AB 311 establishes a temporary legal framework that lets a tenant, with the landlord’s written approval, permit a person who is at risk of homelessness (and that person’s common household pet) to occupy the tenant’s dwelling unit. The statute allocates financial and legal responsibilities among landlord, tenant, and the hosted person, sets explicit termination triggers and removal procedures, and excludes federally assisted low-income housing.
This measure matters because it creates an explicit pathway for short-term hosting inside market and rent-controlled units while trying to preserve landlord control and existing occupancy and building rules. The provision is time-limited and intended to reduce barriers for informal sheltering arrangements without modifying core tenant protections permanently.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill permits a tenant, if the property owner gives written approval, to temporarily allow a person at risk of homelessness and one or more common household pets to live in the unit. It requires written rent adjustments (if any) consistent with applicable rent-stabilization rules, assigns lodge-like rights to the hosted person, and sets a specific set of termination triggers and short notice timelines for removal.
Who It Affects
Landlords and property managers who must review and sign written approvals and rent adjustments; tenants who host and become contractually and financially responsible for the hosted person’s conduct and for timely rent; hosted individuals and their service providers seeking temporary shelter; and local courts and law enforcement that will enforce removals under lodger provisions.
Why It Matters
AB 311 creates legal clarity where informal hosting previously sat in a gray area—allowing tenants to provide temporary shelter without automatically converting a hosted individual into a co-tenant. For compliance officers and property managers, it introduces new documentation, notification and cure requirements, and forces interaction with local rent-stabilization regimes and building-occupancy limits.
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What This Bill Actually Does
Under AB 311 a tenant may permit a person who is “at risk of homelessness” to occupy the tenant’s dwelling unit only if the owner or landlord gives written approval. The bill explicitly allows the hosted person to bring common household pets where defined by state health code.
The statute does not make hosting compulsory; landlords may refuse.
If the landlord and tenant agree that the hosted person will occupy the unit, they also may agree in writing to an adjusted rent for the period of occupancy. Any rent change must be set out in writing and must comply with applicable local rent-stabilization laws or other regulations that limit rent increases.
If the hosted person leaves, the rent reverts to the amount the tenant paid before the hosted person moved in, plus any lawful rent increases that would have applied independently of the hosting arrangement.The bill treats the hosted person as a lodger for most purposes: they obtain lodger-like rights and obligations under state law, but their termination and removal follow the statute’s special rules. The tenant is obligated to inform the hosted person of the existing lease rules, provide the hosted person a copy of the tenant’s lease, and sign a written agreement that the hosted person will follow the lease rules.
The tenant must also sign a written agreement with the landlord acknowledging tenant liability for the hosted person’s conduct and that failure to remove the hosted person after rule violations could lead to termination of the tenant’s own lease.Termination mechanics are tightly prescribed. The hosted person’s occupancy ends on the earliest of: the date agreed by the landlord, termination of the tenant’s tenancy, the tenant vacating, or at least seven days after the tenant serves written notice specifying the vacate date and time.
Those timelines shorten to 24 hours when the landlord has already served the tenant a three-day notice to cure or quit. The statute also permits immediate termination of occupancy without notice if the hosted person engages in criminal conduct on the premises.
After termination, removal may proceed under the Penal Code section that governs lodger removals (Pen. Code § 602.3).AB 311 excludes federal Section 8 housing and other federally funded low-income housing from its coverage, incorporates the federal “at risk of homelessness” definition in HUD regulations with a limited exclusion of one criterion, and explicitly adds displacement caused by a declared disaster to the covered population.
The law is temporary and sunsets January 1, 2031.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill requires landlord written approval before any hosted person at risk of homelessness may occupy a tenant’s unit; landlords are not compelled to consent.
Any temporary rent change tied to the hosted person must be agreed to in writing and must conform to applicable local rent-stabilization laws or regulations.
The tenant remains responsible for paying the full rent under the lease and is contractually liable for the hosted person’s actions to the extent those actions would violate the tenant’s lease.
Occupancy ends on the earliest of several triggers (agreed date, tenant’s tenancy termination, tenant vacating, or at least seven days after the tenant’s written notice), but ends 24 hours after tenant notice if the landlord has served a three‑day cure-or-quit on the tenant; criminal conduct by the hosted person permits immediate termination.
The statute does not apply to federal Section 8 or other federally funded/assisted low‑income housing and automatically repeals on January 1, 2031.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Legislative intent — assist those at risk of homelessness
This introductory clause states the policy goal: reduce barriers to temporary residency for people at risk of homelessness and encourage cooperation between landlords and tenants. Its legal effect is minimal, but it frames judicial and administrative interpretation in favor of facilitating temporary hosting where the statute otherwise permits.
Permission to occupy with landlord’s written approval
This is the core operative provision: a tenant may only permit occupancy by a person at risk of homelessness if the owner or landlord provides written approval. The provision also allows that person to have one or more common household pets as defined by Health and Safety Code §50466. Practically, consent must be documented, which creates an administrative step for landlords and a clear evidentiary trail if disputes arise.
Rent adjustments during temporary occupancy
The landlord may adjust rent while the hosted person lives in the unit, but any change must be in writing and consistent with rent-stabilization laws. The provision also permits charging an additional pet rent only if the underlying lease already authorizes such a pet charge. When the hosted person leaves, rent must revert to the pre-hosting amount plus any lawful intervening increases that were not caused by the hosting arrangement. This creates two practical compliance tasks: (1) documenting the temporary rent change; and (2) tracking what counts as a lawful intervening increase independent of hosting.
