California's price-gouging law, Penal Code Section 396, generally caps price increases at 10% for covered goods and services once an emergency is declared, with statutory exceptions. For a storage operator, that can touch street rates and new rental agreements at every property in a declared county (Modern Storage Media).
The law carries statutory exceptions, and the trade report doesn't spell them out. Your counsel should read them before you rely on any of this.
What triggered it this week
After Tropical Storm Rachel, Gov. Newsom put four counties under an emergency declaration: Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego. The state Attorney General's guidance says the protections start immediately after a gubernatorial declaration (Modern Storage Media).
Nobody has to notify you. If a facility sits in one of those four counties, the clock is already running.
The end dates differ, and that's the trap
There isn't one date to put on the calendar. The report lists several, each tied to a declaration and a subsection of the statute:
- Tropical Storm Rachel, four counties, Section 396(b), (d), (e) and (f): through Nov. 14, 2026 (MSM).
- Same proclamation, same four counties, Section 396(c): through April 13, 2027 (MSM).
- Calavera and Gann Fire declarations, Section 396(c): through Feb. 2, 2027 (MSM).
- Orange County chemical incident, Section 396(c): through Nov. 19, 2026 (MSM).
Orange County shows up twice. A facility there falls under the storm proclamation and the chemical incident, with different end dates. The report doesn't say which counties the two fire declarations cover, so look those up in the proclamations themselves.
What the cap looks like at one facility
Here's a worked example with made-up numbers. Swap in your own rent roll.
Say a 10x10 rents at $150 a month. Ten percent of that is $15, so the ceiling would be $165. Now say your revenue management system pushes the same unit to $170 after the storm. That's $20 more, or 13.3%, over the line.
Scale it up. On 200 occupied units averaging $150, the most the rent roll could rise under a 10% cap is $3,000 a month.
Two assumptions sit under that math. It treats the cap as measured from your rate before the declaration, and the report doesn't say what baseline the statute uses. It also assumes your rentals count as covered services. Confirm both with counsel before you price off this example.
The practical risk is automation. A rate engine tuned for demand spikes doesn't know a declaration exists. Storm-driven move-ins, vacates and unit-hold demand are exactly when it wants to move rates up.
What to check this week
- List every facility by county and mark the ones in Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange or San Diego.
- For Orange County, add the chemical incident dates. For every property, check the fire declarations against the proclamation text.
- Pull street rates from the day before the declaration and today, unit type by unit type. Flag anything that moved more than the 10% cap (Modern Storage Media).
- Pause automated street-rate and promotion changes at flagged properties until counsel signs off on the baseline and the exceptions.
- Look at any scheduled increases on existing tenants too. If you have an ECRI queued in a declared county, hold it for review. Your notice timeline is a separate clock from the price cap.
- Write down the end date you're using for each property and where it came from. Check the current state guidance before you lift any hold, since the report says dates vary by declaration and subsection.
Mistakes that cost money
One blanket date. The earliest end date is Nov. 14, 2026 (Modern Storage Media). Treating it as the end for every property breaks down for Orange County, and for anything tied to the longer subsection.
Checking only the website rate. Move-in specials, admin fees and tenant protection pricing are all part of what a customer pays. Review them with the rate.
Leaving rate changes to the platform. If an agency or management company controls your pricing, send them the county list in writing.
Waiting for a letter. The protections start when the governor declares, so the work starts then too.
Need rates and move-in marketing managed property by property around rules like these? That's the work SD Marketing does with multi-facility operators.