What Changed for LA County Renters on January 1, 2026
California's AB 628 became law when Governor Newsom signed it on October 6, 2025. Assemblymember Tina McKinnor authored it, and it's officially Chapter 342 of the 2025 statutes. What it does is amend an existing piece of state law, Civil Code Section 1941.1, the statute that spells out what makes a rental unit legally habitable.
Before this amendment, Section 1941.1 said nothing specific about a working stove or a working refrigerator. Now it does, but only going forward. The law applies to a lease "entered into, amended, or extended on or after January 1, 2026." That phrasing matters more than it looks: it isn't retroactive, and it doesn't use the word "renewed." A lease signed in 2023 that hasn't been amended or extended since isn't reached by the statute's plain text, at least not yet.
There's a real gap in that language worth naming rather than glossing over. Whether an ongoing month-to-month tenancy counts as being "extended" every time a new rental period starts is not settled. We haven't seen it resolved anywhere, and we're not going to guess at an answer here.
The Stove Requirement: No Opt-Out
Under the amended statute, a landlord has to keep the stove "maintained in good working order and capable of safely generating heat for cooking purposes." That's the exact language in Section 1941.1(a)(10), and it comes with a second piece: if a stove is the subject of a manufacturer recall or a recall issued by a public entity, the law treats it as not capable of safely generating heat. Recall status alone triggers the requirement, whether or not the stove currently lights.
What the stove rule doesn't have is any way out. Unlike the refrigerator requirement below, there's no clause letting a landlord and tenant agree the tenant will bring their own stove instead. If a covered lease has a stove in the unit, the landlord is responsible for keeping it working and checking it against active recalls, full stop. For the appliance-condition side of what a stove failure actually looks like, see our stove and oven repair page.
The Refrigerator Requirement, and Its Opt-Out
The refrigerator language mirrors the stove's almost exactly. Section 1941.1(a)(11)(A) requires a refrigerator "maintained in good working order and capable of safely storing food," and the same recall rule applies: a refrigerator under an active manufacturer or public-entity recall counts as not capable of doing that job.
Where the refrigerator rule differs is an opt-out most renters have probably never heard of. Section 1941.1(a)(11)(B) lets a landlord and tenant agree, at signing, that the tenant will supply their own refrigerator instead. The law boxes that agreement in tightly, though: it requires specific, mandatory wording in the lease itself, the tenant can reverse the decision with 30 days' written notice at any point, the landlord can't make the tenancy conditional on the tenant accepting it, and once a tenant brings their own unit, the landlord has no maintenance duty for that tenant-supplied refrigerator.
That's a real asymmetry worth sitting with. A landlord can, under narrow conditions, shift refrigerator responsibility onto a tenant. Nothing in the statute allows that for a stove.
| Requirement | Stove | Refrigerator |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory standard | Capable of safely generating heat for cooking | Capable of safely storing food |
| Recall rule | Deemed not capable if under recall | Deemed not capable if under recall |
| 30-day repair/replace clock | Applies, recall only | Applies, recall only |
| Tenant opt-out available | No | Yes, conditional |
| Ordinary (non-recall) breakdown | Reasonable-time habitability standard | Reasonable-time habitability standard |
Source: California Civil Code Section 1941.1, as amended by AB 628 (Stats. 2025, ch. 342). See the References section below for the primary text.
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Book an LA County RepairIs There Really a 30-Day Deadline?
This is the part of AB 628 most likely to get misquoted, so it's worth being precise about it. Section 1941.1(c)(1) requires a landlord to repair or replace a stove or refrigerator that's subject to a recall within 30 days of receiving notice of the problem. That's a real, specific deadline, but it's scoped to recalls.
It is not a general 30-day deadline for any broken stove or fridge. If a refrigerator in a Montebello apartment simply stops cooling for an ordinary mechanical reason, no recall involved, Section 1941.1(c)(1)'s 30-day clock doesn't apply to that repair. An ordinary breakdown is governed by the same "reasonable time" framework that's applied to habitability repairs in California for years: how serious the problem is, how quickly the landlord was notified, and what's actually reasonable given the circumstances. There's no bright-line number of days for that general case.
Who's Covered, and Who Isn't
Two coverage questions come up constantly, and the statute answers both clearly. First: does this apply to a single-family rental home, or only to apartment buildings? Both. There's no single-family exemption anywhere in the statute; a landlord renting out a single house is held to the same stove-and-refrigerator standard as a landlord running a large Norwalk apartment complex.
Second: are there properties this doesn't touch at all? Yes, four categories are carved out entirely: permanent supportive housing, single-room-occupancy (SRO) units, residential hotel units, and dwellings with a shared or communal kitchen, which includes some assisted living arrangements. If a rental falls into one of those categories, the stove-and-refrigerator requirement in Section 1941.1 simply doesn't apply.
One more thing worth being direct about: the statute doesn't name a dishwasher, a washer, or a dryer anywhere in its text. AB 628 itself doesn't address those appliances, period. That doesn't mean they have no habitability protection at all under California law; that's a broader question this particular bill doesn't touch, and it's outside what we're covering here.
Where a Documented Diagnosis Fits In
None of this changes what actually breaks on a stove or a refrigerator. What it changes is the incentive to fix it instead of letting it slide, at least for leases the law reaches. A landlord who used to weigh "fix it eventually" against "deal with it if the tenant complains" now has a statutory reason to move fast on the recall side, and a general habitability reason to move at a reasonable pace on everything else.
That's where a documented diagnosis is useful to both sides of the lease, not just the landlord. When we go out on a call in Downey, Santa Fe Springs, or anywhere else in Los Angeles County, part of what we check is whether the specific model is under an active recall, since that's the one clock AB 628 actually starts. What we hand back, whether it's a straightforward repair or a "this needs to be replaced" call, is a written record either side can point to later: what we found, what we did about it, and when we did it.
Our diagnostic fee across Los Angeles County is a flat $99, the same in every city we serve and for every brand, credited toward the repair if you move forward. We work the Gateway Cities directly, including Norwalk, Downey, Santa Fe Springs, and Montebello, alongside the rest of the county; see our Long Beach service page for what that looks like in a neighboring Gateway City. If you're also wondering how old your rental's appliances are likely to be to start with, we cover that separately in our piece on how long appliances actually last in LA County housing. And for refrigerator-specific symptoms and repair costs, our refrigerator repair page covers the mechanical side in more depth.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Book a DiagnosisReferences
- California Legislature. California Civil Code Section 1941.1, as amended by Assembly Bill 628 (Stats. 2025, ch. 342), approved by the Governor October 6, 2025. Authored by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor. Full statutory text available at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- California State Senate, Senate Judiciary Committee. Committee analysis of Assembly Bill 628 (2025-2026 Regular Session), corroborating the statutory changes summarized above.
