Fresno, CA Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

The Rental Housing Improvement Act states its purpose in Sec. 10-1601: to identify substandard housing through 'an effective pro-active and re-active inspection program to ensure rental housing units in the city meet minimum health and safety standards required by the State of California and are safe to occupy,' while directing adequate resources to remedy violations quickly and reduce substandard housing citywide. The substantive maintenance rule sits in Sec. 10-1604(c): a Residential Rental Unit must be kept in conformance with 'the code standard that was in effect at the time the Residential Rental Unit was constructed, substantially altered, or remodeled, erected, or converted,' plus whatever additional requirements this Code or state law layers on afterward, so an older duplex is judged against its original construction-era standard for baseline structure, but still has to meet every health-and-safety mandate the city and state have since added.

The Act covers essentially every rental home in the city, single-family rentals, duplexes, triplexes, and four-plus unit buildings that are not owner-occupied, including rooming houses, boarding houses, apartments, condos, and non-transient hotel/motel units, while excluding mobile home parks, transient hotels/motels/B&Bs, licensed care-facility housing, and institution-owned housing for staff, students, or patients. Properties can lose an exemption and become fully subject to the Act if the city issues a notice and order relating to the property, and can only regain it once an inspection turns up no violations and all fees are current.