California Apartment Association
Housing providers and others who use digitally altered images to advertise rental housing will have to disclose any changes made to the picture under legislation signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
If they alter an existing image, they generally must make the original available too.
AB 2025, by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, was among the bills the governor signed this weekend as the Sept. 30 deadline approached for him to sign or veto bills passed and sent to him by the Legislature this year. It covers rental ads and other promotional material featuring images changed with editing software or generated entirely by artificial intelligence. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.
The disclosure must be reasonably conspicuous and appear on or next to the altered image. If the rental property owner or agent has changed an image originally made with a camera or another capture device, the ad must also include the unaltered version of the picture or a link, URL or QR code to a publicly accessible site where the original unaltered picture is clearly identified. When a link, URL or QR code is used, the disclosure must indicate that the original unaltered picture is available through it.
Covered changes include adding, removing or changing furniture, appliances, flooring, paint, or landscaping. Routine adjustments to lighting, color, cropping, or exposure are excluded if they do not change how the property is represented.
For real estate licensees, a violation of the rental-ad rule also violates the licensing law. AB 2025 follows a separate measure that set disclosure rules for digitally altered images in property-sale ads.
