Yes. California Code of Regulations Title 25, Section 42 requires that any apartment house with more than four but fewer than 16 units post a notice in a conspicuous place on the premises whenever the owner does not live there, showing the owner’s name and address or the name and address of the agent in charge. A 6-unit building in Cerritos sits squarely inside that 5-to-15-unit band.
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I get a version of this question from small-building owners in Cerritos more than almost any other California Code of Regulations question. They know AB 1482 exists. They have usually never heard of Title 25 Section 42, and it is not a rule you can guess your way through, because the requirement changes depending on exactly how many units are on the parcel. Getting the unit count and the corresponding rule wrong is a small, cheap mistake to fix and an easy one to overlook until an inspector or a tenant attorney points it out.
What Does Title 25 Section 42 Require for a 6-Unit Building in Cerritos?
California Code of Regulations Title 25, Section 42 (the state’s “Caretaker” regulation for apartment houses) sets three different rules depending on unit count, and a 6-unit building in Cerritos falls into the middle tier. Where an apartment house has more than four but fewer than 16 apartments, meaning 5 to 15 units, and the owner does not reside on the premises, the regulation does not require a live-in caretaker. Instead it requires that a notice be posted in a conspicuous place on the premises, stating the owner’s name and address, or the name and address of the owner’s agent in charge of the building.
A 6-unit apartment building in Cerritos is a textbook example of this middle band. It is well above the four-unit floor where the regulation does not reach, and well below the 16-unit ceiling where a different, heavier rule takes over. For an owner who does not live on site, which describes the overwhelming majority of small multifamily investors in Cerritos, the posted notice is not optional. It is a state regulatory requirement, not a local Cerritos ordinance, so it applies the same way in Cerritos as it does anywhere else in California.
The trigger for this rule is simple and mechanical: count the apartments on the parcel, then check whether the owner lives there. If the count is 5 through 15 and the owner is off site, Section 42 requires the posted notice. It does not matter whether the building is professionally managed, self-managed, brand new, or decades old. The obligation runs with the ownership of the building, not with who happens to be managing it in a given month.
What Happens at 16 Units? Does Cerritos Ever Require a Live-In Manager?
Yes, but only once a Cerritos building crosses into a different unit-count tier, and a 6-unit property is nowhere near it. Title 25 Section 42 requires a manager, janitor, housekeeper, or other responsible person to actually reside on the premises once an apartment house reaches 16 or more units and the owner does not live there. That live-in caretaker requirement is a materially heavier obligation than the posted notice, and it simply does not apply to a 6-unit Cerritos building. For hotels, the same regulation sets a separate threshold at 12 or more guest rooms, which is not relevant to an apartment building but is worth knowing if you also own transient lodging.
I mention the 16-unit threshold here only so a Cerritos owner near that line knows which rule is theirs. A companion article in this series covers the live-in manager requirement for buildings at 16 units and above in detail. If your Cerritos portfolio includes a building at or approaching 16 units, that is the article to read next; this one is written specifically for the 5-to-15-unit posted-notice tier, which is where a 6-unit building sits.
| Unit Count | Title 25 Section 42 Requirement | Applies to a Cerritos Owner Living Off Site? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 apartments | Not reached by this regulation. Section 42’s caretaker and notice rules begin at more than four units. | No |
| 5 to 15 apartments (a 6-unit Cerritos building) | Posted notice required: owner’s or agent-in-charge’s name and address, in a conspicuous place on the premises. | Yes, this is the applicable tier |
| 16 or more apartments | A manager, janitor, housekeeper, or other responsible person must reside on the premises. | No, this tier is heavier than a 6-unit building requires |
| Hotels, 12 or more guest rooms | Same live-in caretaker requirement, separate threshold for transient occupancy. | Not applicable to an apartment building |
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What Must a Title 25 Posted Notice Actually Say?
