Mountain View, CA Rental Inspections: Inspection Programs (2026)

Sec. 55 of Chapter 25 establishes a citywide hotel, motel, and multi-family housing inspection program, finding that unmaintained multi-family and long-term-occupancy hotel and motel housing deteriorates faster than other housing and threatens residents' health, safety, and welfare. Sec. 56 sets the periodic inspection schedule: every multi-family housing structure, defined in Sec. 51 as three or more rental dwelling units in a single building, is inspected at least once every five years. A building that passes with no serious City Code violations becomes an 'exempt property' and moves to an eight-year inspection cycle, but exempt owners must self-certify, in a form the city prescribes, that the property still has no code violations at least once every two years.

Selling the property ends exempt status automatically and triggers a new city inspection. The city can also inspect an exempt property more often if it observes or receives a report of violations, if the owner misses a self-certification deadline, or if the property poses a high fire risk. Hotels and motels follow a different, targeted track: each is assessed within two years of the program's adoption based on the share of rooms rented for a week or longer and any evidence of building, housing, or fire code violations, to decide whether it belongs in the ongoing targeted inspection program.

Sec. 57 requires consent or an inspection warrant to enter, and Secs. 79 fund the program through a council-set per-unit baseline inspection fee, a higher fee for properties with serious violations, and reinspection fees starting at the fourth inspection of the same complex.