Lodger status, tenant obligations, and required written agreements
The hosted person is given lodger-like rights and obligations under California law, but the statute carves out its own termination regime. The tenant has the same duties toward the hosted person that an owner has to a lodger, including informing the person of lease rules. The tenant and landlord must sign an agreement acknowledging the tenant’s liability for the hosted person’s conduct, and the tenant must sign a separate agreement with the hosted person requiring compliance with the lease rules and providing copies of the lease. Those multiple signature and disclosure requirements aim to shift enforcement leverage to tenants and produce documentation landlords can rely on in enforcement actions.
Termination triggers and removal procedure
The hosted person’s occupancy ends on the earliest of a landlord‑agreed date, termination of the tenant’s tenancy, the tenant vacating, or seven days after tenant notice specifying the vacate date and time. The timeline accelerates to 24 hours after tenant notice if the landlord has served a three‑day notice to cure or quit on the tenant. Immediate termination without notice is allowed if the hosted person commits criminal conduct on the premises. After termination, removal proceeds under Penal Code §602.3, which treats the hosted person procedurally like a lodger for purposes of forcible removal.
Opportunity to cure before landlord terminates tenant lease
Before a landlord may terminate the tenant’s lease due to rule violations by the hosted person, the landlord must provide the tenant with notice and an opportunity to cure under the three-day cure-or-quit standard of Code of Civil Procedure §1161(3). Removing the hosted person satisfies the cure requirement. This protects tenants from immediate lease termination for third‑party conduct, but conditions the protection on the tenant’s willingness and ability to remove the hosted person.
Limits, exclusions, and occupancy definitions
The bill clarifies that landlords are not forced to permit hosting, that building occupancy limits and applicable building standards still control whether an additional person may lawfully be added, and that the federal HUD definition of “person at risk of homelessness” (24 C.F.R. §578.3) governs who may be hosted, with one limited exception specified in the HUD text. The statute also adds disaster displacement (during a Governor‑declared emergency) to the definition. Importantly, federally assisted low‑income housing (including Section 8) is expressly exempted from the law’s coverage, which creates different rules for those properties.
Sunset provision
The statute automatically repeals on January 1, 2031. That date makes AB 311 a temporary policy experiment: parties and local governments should plan around the limited duration when designing administrative processes or pilot programs tied to this authority.
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Explore Housing in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Persons at risk of homelessness: Gain a clearer, lawful path to short-term indoor shelter in privately leased units (including the ability to bring a common household pet), and access to lodger protections and a defined removal process.
- Tenants who want to help: Receive statutory clarity that allows them—if the landlord consents—to host someone temporarily while preserving a process for documenting agreements and shifting enforcement leverage to the tenant for rule violations.
- Service providers and case managers: Obtain a predictable legal framework to broker placements into private housing without turning hosted individuals into de facto co-tenants, which can help short-term housing coordination during crises or disaster displacement.
Who Bears the Cost
- Landlords and property managers: Must review and sign written approvals and temporary rent agreements, keep records demonstrating compliance with rent-stabilization rules, and manage potential short-term increases in occupancy and wear-and-tear; they also retain responsibilities to enforce occupancy limits and building codes.
- Tenants who host: Take on contractual and financial risk—remaining responsible for full rent payments, liable for the hosted person’s lease-rule violations, and potentially facing lease termination if they fail to remove the hosted person after violations.
- Local courts, sheriff’s offices, and code enforcement: Will handle eviction and removal actions under lodger-removal provisions and may face new caseloads for disputes over written approvals, alleged breach of the required agreements, and contested removals.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
AB 311’s central dilemma is straightforward: enable more temporary shelter opportunities by allowing tenant-hosting while protecting landlords’ property rights and existing rent-control regimes. The bill grants a narrow, consent‑based path to hosting but then shifts most operational risk and enforcement responsibility onto tenants and local administrators—an arrangement that helps promote short-term shelter while potentially leaving meaningful legal and practical burdens unresolved.
The statute balances enabling temporary shelter against established landlord-tenant frameworks, but that balance raises implementation questions. The requirement that any rent adjustment be consistent with local rent-stabilization rules imports local complexity: landlords must interpret and apply varying municipal ordinances when documenting temporary rent changes, and disputes may arise over what constitutes a lawful intervening increase when rent reverts.
The layered documentation requirements (landlord–tenant agreement and tenant–host agreement plus delivery of lease copies) reduce ambiguity but create administrative burdens for small landlords and caseworkers.
Another tension is status and enforcement. Treating the hosted person as a lodger for rights and as a lodger for removal under Penal Code §602.3 narrows the pathway to full tenancy, but it also leaves gaps: lodger rights differ from tenant protections, and resolving claims about damages, utility charges, and occupancy limits will require line-drawing that the statute does not fully supply.
The exclusion of federally assisted low-income housing creates a patchwork: the statute’s temporary experiment will operate in some parts of the housing stock and not in others, complicating planning for providers. Finally, the sunset date (January 1, 2031) may discourage long-term procedural investments and creates uncertainty for landlords and intermediaries who must weigh short-term benefits against the end of the statutory scheme.
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