The regulation’s requirement for a Cerritos building in the 5-to-15-unit band is narrow and specific: the posted notice must give either the owner’s name and address, or the name and address of the owner’s agent in charge of the building. That is the full substance of the requirement under Section 42 itself. It does not have to list a phone number, an emergency contact protocol, or a schedule of office hours to satisfy the regulation, though a Cerritos owner is free to include more information as good practice.
In practice, most compliant notices for a Cerritos apartment building include a bit more than the statutory minimum: a name, a mailing or business address, and typically a phone number so a tenant with a genuine emergency has an obvious way to make contact. Adding the phone number is common-sense practice guidance, not a separate legal requirement under Section 42, and a notice that omits it is still compliant as long as the required name and address are present and legible.
Where Counts as a “Conspicuous Place” for the Notice?
Section 42 requires the notice to be posted “in a conspicuous place,” and the regulation itself does not define that phrase down to a specific wall or fixture. As a matter of practice guidance rather than statutory text, a conspicuous place for a 6-unit Cerritos building typically means somewhere every resident and any visiting inspector would naturally pass: the mailbox cluster, the entrance to a shared laundry room, a lobby or common entry, or a bulletin board near the main entrance walkway. A notice taped inside a locked management office that tenants never enter would not meet the spirit of the requirement, even though the statute does not spell out that specific example.
For a small 6-unit Cerritos property without a lobby or clubhouse, the mailbox area is usually the most defensible choice, because it is a location every tenant in the building physically visits on a regular basis. Whatever location an owner picks, the notice should be laminated or otherwise weather-protected if it is posted outdoors, and it should be checked periodically to confirm it has not faded, been removed, or been covered by other postings.
Can a Cerritos Owner Name a Property Management Company as Agent in Charge?
Yes. Section 42 explicitly allows the posted notice to identify “the name and address of the agent in charge” instead of the owner’s own name and address, and a licensed property management company handling the building qualifies as that agent in charge. For a Cerritos owner who lives out of the area, or who simply prefers not to have tenants and inspectors contacting them directly, naming the management company on the posted notice is a straightforward way to satisfy the requirement while keeping the owner’s personal information off a public-facing posting.
Naming a management company is a convenience the regulation offers, not a legal necessity. It does not change who owns the building, and it does not shift Title 25 compliance responsibility away from the owner entirely; it simply gives the owner a lawful alternative to posting their own name and home address on a building they do not live in.
Is Self-Managing a 6-Unit Cerritos Building Still Legal?
Yes. Nothing in Section 42 requires a Cerritos owner to hire a property management company. An owner who self-manages a 6-unit building can satisfy the posted-notice requirement by putting their own name and address on the notice instead of an agent’s. Self-management with a properly posted owner notice is fully lawful under this regulation. The choice between self-managing and naming a management company as agent in charge is a business decision about time, distance, and tenant-relations comfort, not a compliance requirement dictated by Title 25 itself.
Where self-managing owners in Cerritos most often run into trouble is not the posting requirement itself, it is keeping the posted information current. An owner who moves, changes a business address, or starts routing tenant correspondence through a PO box needs to update the posted notice to match, the same way a management company would need to update it after a staffing change.
How Is Title 25 Section 42 Different From Civil Code Section 1962?
These two rules cover overlapping ground and get confused often, but they are triggered differently and satisfied differently. Title 25 Section 42 is a continuing physical posting duty tied to the building itself: for a 6-unit Cerritos property with an off-site owner, a notice giving the owner’s or agent’s name and address must be posted in a conspicuous place on the premises at all times.
California Civil Code Section 1962, by contrast, is triggered by a change: when a new owner or a new manager takes over, that successor must give tenants written notice of the manager’s or owner’s name, address, and telephone number for service of process and receipt of notices, within 15 days of the change. It is a disclosure delivered directly to each tenant, not a sign posted in a common area. A Cerritos owner can be in full compliance with Section 42’s posted notice and still be out of compliance with Section 1962 if a manager change happened recently and the required written notice to tenants never went out, or the reverse: the tenant disclosure went out on time but the posted sign in the mailbox area was never updated to match.
