The Breakdown of California Rental Agreement Month to Month

Creating a legal document is not easy. Every state has its regulations regarding contracts and agreements that you must have a thorough knowledge of.

Writing a contract doesn’t have to involve hours of research. We can help you learn all about California landlord-tenant law in one place. DoNotPay is here to explain how to create a bullet-proof month-to-month California rental agreement and save time and money in the process!

A Month-to-Month Rental Agreement in California Explained

The California month-to-month lease agreement defines the relations between a landlord and a tenant. The difference between this and other rental agreements lies in the terms of the lease.

Most lease agreements are fixed, which means the lease terms don’t change until the agreement ends. A month-to-month rental agreement allows the landlord to change the lease terms, provided they issue a written notice first.

The advantages of a month-to-month lease are numerous, the most important being:

Ability to change the terms at any time, including the rent, or pet, smoking, and sublease policy
Flexibility to enforce the changes as long as the agreement is in effect
Opportunity to renew the contract at the end of each payment term
Capacity to lawfully terminate the lease at any time

California legislators have recently changed the terms of month-to-month rental agreements to make them more appealing to tenants. The state now limits the rent increase and the termination policy for tenants residing at the property for more than a year.

Month-to-Month Rental Laws in California

Before creating a periodic tenancy agreement, you must be familiar with all regulations regarding the landlord-tenant relationship. Check out the most important rules of month-to-month rental agreements in California:

The landlord and the tenant can terminate the lease with a 30- or 60-day notice
Notices must be hand-delivered or sent by mail
Landlords have to provide a just cause for terminating the contract with the tenant who resided on the property for more than one year. The causes include:
- Not paying rent
- Using the property wrongfully
- Subletting the property without permission
- Performing criminal activities on the premises
The property owner can use no-fault just causes for terminating the lease, and they include:
- Taking the unit off the market
- Remodeling
- Moving into the unit themselves
Landlords must provide a 30- or 90-day notice to increase the rent
Property owners need to give a 30-day notice for changing other lease terms

How To Write a California Month-to-Month Rental Agreement

When creating a periodic tenancy agreement in California, the landlord must adjust the conditions because the tenant may not stay long.

Here is an overview of the specific sections that every month-to-month rental agreement in California should include:

Month-to-Month Rental Agreement Section	Details
Introduction	Landlord and tenant’s full names and the date of creating the agreement
Property	Address of the property, including street, city, state, and ZIP code
Terms of lease	This section includes: The date the lease begins The notice period for terminating the contract
Terms of payment and late charges	You should address the following: Rent amount Due date First payment date Daily charge for late fees Deadline for accepting late charges
Security deposit	This section outlines the security deposit amount and conditions of keeping a whole or a part of the deposit
Occupants	You should determine the allowed number of people living in the rental unit
Utilities	This section defines the utilities and services included in the agreement, such as cable, internet, or electricity
Pets	You can state your pet policy in this section, including the type, size, and number of pets allowed
Abandonment	This paragraph defines the period before the property is considered abandoned by the tenant
Additional terms and clauses	You can use this section to address miscellaneous terms, such as noise, parking, or sublease policy
Signatures	The signatures section should provide the landlord and tenant’s full printed names and signatures

How Can DoNotPay Help You Create Legal Documents?

DoNotPay knows how expensive and time-consuming writing legal documents can be.

If you want to create a residential lease agreement according to California laws but don’t feel like writing it yourself, we can help you out!

Our new Standardized Legal Documents product allows you to create legal documents if you provide us with:

Names of the involved parties
Location of the rental unit
Start and end date for the agreement
Your contract requirements

You will get a tailor-made contract in a flash. Here’s how it works:

from a web browser
Enter the name of the desired document in the search box
Answer a few questions from our chatbot

All you need to do is give our app a couple of minutes to create your personalized, legally-binding agreement!

You don’t have to use iffy contract templates to save money! can draft many legal and business documents for you, including:

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