Selling a Burbank Apartment Building in 2026: Soft-Story Deadlines, Relocation, Transfer Tax and What Buyers Ask For

What does it take to sell a Burbank apartment building in 2026?

A Burbank sale is simpler on taxes and rent law than a sale a mile away in the City of Los Angeles, and stricter on paperwork than most owners expect. In our 2026 Burbank sale the buyer asked first for the City's soft-story and balcony paperwork, the leases and a year of rent payments, and the receipts and permits behind every recent repair (our records, as of 10/30/2026).

This guide follows the order a sale runs in: the rent rules a buyer underwrites, the seismic and balcony questions, the closing costs, the records, and what to settle first if you inherited the building or run it from out of state. It closes with what our own Burbank sale this fall showed. Morgan Wetmore led that sale with Glen Scher, and the team's Burbank record, sale by sale, is on our Burbank page. For the cost comparison with the Los Angeles side of the Valley, see Is Burbank in Los Angeles? What the city line costs on a Valley apartment sale; for what buildings are selling for, see Burbank apartment sales, 2025 to 2026.

Does Burbank have rent control?

No. Burbank has no local rent control or rent registry. Rent increases on covered units follow AB 1482: 5% plus the regional CPI, never more than 10%, which is 8.7% in Los Angeles County for increases from 08/01/2026, according to the County's Department of Consumer and Business Affairs.

AB 1482 covers most apartment buildings. A building whose certificate of occupancy is less than 15 years old is exempt, and so are some single-family homes and condos and owner-occupied duplexes, per the City's Tenant Protection Ordinance FAQ (updated June 2026). Every one of the 30 outside Burbank sales in our 2025 to 2026 sales table was built in 1990 or earlier, so the 15-year new-construction exemption covers none of them.

The soft cap that was not adopted. On 10/28/2025 the City Council voted 3-1 to have staff draft a 4% "soft cap", under which a tenant facing a larger increase could accept it or take relocation pay, according to the Burbank Leader (11/01/2025). As of the City's June 2026 tenant protections FAQ, no rent cap had been adopted, and no rent measure is on Burbank's 11/03/2026 ballot, per the City's 07/22/2026 release. A buyer will still ask about it, and the council could take it up again after the election. We will update this page if it does.

How much relocation does a Burbank owner owe?

On a no-fault just-cause termination of a covered unit, Burbank requires relocation of no less than three months of the tenant's rent in effect when the notice was issued. An owner or relative move-in needs one month, the state minimum, since 04/11/2025 (City of Burbank Tenant Protection Ordinance FAQ, June 2026).

The ordinance applies to the units AB 1482 covers; its anti-harassment rules apply to every tenant in Burbank, per the City's tenant protections page. A termination to substantially remodel or demolish has its own steps: the owner must first get the permits or the contractor's contract, give the tenant copies, a written scope and duration saying why the work cannot be done with the tenant in place and the City's right-to-return statement, and pay the three months. A notice that skips those steps is void, per the same page.

For a seller, the practical point is that a vacant unit at the sale is worth what it costs to produce one. A buyer pricing a Burbank building assumes the in-place tenants stay, and counts any planned move-out at three months' rent.

When are Burbank's soft-story retrofits due?

Burbank's mandatory soft-story ordinance, Ordinance 24-4,021, was adopted 12/10/2024 and took effect 01/10/2025. For a building on the list, the screening form was due 01/12/2026, retrofit plans are due 01/11/2027, and construction must be finished by 01/10/2030, per the City's road map.

The ordinance covers wood-frame multifamily buildings permitted under pre-1978 codes with tuck-under parking and three or more units above, or a weak or open front first story with two or more stories above, per the City's soft-story page. The full schedule from the City's road map:

The City refunds 50% of the permit fees for full compliance by 01/10/2028; the full refund window closed 07/10/2026, per the road map. Only a contractor with an A or B license may pull the permit. The state's earthquake retrofit grant for 5 to 10 unit buildings, up to 70% of eligible cost and capped at $49,600 a building, took registrations from 08/19/2026 to 09/30/2026, per the City's page. Building and Safety is at (818) 238-5220.