Practically, both requirements point at the same underlying information, who is responsible for this building, but they answer different questions. Section 42 asks whether a visitor or inspector standing on the property can find that information posted. Section 1962 asks whether each tenant personally received it in writing after a change in ownership or management. A Cerritos owner running a 6-unit building should treat them as two separate checklist items, not one.
| Requirement | What Triggers It | How It Is Satisfied |
|---|---|---|
| Cal. Code Regs. Title 25, Section 42 | A 5-to-15-unit apartment house with an off-site owner, on an ongoing basis | Notice posted in a conspicuous place on the premises with owner’s or agent’s name and address |
| Civil Code Section 1962 | A change of owner or manager | Written notice delivered to each tenant with name, address, and phone, within 15 days |
What Should a Cerritos Owner Do This Week to Comply?
For a Cerritos owner who is not certain their 6-unit building is currently compliant, the fix is small and can be handled in a single week. Start by confirming the exact unit count on the parcel and whether the owner resides there; if the count is 5 to 15 and the owner is off site, the posted-notice requirement applies. Next, draft a simple notice with the owner’s name and current mailing address, or the property management company’s name and address if one is engaged as agent in charge.
Print the notice, protect it from weather if it will live outdoors, and post it somewhere every resident of the Cerritos building actually passes, the mailbox cluster is usually the safest choice for a small property without a shared lobby. Photograph the posted notice with a timestamp for the owner’s own records. Then check whether a manager or owner change has happened recently; if so, confirm the separate Civil Code Section 1962 written notice to tenants also went out within its 15-day window, since that is a different obligation from the posted sign and is easy to overlook if attention is only on the physical posting.
What Happens to the Posted Notice When the Manager Changes?
When a Cerritos building switches from one management company to another, or moves from self-management to a hired manager, the posted notice on site has to be updated to reflect the new agent in charge, since the old company’s name and address are no longer accurate. This is a straightforward swap: take down the outdated notice and post a new one with the incoming manager’s name and address the same week the change takes effect.
A manager change is also exactly the kind of event that can trigger Civil Code Section 1962’s tenant-disclosure requirement, since that statute is written around a successor owner or manager taking over. If a Cerritos owner switches property management companies, the incoming manager’s name, address, and phone should go out to tenants in writing within 15 days, separately from updating the posted sign. Treating the two as one task is the most common way owners in this situation miss half the requirement.
What Happens to the Notice Requirement When the Property Sells?
A sale of a 6-unit Cerritos building does not end the Title 25 posted-notice obligation, it simply transfers it to the new owner. The new owner steps into the same regulatory position the seller occupied: if the building still has 5 to 15 units and the new owner does not live there, a posted notice with the new owner’s or agent’s name and address is required starting immediately upon the sale.
A sale also touches other statutes worth knowing about, correctly scoped to what they actually cover. Civil Code Section 1950.5 governs the transfer of security deposits when a landlord’s interest in the property terminates, which includes a sale, so the outgoing and incoming owners need to handle the tenant security deposits according to that statute’s transfer rules. That is a separate deposit-handling duty, not a restatement of the Title 25 posting requirement. And because a sale changes the owner of record, the Civil Code Section 1962 tenant-disclosure requirement is triggered again as well, meaning Cerritos tenants need written notice of the new owner’s or manager’s name, address, and phone within 15 days of the sale, in addition to the notice posted on the premises.
What Are the Most Common Title 25 Mistakes Cerritos Owners Make?
Confusing the Notice Requirement With the Live-In Manager Requirement
The single most common mistake I see with a Cerritos owner in the 5-to-15-unit range is assuming they need to install a live-in resident manager, when Section 42 only requires that tier at 16 units and above. A 6-unit building needs a posted notice, nothing more, and spending money to house an on-site manager for a building that does not require one is an unforced expense.
