Policy Briefing · October 16, 2026 · The Group CRE
Most of the legal attention after the January 2025 fires went to price gouging, insurance, and the rebuild permitting queue. The statute that will actually shape what owners of standing but damaged apartment buildings owe their tenants arrived quietly in October 2025, and almost nobody in brokerage has read it.
SB 610 does three things that change the economics of a damaged building: it makes debris a presumption of untenantability, it guarantees the tenant a return at the pre-disaster rent, and it discharges rent during a mandatory evacuation.
Source document
Senate Bill 610 (Allen), Disaster assistance: tenants, mobilehome parks, and mortgages. Approved by the Governor October 10, 2025. Chapter 547, Statutes of 2025. Adds California Civil Code sections 1941.8, 1941.9, and 798.64; adds Financial Code section 338; amends Government Code section 65863.7. In effect since January 1, 2026. Whether its duties reach damage from disasters declared before then, including the January 2025 fires, is a question for counsel.
Not just fire
On October 15, 2026 the Governor proclaimed a state of emergency for Tropical Storm Rachel in Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties. Storms and floods are listed disasters under SB 610, so units with storm water damage or mold from that event may now carry these duties too.
In this briefing
Section 1941.8 requires a landlord to take the actions necessary to remediate dilapidations that arise as a result of a disaster. The statute names what it means: removal of debris, and mitigation of mold, smoke, smoke residue, smoke odor, ash, asbestos, or water damage. The work has to follow applicable government cleaning protocols, use licensed remediation companies where the law requires them, and be completed within a reasonable time.
Two procedural obligations ride along with it. Once remediation is complete, the landlord must confirm it in writing to any tenant who has given a postal or email address. And the landlord must give tenants access to any environmental studies, testing, or reports relating to the property.
That second one deserves a moment. If you commission an industrial hygienist to support an insurance claim, the resulting report is now something your tenants can ask for. Scope the testing knowing it will be read by both audiences.
The provision with the sharpest edge
Debris on site presumes the unit untenantable
The presumption holds until a public health agency determines toxic substances are not present. Until that determination exists, the burden is yours, not the tenant's.
The operative language is that the presence of the debris at a rental unit shall be presumed to render the rental unit untenantable until the relevant public health agency determines that toxic substances are not present.
Before SB 610, an owner and a tenant could reach genuinely different conclusions about whether a smoke-affected unit was habitable, and the fight was evidentiary. Now the default answer while debris remains is that it is not habitable, and the route out of that default runs through a public agency determination rather than through the owner's own contractor. On a building that took ash intrusion but no structural loss, that is a meaningful change in posture.
This is the provision with the largest dollar consequence, and it is the one owners are most likely to get wrong.
Unless lawfully terminated by either party, the tenancy remains in effect and the tenant has the right to return at the same rental rate in effect immediately prior to the disaster, as soon as it is safe and practicable.
Read what that forecloses. A long displacement does not end the tenancy on its own. Substantial remediation spend does not buy a reset. And on rent-stabilized stock, the pre-disaster rent is the stabilized rent, so the RSO base survives the fire along with the tenancy. An owner sitting on a deep loss-to-lease going into the event still has it coming out.
The comparison worth holding in mind: the annual allowable increase under AB 1482 or the LA RSO applies to that same preserved base. Nothing about the disaster accelerates it.
These rights are in addition to any others a tenant has, and local ordinances can add more. Check the City or County layer that applies to your building; our LA multifamily regulatory guide maps them by jurisdiction.
Section 1941.9 is short and almost entirely uncovered in the commentary. It does three things:
Section 798.64 sets parallel rules for mobilehome parks. For an owner modeling a disaster scenario, the evacuation discharge is a direct revenue line, not a footnote: in a multi-week mandatory evacuation, that is weeks of gross rent that simply do not accrue, on top of the remediation spend.
The statute defines the term, and the definition has a gate in it. A disaster is a natural or manmade emergency resulting from earthquake, flood, fire, riot, storm, drought, plant or animal infestation or disease, pandemic or epidemic disease outbreak, or other natural or manmade disaster for which a state of emergency has been declared by the President of the United States or the Governor.
A kitchen fire in one unit is not an SB 610 event. A declared wildfire emergency is. That gate is the single fastest way to determine whether these obligations are in play at all. The October 15, 2026 Tropical Storm Rachel proclamation for Los Angeles County is such a declaration.
SB 610 also added Financial Code section 338, directing the Commissioner to coordinate with lenders to promote forbearance, foreclosure prevention, and loss mitigation for borrowers whose income has decreased or expenses increased because of wildfires.
