Inheriting a 25-unit apartment building in Long Beach is not the same event as inheriting a house. You did not just receive an asset. You received a going business with 25 leases, 25 tenant relationships, 25 security deposits, and a full set of California and Long Beach compliance obligations, all landing on you at once, usually alongside a loss you did not ask for. I’ve talked to enough new inheritors to know the first question is rarely about the money. It’s “what am I actually required to do, and what happens if I get it wrong.” This guide answers that question directly, in the order it actually comes up.

I’m Miles Williams, Broker/Owner of Real Property Management Southland. We manage over 730 properties across Long Beach and SE LA County, and one of the situations we handle most often is exactly this one: an owner who inherited a multifamily building, has no property management background, and needs a straight answer before making any decisions.

Do I Need a Licensed Broker to Manage My Own Inherited Building?

No, not to manage a building you own yourself. California Business and Professions Code Section 10131 defines a real estate broker as someone who, “for a compensation or in expectation of a compensation,” does certain acts “for another or others.” Subsection (b) specifically covers leasing, renting, or collecting rent on real property. The operative phrase is “for another or others.” An owner who manages their own Long Beach apartment building, signs their own leases, and collects their own rent is not acting for another person, so the licensing requirement does not reach you.

The rule flips the moment you hire someone else to do that work for you. Any individual or company you pay to lease units, collect rent, or manage the building on your behalf must hold a California real estate broker license (or work under one), because at that point they are performing licensed activity for another person, for compensation. That is the exact structure of the law: self-management by an owner is unregulated activity, third-party management for compensation is not. If you decide to hire a property manager for this 25-unit building, confirm their broker license and the license of the brokerage they operate under before you sign anything.

What the law does not exempt you from is everything else that comes with being a landlord of 25 units in Long Beach: tenant notice requirements, security deposit handling, rent control compliance, habitability standards, and fair housing law. None of that requires a broker license to perform yourself, but all of it requires you to get it right, and getting 25 units wrong is a much bigger problem than getting one unit wrong.

What Actually Changes Now That I’m the Owner of Record?

Once title to the Long Beach building transfers to you, every existing lease, tenant right, and open obligation on that property transfers with it. Under California law, a lease runs with the property. You do not get to void a tenant’s lease because ownership changed, and a tenant does not need to sign anything new with you for their lease to remain valid. If a unit is on a 12-month lease with eight months left, you are bound by that lease exactly as the prior owner was.

That also means you inherit the tenants’ rights, not a clean slate. Rent increase limits, notice periods, and just-cause eviction protections that applied to the prior owner apply to you starting the moment you take title. Tenants do not lose protections because the building changed hands, and you do not gain the ability to reset the relationship simply because you are new.

You also inherit anything the prior owner left unresolved: open maintenance requests, code enforcement notices, unpermitted work, and any habitability complaints. Before you make a single decision about this Long Beach building, request the maintenance history and any correspondence with the City of Long Beach from the estate or the prior manager. Problems that existed before you owned the building are still your problems now.

What Happens to the Security Deposits Already Held for the 25 Units?

Civil Code Section 1950.5 applies directly to your situation here, because a Long Beach inheritance is an actual change of ownership, not a manager swap. Section 1950.5 requires that upon “termination of the landlord’s interest in the premises, whether by sale, assignment, death, appointment of receiver, or otherwise,” the landlord or the landlord’s agent must, within a reasonable time, either transfer the tenants’ security deposits (after lawful deductions) to the successor in interest and notify each tenant in writing of that transfer, including the successor’s name, address, and phone number, or return the deposits directly to the tenants with an accounting.

An inheritance is death-triggered ownership transfer, which is exactly one of the events the statute lists. That means whoever is handling the estate, or you directly if title has already passed to you, has a real statutory duty here for all 25 units’ deposits, unlike a simple manager change where this section would not apply at all. If the deposits are not properly transferred and documented, the statute makes the successor in interest jointly and severally liable for the deposits owed to tenants. In plain terms: if you cannot account for a tenant’s deposit because the paperwork from the estate was incomplete, you can still owe that tenant the money.

What Am I Required to Tell My Tenants, and By When?

Civil Code Section 1962 requires the owner of a residential building, or whoever is authorized to manage it, to give tenants written disclosure of the name, telephone number, and street address for personal service of the people authorized to act on the owner’s behalf, plus who receives rent and how it should be paid. When a successor owner or manager takes over, that disclosure is due within 15 days of the change. For a 25-unit Long Beach building, that means every tenant gets a written notice, within 15 days of your taking ownership, telling them who you are and how to reach you or your manager.

The statute also has a real consequence if you miss the window: a successor owner or manager who has not complied with the disclosure requirement cannot serve a notice to terminate a tenancy for nonpayment of rent that accrued during the period of noncompliance. In other words, if you are late on the notice and a tenant stops paying rent during that gap, you may not be able to act on that nonpayment until you are in compliance. Send the notice early, by certified mail, and keep the receipts for all 25 units.

Can I Start Managing the Building Before the Estate or Trust Closes?

The answer depends entirely on how the Long Beach property was held, and it is genuinely a question for a probate attorney rather than a property manager, so treat what follows as orientation, not legal advice. If the building was held in a revocable living trust, the successor trustee typically has authority to act, including collecting rent and paying expenses, immediately upon the prior owner’s death, without waiting on a probate court. If the building was titled solely in the decedent’s name with no trust, it generally has to go through probate, and a personal representative needs Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the court before acting with full authority.

