Lynwood, CA Rental Property Rules: Rental Registration (2026)

Section 21-4 of the Lynwood Municipal Code applies the chapter's registration and inspection requirement to every owner of a residential rental property with five or more residential rental dwelling units in the City of Lynwood, covering apartment buildings, condominiums, boarding and lodging houses, single-room-occupancy units, and hotel and motel units rented on a nontransient basis of thirty days or more (Section 21-3f). Section 21-5 requires each owner or operator to register on a city-provided form; initial registration for properties already subject to the chapter was due January 31, 2018, and any property that later becomes a qualifying rental must register within sixty calendar days of being acquired or converted.

Registration must be renewed annually and expires if not renewed before January 31 of each year (Section 21-5b), and every registration is submitted under penalty of perjury and is subject to verification by the director (Section 21-5c). Filing a false statement on the registration form is itself a violation of the chapter (Section 21-5d). Registration carries a nonrefundable annual fee set by city council resolution, which funds administration of the program, plus a separate self-certification fee or inspection fee depending on which track the property follows, charged in addition to any general business license tax owed under Chapter 4 (Section 21-6a, 21-6c).

An owner who misses the fee deadline owes a twenty percent penalty the first month and ten percent for each additional month the fee remains unpaid, capped at fifty percent of the fee due (Section 21-6d1), and an owner who never registers still owes the fee retroactive to the date the rental business began, plus that same penalty (Section 21-6d2). When a registered property changes hands, the prior or new owner must notify the director within sixty days of the sale or the existing compliance certification is voided automatically (Section 21-11).