California's Commercial Tenant Protection Act, explained
If you lease commercial space to small tenants in California, a new law changed what you owe them in notice and paperwork starting January 1, 2025. SB 1103, the Commercial Tenant Protection Act, creates a protected category of small tenant and attaches real procedural requirements to leasing to one.
Who actually qualifies
The protections only apply to a "qualified commercial tenant," defined as a microenterprise (five or fewer employees, including the owner, with limited access to credit), a restaurant with fewer than 10 employees, or a nonprofit with fewer than 20 employees. It isn't automatic. The tenant has to give you written notice that they qualify, along with a self-attestation of their employee count, before or at lease execution, and then again annually. Until that notice arrives, the extra obligations below don't apply.
Longer notice for rent increases
Once a tenant has qualified, raising their rent takes more lead time than it used to. An increase of 10% or less needs at least 30 days' written notice before it takes effect. Anything larger than 10% needs at least 90 days.
Lease translation, if that's how you negotiated
If the lease was negotiated primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean, you're required to deliver a translated copy of the agreement in that language before the tenant signs.
Tenants can ask to see your operating-cost backup documentation
If your lease passes through building operating costs, a qualified commercial tenant can request the supporting documentation behind those costs, and you have 30 days to provide it. Before you can collect anything under a new or modified cost-allocation method, that documentation has to be in hand.
This isn't legal advice, and SB 1103 has more detail than fits in one post (including how notice has to be delivered and what happens if a landlord doesn't comply with the translation requirement). If you lease to small tenants in California, it's worth having an attorney confirm your lease and notice process actually meet the new bar. RenewSavvy flags state-specific compliance clauses like this one when you upload a lease, so you're not relying on remembering which state's rules apply to which property.