In this episode of Simply Multifamily, Kiran Dhillon sits down with real estate attorney Anthony Marinaccio of Marinaccio Law to break down key 2026 California laws affecting multifamily owners:
- AB 628 – Appliances & Habitability
Landlords must provide and maintain working stoves and refrigerators in most rental units starting January 2026. These are now considered habitability items, meaning failure to repair or replace them could create legal exposure. - AB 414 – Security Deposits
Allows security deposit itemizations and refunds to be sent electronically (if agreed upon), clarifies how to issue refunds with multiple tenants, and keeps the 21-day return requirement in place. - SB 610 – Natural Disasters
Clarifies landlord responsibilities for cleanup and toxic remediation after disasters, tenant rights to return at the same rent if a unit is repaired, and confirms no rent is owed during mandatory evacuation periods.
A must-watch overview for California multifamily owners looking to stay compliant and prepared.
*Transcript edited for clarity
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
Hi everyone, welcome to Simply Multifamily. My name is Kiran Dhillon, I am a Broker-Associate with Keller Williams Commercial specializing in multifamily sales. Today we have the privilege of sitting down with attorney Anthony Marinaccio of Marinaccio Law regarding new 2026 laws that affect owners of California multifamily properties. Welcome back, Anthony. Thanks for being here today.
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
Hi Kiran, thanks for having me on.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
I wanted to start with AB 628, which is the new statewide law requiring owners to provide and maintain working stoves and refrigerators starting in January 2026. Can you tell me what types of units or properties this new law applies to, and are there any exceptions?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
Generally, it will apply to all rental properties except for single room occupancies or rooms where there are no kitchens. For the vast majority of landlords, it applies to everybody, to all rental properties, single family homes, all the way up to apartment buildings, duplexes, basically all rental units that have a kitchen.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
Do owners have to provide the stoves and refrigerators to tenants who are already leasing the units or does this only come into play when a new lease is entered into?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
No, they do not have to provide it for tenancies that began in 2025 and before. However, if somebody requests that the refrigerator or stove be replaced, at that point it would have to be because it is considered a habitability issue. So, it's going to be at the same level as, for example, not providing heat or not providing running water or something along those lines. So, it's important that yes, if a tenant is having an issue with a stove or refrigerator, that a new one be provided, even if it was the tenant's.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
How long do owners have to replace an inoperable refrigerator or stove once they're notified by the tenant?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
It would be 30 days for any warranty issues. For example, if there's a recall -- you buy a Maytag appliance and Maytag has a recall, you would have 30 days to make that fix. But for everything else, it would be reasonable, similar to everything else in habitability. For example, if there's a lack of hot water, what would be reasonable to make a repair? If the tenant calls on a Saturday night, it's not fully unreasonable to have something repaired early the next week, but if it's something that can be done that day, then it should be done.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
Let's say you are entering into a new lease -- does the tenant have the option to opt out and bring their own refrigerator? And if so, what's the best way for the owner to document that?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
Sure, it's really common, especially in Southern California. Tenants will sometimes have their own refrigerator already and they want to use it. A landlord has to provide just a notice saying that the law does require a landlord to provide the refrigerator and that you're basically exempting yourself and you're going to provide your own refrigerator. That would have to be initialed by the tenant and the language is provided in the code. However, the tenant later can make a decision saying, "I would rather have the owner provide the refrigerator," and the owner would have to provide the refrigerator.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
You mentioned earlier about this being related to habitability. Do you see the lack of providing a working stove or refrigerator coming up as a defense in unlawful detainer actions?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
Technically, yes. It could become a defense and it can become an issue. For example, if a tenant contacts the landlord saying that the refrigerator is broken and it's not cooling food or the freezer's not working, hypothetically, I haven't seen it yet, but hypothetically, a tenant could file a complaint with the housing department or the county health department and have an inspection done to have it fixed, or it could also become a defense to an unlawful detainer, yes.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
So, it's important for landlords to be on top of this?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
Correct. I haven't seen too many issues over the years with stoves, but I know with refrigerators, they can become more of an issue because of the cooling and the freezing.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
The second big change that we have comes in with AB 414 and the new rules surrounding security deposits. Can you tell us about this?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
So now the law kind of sped up allowing for electronic payments and service by email, specifically for security deposit itemization. For example, if a tenant vacates and provides an email address and everyone agrees that you can just send it to the email address, then a landlord can send the itemization by email. Also, if the parties agree, you can return the money by Zelle or other electronic payment.
One of the big issues that has come up over the years in the security deposit rules, is if you have multiple tenants, how do you write the check? And the law clarifies this by saying that the check should be written to all the individuals unless they've all agreed to just give it to one person or split the checks. But otherwise, you write one check to everybody, to all the named tenants.
