screening Potential Tenants Using Consumer Reports. These papers have been updated to cover the new law’s two key components: (1) requiring landlords who charge a screening fee to adopt one of two policies for how applications are handled; and (2) requiring landlords to automatically provide a copy of any screening reports to any tenant applicant who paid a screening fee. 

• Application to Rent (Form CA-001). This form has been updated to include a new section where landlords indicate whether they charge a screening fee and, if so, which of the two permissible application handling policies they have adopted. 

• New security deposit law (SB 2801 and SB 611) resources: 

• Industry Insight: Security Deposit Collection and Return and Industry Insight: Renting to Military Personnel. These papers have been updated to cover new requirements, including photo documentation of rental units and restrictions on security deposits for military personnel. 

• Itemized Disposition of Security Deposit (Form CA-290). This form has been redesigned to facilitate compliance with new photo requirements and other changes to the security deposit law. 

• Waiver of Right To Receive Documentation With Itemized Disposition of Security Deposit (Form CA-292). This form clarifies that a tenant’s waiver of documentation also applies to required photos. 

• Military Service Member Increased Security Deposit Addendum (Form CA-104). This new form provides the required disclosure when a military service member is charged an increased security deposit. 

New fee prohibitions (SB 611) resources: 

• Industry Insight: Terminating the Tenancy Notice Requirements and Industry Insight: Payment of Rent and Security Deposits. These papers have been updated to reflect SB 611’s prohibitions on charging fees for delivering tenancy termination notices and for paying the rent by check. 

• Revised Forms: The instructions for all 3-day, 30-day, and 60-day termination notices have been updated, as well as the instructions for rental/lease agreements. 

New domestic violence protections law (SB 1051) resources: 

• Industry Insight: Protections for Victims of Domestic Violence and Other Crimes. This paper has been rewritten to provide expanded information on the new law, as well as making the variety of protections – both new and existing – easier to understand with a glossary of terms and new examples. 

• Rental/Lease Agreements (Forms CA-040, 041, 042, and 043) have been updated to include language regarding the cost of changing locks, noting that there is no cost when landlords are required by law to do so. 

Balcony inspection deadline extension (AB 2579): 

• Industry Insight: Balcony Inspections. The deadline for compliance has been extended, but no other changes have been made to the law. 

Other updated resources in response to member questions or feedback: 

• Notice of Conditional Acceptance (Form CA-012). This form has been updated to provide more detail about conditions that must be met for an application to be approved. 

• Blank Addendum (Long Version) (Form CA-060L). This new, long version of the addendum provides additional lines for members who need to add custom terms to rental/lease agreements. The shorter version (Form CA-060) remains available as well. 

• Revised Form: Rental/Lease Agreement changes include adding information about the “small landlord” exception to the one-month security deposit cap and incorporating asbestos disclosures to avoid the need for a separate addendum in most cases.  

• Offer to Rent (Form CA-021). This new form provides a mechanism to clearly establish terms governing when an approved applicant must execute a rental/lease agreement. 

Join the webinar for more information  

To hear directly from CAA’s legal affairs team about these new requirements and how they impact your business, join our upcoming 2024 Year End Compliance Review webinar, the second in CAA’s year-end webinar series. The first part, 2024 Year End Legislative Report, is now available on demand.