A rent ordinance exemption notice lands on your desk and the first question is who signs it. The answer is not the same in every Contra Costa city. Walnut Creek has no ordinance to respond to at all. Concord exempts single-family homes, condos and ADUs. If your property manager filed the response for you, there are parts only the owner of record can sign or attest to, and there is a receipt and a copy you should be holding before the deadline. This article walks the split, city by city, and tells you what to check before you rely on any of it.
Why the signature split matters
Most owners assume the property manager handles the whole notice. That’s true for the parts that are mechanical: pulling the parcel number, attaching the deed, mailing the form. It is not true for the attestation. The city is asking the owner of record to swear to facts under penalty of perjury. A manager can prepare the response, but when the form asks who owns the property and whether the unit qualifies for the exemption, the signature line is not a formality. It is the city’s evidence.
If the wrong person signs, the notice is incomplete. The city will bounce it back, and the clock keeps running. In Concord, the exemption notice is how you preserve the right to set rent without the city’s cap. Missing the deadline because of a signature error is not a clerical problem. It is a rent-setting problem for the next twelve months.
What the owner of record must sign in Concord
Concord’s ordinance carves out single-family homes, condos and ADUs. The exemption notice is the document that records that carve-out for your property. The owner of record signs two places on the standard form: the certification of ownership and the attestation that the property meets the exemption criteria. The manager can fill in the parcel number, the address, the unit count. The manager cannot sign the attestation. That is the owner’s signature, and it means the owner is personally stating the facts are true.
If the property is held in a trust or an LLC, the signer must be the person authorized to bind the entity. The city does not care that the manager has a power of attorney for leasing. It cares that the signer is the owner of record or an authorized officer. Check the current ordinance text before you rely on this, because the form and the instructions change, but the split has held: the owner attests, the manager prepares.
Walnut Creek: no notice to sign
Walnut Creek has no rent ordinance to respond to. There is no exemption notice, no signature split, no deadline. If you own property in Walnut Creek and someone tells you to file an exemption notice, they are confusing it with a different city or a different program. Walnut Creek’s rent program exemption notice article explains this in detail, but the short version is: a Walnut Creek address does not mean a city rent rule. The state law, AB 1482, still applies to some properties, but that is a different notice and a different process.
This matters because owners with properties in both cities sometimes file the wrong form in the wrong place. The Concord form sent to Walnut Creek gets no response. The Walnut Creek owner who thinks they missed a deadline is chasing a ghost. Before you sign anything, confirm the city actually has an ordinance that requires a response.
The receipt and copy you hold before the deadline
After the notice is filed, you should be holding two things: a receipt from the city showing the date of filing, and a copy of the complete signed form. The receipt is your proof the deadline was met. The copy is your proof of what was attested to. If the city later questions the exemption, you do not want to be reconstructing from memory what the manager filed. You want the paper.
In Concord, the filing is done online or by mail depending on the cycle. The receipt is generated when the form is accepted, not when it is submitted. If the form is rejected for a signature error, the receipt does not exist. That is why the owner’s signature matters before the deadline, not after. The manager can track the submission, but the owner should confirm the receipt is in hand before the filing window closes.
For a deeper look at what happens when the notice is lost or the filing was incomplete, our article on rebuilding compliance after a lost exemption notice walks the recovery steps. The short version: the city keeps its own record, but you need your copy to respond to a challenge.
How we walk you through the signature split
When we manage a property in Concord, we prepare the exemption notice and hand the owner the attestation page. The owner signs it, we file the complete package, and we send the owner the receipt and the full copy the same day. That is the process. We do not sign the attestation, and we do not let the deadline pass without the owner’s signature on file.
For owners who use our property management service, this is part of the onboarding checklist. We verify the city, confirm the exemption category, and track the filing window. If the property is in Walnut Creek, we tell you there is nothing to file and we document that in your file so you are not chasing a ghost later. The signature split is not something you should have to remember. It is something the system should handle, with the owner’s signature exactly where the city requires it.
If you are not sure whether your property needs a notice, or who should sign it, the fastest way to get an answer is to ask us. We work in Concord and Walnut Creek every week, and we know which forms are current. Contact us with the property address and we will tell you what applies.
What is the one thing owners get wrong?
The owner signs the attestation, not the manager. That is the split. The manager can prepare everything else, but the owner’s signature is the one the city checks. If you are holding a receipt and a copy before the deadline, you have done the part that matters. If you are not, the clock is still running.
Have you ever had a city bounce an exemption notice back over a signature? What did the process look like in your city?
About this article. This is general information and our own opinion, written from how we run operations for owners and businesses in Contra Costa County. It is not legal, tax, accounting, financial or other professional advice, it is not a recommendation to take or avoid any action, and it is not a substitute for advice about your own property, tenancy or business. CAO Investment Group is not a law firm, and reading this does not create an attorney-client or any other professional relationship. Local ordinances, fee schedules, forms, thresholds and deadlines change often and differ from city to city within Contra Costa County — anything here may be out of date by the time you read it, including as of the publication date shown above. Verify anything you plan to rely on against the current rules published by your own city or county, and speak to a qualified attorney, CPA or licensed professional about your specific situation before you act. We make no warranty that this information is current, complete or accurate, and we accept no liability for any action taken or not taken on the basis of it.
