If you own rental property inside Salinas city limits, November 3, 2026 is the date to circle. That is when voters decide Measure H, and the outcome touches your rent increase ceiling, your eviction obligations, and your annual registration paperwork.

I hear this question almost weekly from owners who hold a duplex in Salinas and a second home over the hill in Pacific Grove or Carmel. They want to know which rules apply where, and whether they should sit still until the votes are counted.

Below I walk through what Measure H actually asks, what changes with a yes versus a no, and what I tell owners to do between now and election day. No guessing about the result, just the parts you can control.

What Measure H Actually Asks Salinas Voters

The ballot question is short. It asks whether Ordinance No. 2687, which repeals four rental ordinances, should be adopted.

The four ordinances on the line are:

• The Residential Rental Registration Ordinance
• The Rent Stabilization Ordinance
• The Tenant Protection and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance
• The Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance

A yes vote removes the four tenant-related ordinances and lets stand a repeal action by the Salinas City Council that was never enacted because of a successful referendum campaign. A no vote keeps all four in place. The measure needs a majority of voters to pass.

Here is how it got here. The Salinas City Council enacted the four ordinances in 2024. A new City Council passed the repeal, Ordinance No. 2687, in May 2025 by a 5-2 vote, per reporting from Monterey County Weekly. The referendum campaign blocked it from taking effect.

Then on September 23, 2025, the City Council voted to place the Repeal Ordinance on the November 3, 2026 General Election ballot. The City’s own Rental Registration and Rent Stabilization page states the four ordinances remain in effect until voters decide. Salinas Californian reporting confirmed in August 2026 that the measure now carries the name Measure H.

Everything Stays in Effect Until the Vote

This is the part owners get wrong most often. Because the repeal was passed by the Council, some owners assume the rules already went away. They did not.

All four ordinances are live right now and stay live through election day. That means:

• Annual rent increases in Salinas remain capped at 2.75 percent or 75 percent of the consumer price index, whichever is lower
• Rental units must be listed in the city’s rental registry
• Just cause eviction rules apply, including three months’ relocation assistance in covered evictions
• The tenant anti-harassment rules apply to how you communicate and act

Registration is billed per unit each year. Published figures have been reported around $29 or $112 per unit depending on the property, but the City sets and updates those amounts, so confirm the current figure directly with the City rather than working from an old invoice.

And the exposure for getting a rent increase wrong is not small. Reporting on the ordinances describes damages of up to three times the amount of an overcharge. An increase you issue in September does not become retroactively fine because of how the vote lands in November.

Yes Vote vs No Vote: What Each Outcome Does

Here is the side-by-side I sketch out for owners when they call. This covers the mechanics of the measure only, not any prediction about the result.

What is at stake	If Measure H passes (Yes)	If Measure H fails (No)
Rent increase cap	Rent Stabilization Ordinance is repealed	Cap of 2.75% or 75% of CPI, whichever is lower, stays
Rental registry	Residential Rental Registration Ordinance is repealed	Registry and annual per-unit fees continue
Just cause eviction	Tenant Protection and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance is repealed	Just cause rules and three months’ relocation assistance stay
Tenant anti-harassment	Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance is repealed	Ordinance stays in force
Rules before November 3, 2026	All four still apply up to the vote	All four still apply up to the vote
Where it applies	Rental property inside Salinas city limits	Rental property inside Salinas city limits

How Measure H Got on the Ballot

A quick timeline of the four Salinas rental ordinances and the repeal effort that became Measure H.

Peninsula Owners: Measure H Is a Salinas City Question

Measure H is a City of Salinas ballot measure. It governs rental property inside Salinas city limits.

If your rental sits in Pacific Grove, Monterey, Pebble Beach, or Carmel, your vote on Measure H does not change the rules on that home. California’s rental laws still apply everywhere, and those shift on their own schedule regardless of what happens on November 3.

Where this gets messy is for owners holding both. I work with plenty of families who inherited a Salinas fourplex and later bought on the Peninsula, or who kept a Salinas rental after moving to Carmel. Two properties, two different sets of local obligations, one owner trying to track both.

A few things I watch for with those owners:

• Using the same rent increase notice template on both properties, which is how a Salinas overcharge happens
• Applying a Salinas relocation assistance assumption to a Peninsula tenancy, or the reverse
• Missing a registry renewal on the Salinas unit while focused on the higher-value coastal home

The Peninsula has its own pressures on pricing and turnover, which I cover in what makes renting out a Pacific Grove home different. Setting rent well is a separate exercise from setting it legally, and both matter. How rent actually gets set on a Monterey County rental walks through why online estimates miss.

What I Tell Owners to Do Between Now and November 3

Nobody should build a plan around a result that has not happened. But there is a difference between waiting and drifting.

Here is the short list I give owners with Salinas units:

• Verify your registration is current. Confirm the fee and the status with the City, not from memory.
• Recalculate any pending rent increase against the current cap before the notice goes out. A wrong number now can follow you for years.
• Document everything. Dated inspection photos, written maintenance requests, repair invoices, and copies of every notice served. Records are what protect you if a tenancy goes sideways.
• Do not rush a turnover hoping to get ahead of a vote. Decisions made on speculation tend to cost more than they save.
• Read the actual ballot text when your ballot arrives, rather than a summary from a neighbor.

If you want more background on the vote itself, we have covered it from a few angles, including what changes either way on the Salinas rent stabilization repeal and what owners need to know before the November vote.

One more thing. Several owners who call us are not struggling with the law at all. They are struggling with the hours. One owner with multiple Salinas units told us that managing everything alone had simply become more than the schedule allowed. A ballot measure does not change that math either way.

Frequently Asked Questions About Measure H