Six major California laws took effect on July 1, 2024: a one-month cap on residential security deposits, a ban on hidden fees in advertised prices, a right-to-repair rule for electronics and appliances, an 11% state excise tax on firearms and ammunition, a workplace violence prevention plan requirement for nearly all employers, and an extension of the willful-defiance suspension ban to high school students. Each one changed something concrete about renting, shopping, fixing devices, buying guns, going to work, or sending a child to school in California.
Security Deposits Capped at One Month’s Rent
Assembly Bill 12 cut the maximum security deposit a landlord can charge to one month’s rent, whether the unit is furnished or unfurnished.1California Legislative Information. AB-12 Tenancy: Security Deposits Before July 1, 2024, the ceiling was two months’ rent for an unfurnished unit and three for a furnished one. On a $3,000 lease, that drops the maximum deposit from as much as $9,000 to $3,000.
A narrow exception preserves the old two-month limit for small landlords. You qualify only if you’re a natural person (or an LLC whose members are all natural people) and you own no more than two rental properties totaling four or fewer units. Corporate landlords and LLCs with entity members get no exception.2California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1950.5
The cap applies to leases signed on or after July 1, 2024. Larger deposits collected under earlier leases can stay in place for those existing tenancies.
Hidden Fees Banned Under the Honest Pricing Law
Senate Bill 478 requires that the price advertised to a consumer be the price the consumer actually pays, apart from government taxes and reasonable shipping. The rule covers hotels, short-term rentals, event tickets, food delivery, and most other consumer goods and services.3State of California – Department of Justice – Office of the Attorney General. SB 478 – Hidden Fees Mandatory resort fees, service fees, and similar add-ons that used to appear only at checkout now have to be built into the sticker price.
Restaurants and bars got a carve-out through Senate Bill 1524, signed two days before the law took effect. Food and drink establishments can continue to list service charges and gratuities separately from menu prices, but the charges have to be clearly displayed with an explanation of what they’re for. As of July 1, 2025, those disclosures must also meet specific text-size requirements.4California Legislative Information. SB-1524 Consumers Legal Remedies Act: Advertisements: Restaurant, Bar, and Other Food Services
Violations fall under the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, which lets a consumer sue for actual damages, restitution, and in some cases punitive damages.5California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1770 – Deceptive Practices
Right to Repair for Electronics and Appliances
Senate Bill 244, the Right to Repair Act, requires manufacturers of covered electronics and appliances to make the same parts, tools, diagnostic documentation, and software available to owners and independent repair shops that they make available to their own authorized technicians.6California Legislative Information. SB-244 Right to Repair Act How long that obligation lasts depends on the product’s wholesale price to the retailer, not the sticker price:
- $50 to $99.99 wholesale: repair materials available for at least three years after the last date the model was manufactured.
- $100 or more wholesale: repair materials available for at least seven years after the last date the model was manufactured.
Those timelines run regardless of whether the warranty has already expired.7Bureau of Household Goods and Services. Industry Advisory – The Right to Repair Act Effective July 1, 2024 Manufacturers can no longer force owners into authorized service channels by withholding parts and documentation for products in those price tiers.
11% Excise Tax on Firearms and Ammunition
Assembly Bill 28, the Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Act, added an 11% state excise tax on retail sales of firearms, firearm precursor parts, and ammunition.8California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. California Firearm Excise Tax Law – 36011 It stacks on top of the federal Pittman-Robertson excise tax, which is 11% on long guns and ammunition and 10% on handguns. A buyer picking up a rifle and a box of ammunition now pays roughly 22% in combined excise taxes before state sales tax is applied.
Two exemptions apply. Sales to active and retired peace officers and to their employing law enforcement agencies are exempt. Dealers, manufacturers, and ammunition vendors whose total quarterly gross receipts from these products fall below $5,000 are exempt for that quarter.9California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. California Firearm Excise Tax Law – 36021
Revenue goes into the Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Fund. The first $75 million each year goes to the CalVIP Grant Program for violence intervention, with additional allocations funding school safety, court-based firearm relinquishment programs, victim services, and gun safety education.10LegiScan. California Assembly Bill 28 – Firearms and Ammunition: Excise Tax
Workplace Violence Prevention Plans Required
Senate Bill 553 requires nearly all California employers to maintain a written workplace violence prevention plan covering every work area at all times. The plan has to include procedures for identifying and evaluating violence hazards, and employers are expected to involve employees in developing it.11Cal/OSHA. Cal/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention for General Industry
Employers also have to keep a violent incident log and provide training. Initial training is required when the plan is first established, with annual refreshers after that, plus additional training whenever a new hazard is identified or the plan changes.12LegiScan. California Senate Bill 553 – Occupational Safety: Workplace Violence: Restraining Orders and Workplace Violence Prevention Plan
The requirement applies to general industry workplaces. Healthcare facilities already covered by separate Cal/OSHA violence prevention standards for healthcare settings are outside its scope, as are employees working remotely from locations the employer doesn’t control.
Willful Defiance Suspension Ban Reaches High School
Senate Bill 274 extended California’s ban on willful-defiance suspensions to students in grades nine through twelve. Willful defiance covers conduct like disrupting class or ignoring a teacher’s directions. Students in kindergarten through fifth grade were already permanently protected, and a temporary ban already covered grades six through eight; SB 274 pulled high school under the same rule.13California Legislative Information. SB-274 Suspensions and Expulsions: Willful Defiance: Interventions and Supports
Teachers keep the authority to remove a disruptive student from their individual class for the day of the incident and the following day. What schools can no longer do is impose a formal campus suspension based solely on defiance.
One caveat on duration. The ban for grades six through twelve runs only through July 1, 2029, when the legislature will have to renew it or let it expire. The K-5 ban has no sunset.13California Legislative Information. SB-274 Suspensions and Expulsions: Willful Defiance: Interventions and Supports
Other Laws That Took Effect the Same Day
A few smaller measures took effect on July 1, 2024, as well. Assembly Bill 2863 requires businesses to let consumers cancel an automatically renewing subscription the same way they signed up: if you subscribed online with one click, cancellation has to be available online with one click. Assembly Bill 2202 requires short-term rental hosts and platforms like Airbnb to disclose any guest cleaning tasks that must be completed to avoid fees or penalties. Senate Bill 729 requires large group health plans and disability insurance policies to cover infertility diagnosis and treatment, including in vitro fertilization.