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Letting the Posted Notice Go Stale
A notice that was accurate three managers ago and was never updated is functionally noncompliant, even though a notice is still physically posted. Cerritos owners should treat the posted notice the same way they treat a fire extinguisher inspection tag, something checked on a schedule, not something posted once and forgotten.
Assuming a Management Company Is Legally Required
As covered above, self-management with a properly posted owner notice is completely lawful for a 6-unit Cerritos building. Owners sometimes assume they are out of compliance simply because they self-manage, when the actual gap, if there is one, is almost always the posting itself rather than the lack of a management company.
Treating Title 25 and AB 1482 as the Same Rule
Title 25 Section 42 is a physical-posting regulation about who is responsible for the building. AB 1482, California’s statewide Tenant Protection Act, is a separate law governing rent increase caps and just cause eviction. A Cerritos owner can be fully compliant with one and out of compliance with the other; they do not overlap or substitute for each other.
Does Cerritos Have Its Own Local Rent or Just-Cause Ordinance?
AB 1482 applies statewide, including in Cerritos, setting a rent increase cap and just cause eviction floor that covered properties must follow regardless of city. In researching this article, I did not find evidence of a Cerritos-specific local rent stabilization or just cause ordinance layered on top of state law, the way some neighboring cities have adopted their own local rules. I want to be precise about what that means: it is an absence of evidence in the sources I checked, not a confirmed absence of any local rule.
Because municipal codes are amended and because I would rather a Cerritos owner double-check than rely on an incomplete search, the right move is to confirm directly with the City of Cerritos, either through the city’s landlord and renter assistance resources or the city clerk’s office, before assuming no local ordinance applies to your specific building. Do not assume Cerritos follows Long Beach’s local just cause ordinance; the two cities are separate jurisdictions with separate municipal codes, and a rule that applies in Long Beach does not automatically apply in Cerritos.
When It Is Worth Calling a Property Manager About a 6-Unit Cerritos Building
“Every property owner should look at their property as an asset and not just what’s the fee a property manager is going to cost me.”
Miles Williams, Broker/Owner, Real Property Management Southland | DRE #01968830
A 6-unit Cerritos building is small enough that self-management is a perfectly reasonable choice, and I say that as someone whose business depends on owners deciding to hire a management company. Compliance items like the Title 25 posted notice are simple once you know the rule; the harder part for most owners is the ongoing discipline of keeping the posting current, tracking every manager or ownership change, and coordinating it with the separate Civil Code 1962 tenant disclosure.
We publish our pricing rather than hiding it behind a phone call. For a 6-unit Cerritos building, standard single-family and small multifamily pricing runs a tiered 5.9 to 8.9 percent depending on the plan an owner selects, since our 4.9 percent flat rate is reserved for properties with 10 or more units and a 6-unit building falls below that line. Our leasing fee is a flat $399 and our setup fee is $0. When we onboard a property, part of that process includes verifying Title 25 posting status and confirming any recent manager or ownership change has the required Civil Code 1962 tenant notice on file.
You should call us at (562) 270-1777 about a 6-unit Cerritos building if any of the following apply to your situation:
- You are not sure whether your building’s posted owner or agent notice is current.
- You recently changed property managers and are not certain the required tenant disclosure under Civil Code 1962 went out.
- You are buying a 6-unit Cerritos building and want to confirm compliance before closing.
- You want a straightforward comparison between self-managing and hiring a licensed property manager for a building this size.
- You want to confirm whether Cerritos has any local ordinance that applies to your building beyond AB 1482.
Committing to a property manager is a big, big decision, and we back every new management engagement with three guarantees built around that fact.
- 6-Month Tenant Placement Guarantee: If a new tenant leaves within the first six months, we replace them with no leasing fee.
- 29-Day Rental Guarantee: We commit to filling a vacancy within 29 days.
- 60-Day Satisfaction Guarantee: If you are not happy with our management within the first 60 days, you can cancel without penalty.