What a buyer asks for. If the building is not covered, a buyer wants that in writing. At our Burbank sale this fall the room held the Building Official's 01/05/2026 confirmation from the start, but the buyer made the City's paperwork a term of the purchase contract and asked twice for the formal letter. The City's 01/30/2026 Acknowledgement of Exoneration went in a week into escrow. Get the formal letter before you list. An order that never arrived does not excuse a covered building, and an exemption comes from an engineer's screening form plus the Building Official's written decision. If the building is covered, expect the buyer to price the retrofit and to ask where the plans stand against the 01/11/2027 date. Our soft-story guide covers the City of Los Angeles program, which is a different ordinance.

Do I need an SB 721 balcony inspection before selling?

Buildings with three or more units need an inspection of their balconies, decks, stairs and other exterior elevated elements by a licensed engineer, architect or qualified inspector, whether or not they are selling. The first deadline was 01/01/2026, and the inspection repeats every six years, under Health and Safety Code 17973 as amended by AB 2579 (as of November 2026).

The deadline has passed, so a 2026 buyer expects the report in the due diligence room. If there is none, it gets done in escrow, as it did at our Burbank sale this fall: the seller had the inspection done during the buyer's contingency period, and the report noted no repairs. A building with a report already in hand gives the buyer one less thing to wait on. A soft-story exemption does not cover SB 721, and Burbank issues no balcony certificate, so the inspector's report is the document. Condominiums fall under a separate law, SB 326.

What is the transfer tax on a Burbank sale?

Burbank has no city transfer tax and is outside Measure ULA, so a Burbank sale pays only Los Angeles County's documentary transfer tax of $0.55 per $500, or $1.10 per $1,000: $2,200 on a $2,000,000 sale and $6,600 on $6,000,000, per the County Registrar-Recorder (as of November 2026).

The same $6,000,000 sale in Sherman Oaks or North Hollywood would pay $273,600 at the rates in effect as of November 2026, because the City of Los Angeles adds its own tax and Measure ULA. Who pays the transfer tax is set by the purchase contract. Our guide to Burbank or Los Angeles works the numbers at six prices. Commission, escrow, title, the natural hazard report and any loan payoff are the other lines on a seller's statement; we run all of them at the prices you are weighing before a list price is set.

What records will a Burbank buyer ask for?

Leases and rent records, a year of income and expenses, permits, the City's soft-story status and the SB 721 report. At our Burbank sale this fall the buyer's broker sent 14 questions after the first read on 10/07, and by 10/16 the room held 78 documents (our records).

Gathering these before the building goes on the market is the single thing that most shortens an escrow:

• Every lease and the rent roll, with move-in dates, current rents, deposits and the dates of each rent increase notice, so a buyer can check each increase against AB 1482.
• Twelve to 24 months of income and expenses, with the bills behind the big lines: Burbank Water and Power, gas, trash, insurance and repairs.
• Permits and their finals for roofs, plumbing and any work on the building. Burbank's permit records are public; a buyer will compare them with what the seller lists.
• The City's soft-story status (the exemption letter, or where the retrofit stands) and the SB 721 report.
• Insurance policies and loss history, the latest tax bill, service contracts and who owns the laundry machines.
• Twelve months of rent payment records and any balances, laundry income, any open code cases or correction notices, the Fire Department's latest inspection report, and copies of any no-fault termination notices with proof the relocation was paid.
• Unpermitted work, disclosed up front with the receipts. The seller questionnaire asks, and a buyer will compare it with the permit record.
• Burbank Water and Power's Retrofit Upon Resale certificate (low-flow toilets, showerheads and aerators), which every Burbank sale needs before close, signed by seller and buyer. We arrange the fixture check with the smoke alarm, carbon monoxide detector and water heater compliance inspection.

Trust or entity papers showing who can sign for the seller go to escrow and title, not the buyer; they ask for them in the first days.

Inherited a building, or managing from out of state?

Settle four things, in this order, before you talk price: who has the legal authority to sign, whether the family agrees to sell, what the building is worth today, and the documents a buyer will ask for. In our experience, a family sale that stalls usually stalls on the first two, not on price.

A common picture with a long-held family building: brothers and sisters inherit a building from their parents, one of them is the hands-on one who has fixed the toilets and collected the rents for years, and then that person moves out of state. From that far away, a five-unit building becomes a weekly phone call, and the family starts asking whether it is time.