This is not a borrower entitlement and should not be described as one. It is a supervisory posture, and it is worth knowing about before a conversation with a servicer, particularly when the evacuation rent discharge above is the reason debt service got tight.
For anyone buying, selling, or valuing an apartment building in or near a burn area, SB 610 introduces four items that belong in the file:
| Diligence item | Why it moves value |
|---|---|
| Remediation status and the public health determination | Without the determination, affected units carry a statutory presumption of untenantability. That is a rent roll issue, not a punch list. |
| Environmental studies and testing reports | They exist, tenants can obtain them, and a buyer should read them before pricing the smoke-affected units. |
| Displaced tenants with live return rights | A vacant unit is not necessarily a market-rate unit. The returning tenant comes back at the pre-disaster rent. |
| Evacuation-period rent discharge in the trailing financials | Trailing twelve collections in a burn area may understate stabilized income for a statutory reason, not an operating one. |
That third row is the one that gets mispriced. A buyer underwriting displaced units to market rents is underwriting a right the seller cannot deliver. Our due diligence checklist covers the standard LA traps; in a burn area, add these four.
Two adjacent items owners in fire-affected areas should already know: California's ban on predatory unsolicited offers in declared fire recovery zones, covered on our FAQ, and the coverage realities of the FAIR Plan, covered in our guide to landlord insurance for LA apartment owners.
Palisades owners weighing a sale should also watch Measure TE on the November 3, 2026 City ballot. If voters approve it, sales of residential property damaged or destroyed in the Palisades Fire, by owners of record on January 7, 2025, would be exempt from Measure ULA for sales through January 6, 2030. The City’s base transfer tax would still apply. Our Measure ULA guide for sellers covers the tax itself.
Own a building in or near a burn area?
Preserved rents, live return rights, and remediation status all belong in the valuation before you take an offer. We underwrite them explicitly.
Request a free valuation of your building
Dealing with a damaged building now? Call 916-996-4421.
Not on a returning tenant. Unless the tenancy was lawfully terminated, it survives and the tenant returns at the rent in effect immediately before the disaster.
No. The statute expressly does not require a landlord to rebuild damaged property.
No. Civil Code 1941.9 discharges rent during a mandatory evacuation order. Rent already paid for that period must be returned within 10 calendar days after the order is lifted, or the tenant may deduct it from the next month’s rent.
An enumerated emergency for which the President or the Governor has declared a state of emergency. An isolated casualty loss does not qualify.
While debris remains, the unit is presumed untenantable until a public health agency determines toxic substances are not present. The burden sits with the owner.
Yes. Tenants must be given access to environmental studies, testing, or reports relating to the property, alongside written confirmation that remediation is complete for any tenant who has given a postal or email address.
Sources and further reading
This briefing is general information for property owners, not legal advice. Statutes are summarized as enacted; confirm application to your specific property and tenancies with counsel.
Not on a returning tenant. Civil Code 1941.8 provides that unless the tenancy was lawfully terminated, it remains in effect and the tenant has the right to return at the same rental rate in effect immediately before the disaster, as soon as it is safe and practicable. A fire does not reset the rent, and on an RSO building it does not reset the rent-stabilized base either.
No. The statute is explicit that nothing in it requires a landlord to rebuild damaged property. What it requires is remediation of the dilapidations that arose from the disaster, debris removal and mitigation of contaminants, when the property is being brought back into use.
No. Civil Code 1941.9 discharges the tenant's rent obligation during a mandatory evacuation order. Rent already paid for that period must be returned within 10 calendar days after the order is lifted, or the tenant may deduct it from the next month's rent. Separately, if the tenancy ends because the unit was destroyed, advance rent for the period after termination is due back within 21 days. Civil Code 798.64 sets parallel rules for mobilehome parks.
The statute defines it as a natural or manmade emergency resulting from earthquake, flood, fire, riot, storm, drought, plant or animal infestation or disease, pandemic or epidemic disease outbreak, or other natural or manmade disaster for which a state of emergency has been declared by the President or the Governor. An ordinary casualty loss with no emergency declaration does not trigger it.
It shifts the burden. The presence of disaster debris at a rental unit is presumed to render that unit untenantable until a public health agency determines toxic substances are not present. You do not get to argue the unit is fine while debris is still on site; you get there by clearing it and obtaining the determination.
Yes, on request. Along with written confirmation that remediation is complete (owed to tenants who have given a postal or email address), the statute requires giving tenants access to any environmental studies, testing, or reports relating to the property. Plan for that when you scope the work, because reports commissioned for insurance purposes will be discoverable to the tenant anyway.
