Rent Board Moves Toward Asking City Council to Set an Indoor Heat Cap

An 82-degree indoor temperature standard is scheduled to take effect for Altadena renters on Jan. 1, 2027. Pasadena renters aren’t covered — it’s a new LA County rule for unincorporated areas — and Pasadena’s rent board agreed Thursday, on a show of hands, to put a similar recommendation to the City Council on a future agenda. 

The Pasadena Rental Housing Board took the step during its priority-setting session for the coming year, treating an indoor heat cap as something to recommend to the council rather than something the board could enact itself. Rent Stabilization Department Director Helen Morales put the show of hands at 12. 

Chair Allison Henry flagged the item that way as she read through the list. 

“I had [listed] indoor heat, just because I’m forecasting that that would be a recommendation rather than something we can do per the charter,” she said. Board Member Ryan Bell answered: “Do it while it’s hot.”

The item had come from Vice Chair Christine Rodriguez, who told colleagues she had submitted it without much explanation attached. 

“It’s been really hot this week,” she said. “I hope everybody’s been staying cool.” 

Los Angeles County has mandated an indoor heat cap, she said, “but it’s only for unincorporated cities in Los Angeles. And so that kind of means that every city has to have their own ordinance regarding that.” 

With the heat “that’s going on right now,” she said,”it could be a great recommendation to city council to try to implement some sort of indoor max heating temperature for folks.” 

What the county rule does 

The county measure is the Safe Indoor Temperature Ordinance, adopted by the Board of Supervisors in August 2025 on a 4-0 vote as an amendment to Chapter 11.20 of Title 11 of the Los Angeles County Code. It requires rental housing units to be capable of holding a maximum indoor temperature of no more than 82 degrees Fahrenheit in habitable rooms. 

It does not require air conditioning. Landlords may reach the standard with insulation, window coverings, shade, fans or other code-compliant methods, and turn to mechanical cooling only if those fall short. The county’s code also bars landlords from blocking tenants who install their own portable cooling devices — plug-in air conditioners, fans and non-mechanical methods such as blackout curtains, window films or shades — at the tenant’s expense.

County tenants must give written notice at least five days ahead so the landlord knows about the added electrical demand. Tenants cannot be evicted, charged extra or otherwise penalized for code-compliant cooling they install themselves. 

Cost allocation is split. A landlord may not pass along the cost of installing a portable cooling device, and may not raise rent or add fees under the rule. Other work required to bring a unit into compliance may be eligible for treatment as a capital improvement. 

The ordinance covers the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Altadena is unincorporated and is covered. Pasadena is a city and is not. 

A shorter path than the board was told 

Rodriguez told the board that because the county rule reaches only unincorporated territory, each city needs an ordinance of its own. The county ordinance is broader than that on its face. Its adoption-by-cities provision makes it effective within the territorial jurisdiction of any city that incorporates the entirety of the ordinance into its municipal code by adoption or resolution. That leaves Pasadena the option of adopting the county standard rather than drafting one from scratch. 

The city of Los Angeles has been working that question since February, when the City Council voted unanimously on a motion by Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield, Eunisses Hernandez and Adrin Nazarian. The motion gave the Los Angeles Housing Department, City Planning, Building and Safety and the City Attorney 180 days to report back on adopting the county policy at the city level, and sought input from the Department of Water and Power on implementation, enforcement and costs. That 180-day window came due this month. 

Where it fits in the board’s authority 

The board reached the recommendation route deliberately, and the reasoning had been laid out for members earlier the same evening. 

In a legal training presented before the priority-setting item, the board’s attorney walked members through Article 18 of the city charter, created when voters approved Measure H in 2022. 

Rents, evictions, relocation assistance and rent petitions are the board’s exclusive territory, and only as to units Article 18 covers. Rental housing outside Article 18, and subjects the article does not address, belong to the City Council. 

The attorney offered Ellis Act protections as one of the biggest examples in the board’s history: the board lacked the power to enact them by ordinance, asked the council to act, and the council did. 

During that item, Henry raised indoor temperature as an example of something that might need a different council committee than the Housing, Homelessness and Planning Committee, where much of the board’s attention has gone. 

What the board did not decide 

The straw poll settled scheduling, not substance. 

“It’s not that you agree that we should do something about it,” Bell told colleagues. “It’s just that you agree that it should be on the agenda.”

No target date was set for the agenda item. 

Renters and rental property owners can find the county’s guidance on the indoor temperature standard at https://coolhealthyhomes.org/.