• Authority first. If the building is in a trust, the trustee signs the listing agreement and the sale documents; if it passed by will or with no plan, the authority may come from the probate court. Find out who that is, with the trust papers or court documents in hand, before anything else. Escrow and title will ask for them in the first days, and a buyer will not wait while the family sorts it out. The family's attorney is the right person to confirm it.
• Family agreement second. Even when one sibling has the legal authority, a sale goes better when every owner has seen the same numbers and agreed on the plan: the price range, what each person needs from the proceeds, and who the buyer and escrow should call. One call with all of them on it saves weeks.
• Value third, before any decision is final. A current valuation from the rents and the recent sales gives the family one number to talk about instead of four opinions. Ask for the range, the reasons and what each of you would net at the prices you are weighing.
• The buyer's documents last, but early. The records list above; the trust or estate papers go to escrow and title. For a building run from out of state, the person on the ground (a property manager or a trusted handyman) is often the one who can find the leases, the permits and the repair history fastest.

That is close to how our Burbank sale this fall went. The owner and his siblings inherited 300 N Screenland Dr from their parents, and he had helped run the family's buildings since his teens. After he moved out of state, a handyman who knew the building helped him run it from away, and the family decided to sell. The documents went into the buyer's room within days of escrow opening, and the buyer kept the handyman on, so the tenants still call the same person (our records, as of 10/30/2026).

What did our latest Burbank sale show?

300 N Screenland Dr, five units in Burbank's Media District and the first sale since 1972, went on the market 09/15/2026, had an all-cash offer at $1,700,000 accepted on 10/06/2026, 21 days later, and closed on 10/30/2026, six days ahead of the original closing date: $340,000 a unit, a 5.26% cap rate and a 12.35 GRM (our records and the County's ownership history, as of 10/30/2026).

The buyer was a local owner who already holds two apartment buildings nearby, buying with cash moved out of the stock market. Three things from that sale apply to most Burbank owners. The buyer made the City's soft-story paperwork a term of the purchase contract, and the owner's exoneration letter from the City went into the due diligence room a week after escrow opened. The SB 721 report did not exist at listing, so the seller had it done inside the buyer's contingency period; it was clean, but it was one more date to manage. And when the buyer's repair request came in, we settled it the same day with one credit at closing, below the buyer's own contractor quote, and in return the buyer removed every contingency and agreed to close six days early: the owner won a faster close out of the same negotiation.

Morgan Wetmore led the sale with Glen Scher, and the full story is on our deal stories page. The LAAA Team has closed 14 Burbank sales totaling $39.1M since 2015, per our track record, and in 05/2026 the team sold the four-unit 2907 W Riverside Dr for its owners, with Morgan representing the buyer. Our Burbank record, sale by sale, is on the Burbank page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

1. City of Burbank, Tenant Protection Ordinance FAQ, updated June 2026: burbankca.gov
2. City of Burbank, tenant protections, read 10/28/2026 and rechecked 11/02/2026: burbankca.gov
3. Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, understanding rent increases, 08/05/2026: dcba.lacounty.gov
4. Burbank Leader, Burbank City Council votes for soft rent cap, 11/01/2025: outlooknewspapers.com
5. City of Burbank, three local ballot measures for the 11/03/2026 election, 07/22/2026: burbankca.gov
6. City of Burbank, Soft-Story program page, read 10/28/2026 and rechecked 11/02/2026: burbankca.gov
7. City of Burbank, soft-story road map: burbankca.gov
8. California Health and Safety Code 17973 (SB 721, as amended by AB 2579), read 10/28/2026: california.public.law
9. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, documentary transfer taxes, read 10/28/2026: lavote.gov
10. LAAA Team transaction records, 300 N Screenland Dr, Burbank, and the Los Angeles County Assessor's ownership history for it, read 10/30/2026; LAAA Team closed transactions in Burbank, 2015 to 2026, read 11/02/2026.

Status as of 11/02/2026, from the City of Burbank's, Los Angeles County's and the state's own pages; press is named as press. The section on inherited buildings is general guidance, not legal advice: confirm who has authority to sign with the family's attorney. Not legal or tax advice. LAAA Team of Marcus & Millichap.