National City, CA Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)
Key Facts
- Required utilities
- Potable water, electricity, water-heater energy, sewer
- Trash service
- Continuous collection facilities and services required
- Rental permit
- Annual Housing Permit (§ 15.16.035)
- Adopted housing code
- 1997 Uniform Housing Code, Chapters 1-6
- Enforcing official
- Director of Building and Safety
- Late permit fee penalty
- Twenty percent per month, capped at one hundred percent
Summary
National City sets habitability floors for every dwelling and rental through Title 7 and the adopted Uniform Housing Code. Section 7.22.050 requires continuous public utilities, including potable water, electricity, water-heater energy and sewer service, plus garbage collection. Owners of rental units also need an Annual Housing Permit under Chapter 15.16, enforced by the Director of Building and Safety.
A.All dwellings and places of residence must be continuously provided with public utilities including potable water, electricity, energy for hot water heaters and sewer services.B.It is unlawful for any apartment house owner or tenant to allow the occupancy of, or to occupy, such a residence that is not being supplied with these public utilities.C.All such residences shall be continuously provided with garbage and refuse collection facilities and collection services. This shall be the responsibility of the property owner or the person in charge of the premises.
Full Breakdown
The core habitability rule is § 7.22.050. All dwellings and places of residence must be continuously provided with public utilities: potable water, electricity, energy for hot water heaters and sewer services. The section makes it unlawful for an apartment house owner or tenant to allow the occupancy of, or to occupy, a residence that is not being supplied with those utilities. Garbage and refuse collection facilities and services must also be continuous, and that duty falls on the property owner or the person in charge of the premises.
Chapter 7.22 is layered on top of the Uniform Housing Code. Section 7.22.020 states that the chapter is supplementary to the adopted Uniform Housing Code in Chapter 15.16 and lessens nothing in it. Section 15.16.005 adopts Chapters 1 through 6 and Sections 701.2 and 701.3 of the 1997 Edition, for the stated purpose of prescribing regulations governing hazards to life and property from substandard housing conditions. The Director of Building and Safety is authorized and directed to enforce it (§ 15.16.010), and violations are punishable as specified in Health and Safety Code Section 17995 (§ 15.16.030).
Other Chapter 7.22 standards govern occupancy. Boardinghouses, group houses, roominghouses and residence hotels need two hundred fifty square feet of usable bedroom floor area per resident person and one full facility bathroom for each sex and for each six residents (§ 7.22.030). Sleeping in an inoperative vehicle, a garage, a backyard or a building posted as unsafe to occupy is unlawful (§ 7.22.040). Owners of multiple-family complexes with four or more units must provide a manager, and complexes of nine or more units need a resident manager (§ 7.24.020).
Rental permits: § 15.16.035 makes it unlawful to own or operate an apartment house, hotel, lodging house or any single family, duplex, triplex or four-plex rental unit without an Annual Housing Permit. A rental unit not conducted in conformity with the code exposes that permit to suspension or revocation (§ 15.16.045). Chapter 7.22 is also carved out of the planning commission appeal process by § 7.32.100(D).
Violations & Fines
Occupying, or allowing occupancy of, a dwelling without the utilities required by § 7.22.050 is unlawful. Under § 7.32.060 a Title 7 violation is a misdemeanor that the code conformance officer can charge as an infraction, and each day a violation continues is a separate offense (§ 7.32.030(E)). Unpaid annual housing permit fees draw a penalty of twenty percent of the fee due on the first day of March and each first day of each month thereafter, capped at one hundred percent of the fee due for each year (§ 15.16.065).
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is responsible for keeping utilities on at a National City rental?
Does a landlord need a permit for a single-family rental in National City?
Can a housing code notice be appealed?
Is there a required manager for apartment buildings?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in National City
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