Even inside formal probate, California’s Independent Administration of Estates Act (Probate Code Sections 10400 through 10592) can give a personal representative authority to handle routine management, including leasing and collecting rent, without a separate court order for every action, depending on whether the court granted full or limited authority. Whether that authority extends to hiring a property manager or making capital repair decisions on this specific building is exactly the kind of question your estate attorney needs to answer before you act, not something to assume.

What Rent Control and Tenant Protections Came With This Building?

A 25-unit Long Beach apartment building almost certainly carries state and local tenant protections that transferred to you along with the tenants. Under Civil Code Section 1947.12, part of the statewide Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB 1482), most residential buildings are capped on annual rent increases at 5% plus the local cost-of-living change, or 10% total, whichever is lower. The law exempts housing that received its certificate of occupancy within the past 15 years and certain deed-restricted affordable housing. Unless this building was built within roughly the last decade and a half, it is very likely covered.

Civil Code Section 1946.2, the companion just-cause provision of the same law, prohibits ending a tenancy without a legally defined just cause once a tenant has continuously and lawfully occupied a unit for 12 months. On top of that state layer, Long Beach has its own Just Cause for Termination of Tenancies ordinance under Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 8.99, which applies once a tenant has lived in a unit for 12 months and requires relocation assistance for no-fault terminations, generally one month’s rent, or the greater of $4,500 or two months’ rent for demolition and substantial remodel situations. None of these protections reset because you inherited the building instead of buying it.

Practically, this means you cannot raise rents on sitting tenants beyond the state and local caps, and you cannot end a long-term tenancy simply because you would prefer a different tenant or a higher rent. Before you communicate anything to tenants about rent or occupancy, confirm which of the 25 units have been there 12 months or more, since that threshold determines which protections are already active.

What Should I Demand From the Estate or Outgoing Manager First?

Before you make a single decision about this Long Beach building, get the following in writing from the estate, the prior owner’s manager, or whoever has been operating it. This is the checklist I walk new multifamily inheritors through in the first week.

If the outgoing manager or estate cannot produce complete records for the Long Beach building, that gap itself is information. It tells you how much verification work you (or your incoming manager) will need to do before trusting any number on the rent roll.

How Do I Choose a Property Manager for a 25-Unit Building?

Once you have decided you do not want to self-manage a 25-unit Long Beach building without any property management background, which is the choice most inheritors in your position make, the selection criteria are different than they would be for a single rental house. Look for a manager who can show direct experience with multifamily buildings of this size in Long Beach specifically, not just single-family homes. Ask how many multifamily units they currently manage in SE LA County, not just their total property count.

Ask about their pricing structure and whether it is published or negotiated case by case. Miles Williams put it this way: “There’s nothing I hate more than not being able to shop for pricing online and have it be clear and transparent when I’m looking for a service. I took that same thought to my business.” A manager who will not give you a straight, written fee structure before you sign anything is telling you something about how they operate.

Ask specifically how they would handle a portfolio takeover: what their process looks like in the first 30 days, how they verify the rent roll and deposit ledger you hand them, and what happens if the records from the prior owner or manager turn out to be incomplete. This exact scenario, a client of over 200 units across roughly 30 small multifamily buildings, is one we took over in January 2025. Occupancy on that portfolio was closer to 75% than the 80% we were initially told, once we actually verified it unit by unit. Within a year we brought it to over 90% occupied, representing more than $600,000 in additional gross rent for the year. That verification step at intake is not optional. It is where a takeover succeeds or quietly fails.

“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 | CA DRE #01968830

Finally, ask what happens if the relationship does not work out. A manager who wants a long contract with no exit is asking you to take on the same risk you may have just inherited from the prior owner’s arrangement. Look for stated guarantees rather than vague assurances, and get them in writing before you sign.

What RPM Southland Offers a First-Time Multifamily Inheritor

We built our process around owners exactly in your position: someone who now controls a Long Beach multifamily building and did not ask to become a full-time landlord. Every owner gets a dedicated account manager, so you are talking to one person who knows your building, not four different people every time you call. We run a full property evaluation every six to eight months on every property we manage, documenting condition, deferred maintenance, and lease compliance, because a 25-unit building can hide problems that a windshield survey will not catch.

On pricing: a 25-unit building qualifies for our 4.9% flat management rate, reserved for properties with 10 or more units, rather than the 5.9% to 8.9% tiered pricing that applies to single-family homes and condos. Leasing a vacant unit is a flat $399, and there is no setup fee to start. We also use Obligo, a deposit-free program that lets qualifying tenants pay a one-time fee instead of a large traditional deposit, and an AI scheduling agent that lets prospective tenants book a showing any hour of the day rather than waiting on a callback. Applications are typically approved within one to three business days.

Every management agreement carries three guarantees: a six-month tenant placement guarantee, a 29-day rental guarantee on vacant units, and a 60-day satisfaction guarantee that lets you exit penalty-free if the fit is not right. We built those guarantees specifically because committing to a manager for a building this size, right after inheriting it, is a decision you should not have to make blind.

Miles Williams

Broker/Owner, Real Property Management Southland | CA DRE #01968830 | Brokerage DRE #01969679

Miles Williams founded Real Property Management Southland in Long Beach in 2014. In January 2025, his team took over a 200+ unit small-multifamily portfolio across roughly 30 buildings and raised occupancy from close to 75% to over 90% within a year, adding more than $600,000 in gross rent. He built RPM Southland’s flat 4.9% rate for 10-plus unit buildings around owners facing exactly this kind of multifamily transition. For questions about an inherited Long Beach building, call (562) 270-1777.