We rarely, rarely have to honor those guarantees, but they exist because we would rather give a Cerritos owner an easy way out than lock someone into a relationship that is not working. For a related read on the heavier compliance tier, see our companion article on the Title 25 live-in manager requirement for buildings at 16 units and above. For Long Beach owners specifically, our guide to the Long Beach just cause eviction ordinance covers that city’s local rules in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Cerritos Title 25 Owner Notice
Does a 6-unit apartment building in Cerritos need a posted notice under Title 25?
Yes. California Code of Regulations Title 25, Section 42 requires that any apartment house with more than four but fewer than 16 units, meaning 5 to 15 units, post a notice in a conspicuous place on the premises giving the owner’s name and address, or the name and address of the owner’s agent in charge, whenever the owner does not reside on the property. A 6-unit building in Cerritos falls in that 5-to-15-unit band, so the posted notice applies as long as the owner lives off site.
Does a 6-unit Cerritos building ever need a live-in resident manager?
No. Title 25 Section 42’s live-in caretaker requirement only applies once an apartment house reaches 16 or more units with an off-site owner. A 6-unit building in Cerritos is well below that threshold and only needs the posted owner or agent notice, not a resident manager living on the property.
Can I self-manage a 6-unit building in Cerritos and still be compliant?
Yes. Nothing in Title 25 Section 42 requires a Cerritos owner to hire a property management company. An owner who self-manages can satisfy the posted-notice requirement by listing their own name and address on the notice instead of an agent’s. Self-management with a properly posted owner notice is fully lawful for a building this size.
What is the difference between the Title 25 posted notice and Civil Code Section 1962 in Cerritos?
Title 25 Section 42 is a continuing posting requirement: a physical notice on the premises of a Cerritos building giving the owner’s or agent’s name and address. Civil Code Section 1962 is a different, tenant-facing requirement triggered by a change of owner or manager: the successor must deliver written notice to each tenant with a name, address, and phone number within 15 days of the change. A Cerritos owner can satisfy one and still be missing the other, since they cover different situations and are delivered differently.
Where should the Title 25 notice be posted in a 6-unit Cerritos building?
Title 25 Section 42 requires posting “in a conspicuous place” without specifying an exact location. As practice guidance rather than statutory text, the mailbox cluster, a shared laundry room entrance, or a lobby bulletin board are common choices for a Cerritos building this size, since every resident is likely to pass one of those locations regularly. A notice posted somewhere tenants never see would not meet the spirit of the requirement even if it is technically posted on the property.
Does Cerritos have its own local just-cause eviction or rent control ordinance separate from AB 1482?
AB 1482 applies statewide, including in Cerritos. Based on the sources checked for this article, no Cerritos-specific local rent stabilization or just cause ordinance was found, but that is not a confirmed guarantee that none exists, since municipal codes change. Cerritos owners should confirm directly with the City of Cerritos before assuming only AB 1482 applies, and should not assume that Long Beach’s local just cause ordinance, or any other neighboring city’s rules, extend to Cerritos.
What happens to the posted notice requirement when a 6-unit Cerritos building is sold?
The Title 25 posted-notice obligation transfers to the new owner at sale. If the building still has 5 to 15 units and the new owner does not live there, a notice with the new owner’s or agent’s name and address must be posted starting at closing. A sale also triggers Civil Code Section 1962’s 15-day written tenant disclosure of the new owner’s or manager’s name, address, and phone, and separately implicates Civil Code Section 1950.5’s rules on transferring tenant security deposits when a landlord’s interest in the property terminates.
Can a property management company be listed as the agent in charge on the Cerritos posted notice?
Yes. Title 25 Section 42 allows the posted notice to list either the owner’s name and address or the name and address of the owner’s agent in charge. A licensed property management company handling a Cerritos building qualifies as that agent. This is a lawful convenience the regulation offers, not a legal requirement, and self-managing with the owner’s own name posted is equally compliant.
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