And the law still says you would have to provide this itemization to the last known address. So, if a tenant does not provide you with a forwarding address, the law actually says that you return it back to the vacant unit, and it's assumed that that person should have done a mail forwarding or something.
But I've seen that over the years where no one gets it. So, it's important that with email, I think it will go a little smoother now that the 21-day period is still the same, but you can just send the itemization via email as opposed to by letter.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
Okay. That's good, it should be more efficient.
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
Yeah, I think it would be. And I know people already were asking for that. I know a lot of people would rather have email than a paper check.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
Yeah, absolutely. And then the last one we're going to go over today is regarding a landlord's duties if there is a natural disaster. This is covered by SB 610. What's changed here?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
So, there was a lot of confusion after the Altadena and Palisades fires around who is responsible for the cleaning and the maintenance of a unit after a natural disaster. I know in Altadena and in the Palisades, you had units that were heavily affected by smoke damage -- who is responsible for making those repairs?
In addition, there were issues where, for example, the landlord would do the maintenance of the ducts, but if a tenant did not fix or didn't clean her sofa, that could become an issue because then the smoke damage would re-contaminate. This law clarifies that a landlord is responsible for cleaning especially, and for removal of toxic materials. So, this might mean that they're going to be responsible for the entire unit, including the furniture, for the cleanup.
It does provide a little guidance as to what would occur if the unit is destroyed in a natural disaster. If it is completely destroyed, there's no responsibility to rebuild. So, if it's burned to the ground, there's no responsibility to build the new unit. But if it's damaged where it's going to be remodeled and repaired, the law now clarifies that the tenant is allowed to move back to the unit at the same rent that they were paying prior to the unit being partially destroyed during the disaster. And this would only apply to natural disasters.
They also added a little provision, which is pretty limited, that if there's an evacuation order and you are required to be out of your unit due to a mandatory evacuation, you are not responsible to pay rent for that time period while you were evacuated.
So, for example, I know in the Altadena fires, there were some mandatory evacuations for a few days, some were a little longer, so that would be the time period. It's really not discretionary, just whatever the law says when the evacuation occurred.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
Got it. And then if the unit becomes uninhabitable for a certain amount of time and the tenant's still on a lease, what then?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
So, the tenant would have the discretion. If they would want to terminate the lease and just move on, they can. But at the end of the day, if the unit's going to be remodeled, a tenant is not responsible to pay rent, but they would be responsible to move back in once the unit is remodeled, but it would be repaired, and it would have to be at the rate that they were paying beforehand.
But it should be noted that there are lots of separate provisions for local laws. For example, the cities of Los Angeles, Glendale and Pasadena, they all have their own very specific regulations about remodeling and disasters. So, you might want to look at that as well.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
In summary, based on these three new changes we've talked about, what steps should multifamily owners take to prepare for these new laws?
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
I think for the security deposit issues, that would be included as part of the lease, saying that you would accept the security deposit itemization via email. And I think at this point, part of the lease should include people's contact email address in addition to a phone number. I think phone numbers tend to change, but people don't tend to change their email addresses, so that's helpful.
I also think for the stoves and refrigerators, I know for a lot of landlords, particularly in Southern California, that's going to be a big issue where they were not used to providing that before, although recently they have been providing them more often. I think that's something that I personally believe that they probably should be providing the tenants. Well, if the law now does require that, we have to provide them, and I think that's important. It's also important that if you are buying new appliances as a landlord, that you keep up with the warranties and with any recall notices, because it's very specific about the recall notices, particularly for appliances. For example, it would be considered uninhabitable if the recall notice is never addressed or something along those lines.
Unlike before, if a tenant does make a request to repair a stove or a refrigerator, that needs to be done. It's basically like I said earlier, it's on the same level as lacking hot water or lacking heat, so it's important.
And for the issues relating to disasters, I think that's a very limited issue. And I know it was really in response to the wildfires, but it can be applied to just general fires. It can also be applied to earthquakes if there's one or other types of natural disasters. I think it's important to keep up on that if it does happen.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
Well, thank you, Anthony, so much for being here today. The laws that we talked about are broader California-based, so just like you mentioned, if you happen to own property anywhere in California, be sure you're familiar with the local laws because like you mentioned, many of these cities have much more specific rules that you have to follow. So, if anybody has questions about that, they could reach out to your office.
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
Yes, you can always call my office. The number is 818-839-5220.
Kiran Dhillon, SIG Commercial:
Perfect. Thank you.
Anthony Marinaccio, Marinaccio Law:
Thank you.
