CAR Form TOPA, the Tenant Occupied Property Addendum, attaches to a California Residential Purchase Agreement whenever a one-to-four-unit residential property will still have occupants after close of escrow. The seller completes most of it, listing every tenancy on the property — names, unit assignments, rent, deposits, and lease terms — and both parties sign so those facts become part of the binding purchase contract. Filling it out well is mostly a matter of having the underlying paperwork in front of you and answering each field precisely.
When the Addendum Is Required
Use TOPA any time a tenant, a seller’s family member, or anyone else will still be living in the property after closing. That covers three common situations: a buyer who plans to eventually move in but cannot take possession on closing day, a month-to-month tenancy with no written lease, and a unit with a long-term lease running past the expected closing date.
The form’s default position is that existing tenants stay in place at close of escrow. If the seller instead promises to deliver the property vacant, a different checkbox in Paragraph 1B applies and the seller takes on the obligation to remove occupants.
What to Gather Before You Start
The seller carries most of the drafting work, and the fields are specific enough that guessing is not an option. Pull the following before you open the form:
- The full legal name of every adult living in each unit, along with which unit they occupy.
- The exact monthly rent currently collected for each unit. If rent was recently adjusted, have the notice of increase ready.
- The total security deposit held for each tenant, taken from the original lease or any written amendments. California law caps the deposit for an unfurnished unit at two months’ rent.
- Copies of every written lease, amendment, and addendum. For oral or month-to-month arrangements, write out the agreed terms — rent amount, due date, included utilities or parking — so they can be transcribed onto the form.
- Any additional recurring charges: parking, storage, pet rent, utility reimbursements.
Accuracy here matters more than on most disclosure forms because the figures become contract terms. If the buyer later finds that the deposit actually held is smaller than what you listed, you can face a claim for the shortfall. Fill in every financial field even when the number is zero; a blank invites the assumption that something was missed.
Choosing Between Tenants Remain and Vacant Delivery
The single most consequential choice on the form is whether tenants stay or the seller delivers vacant possession. Leaving the default in place is the standard path for an investor purchase or any sale where the buyer wants to keep collecting rent immediately.
Selecting vacant delivery under Paragraph 1B moves the removal obligation onto the seller. The default deadline to have occupants out is close of escrow, though a separate checkbox moves that to five days before closing. The seller must make good-faith efforts to remove occupants, evaluated under state law and any local rent-control or just-cause ordinance; a promise of vacancy does not override a tenant’s legal rights.
If the seller cannot deliver vacant possession as promised, the buyer’s remedies are limited to two: cancel the transaction and receive the deposit back plus reasonable out-of-pocket costs like inspection and appraisal fees, or proceed with the purchase and take the property with the tenant still in place. The form does not create a damages claim beyond the refund.
Delivering Leases and Requesting Estoppel Certificates
Once the seller signs, a clock starts for delivering all leases, amendments, and tenant records to the buyer. The form sets a specific window (commonly several days after acceptance), so check your version and put the date on the calendar.
Within that same window, the seller should request a Tenant Estoppel Certificate from each tenant. The tenant signs it to confirm the key lease terms — rent, deposit, any claims against the landlord, any side agreements — and it acts as a cross-check on what the seller disclosed on the TOPA. If the certificate contradicts the form, the discrepancy has to be resolved before the deal moves forward.
One practical limit: California does not require a tenant to sign an estoppel certificate unless the lease itself contains a clause requiring it. Where that clause exists and the tenant refuses, the refusal is a lease breach. Where no such clause exists, the tenant can decline and there is no mechanism to compel them. A seller with older or informal leases should tell the buyer upfront rather than promise certificates that may never arrive.
The Buyer’s Review of the Tenant Documents
After the buyer receives the leases and any estoppel certificates, a review period opens for examining the paperwork for hidden liabilities: below-market rents, upcoming expirations, rent-free months the seller did not mention, right-of-first-refusal clauses, terms that conflict with the disclosures. Depending on the contingency language in the purchase agreement, the buyer can request credits, renegotiate the price, or cancel.
Do this in writing. Log when each lease arrived, when objections were raised, and when the seller responded. If an estoppel certificate contradicts the rent or deposit figures on the TOPA, raise the conflict before your contingency expires; once that deadline passes, you lose the leverage to renegotiate or walk without forfeiting your deposit.
Security Deposits and Rent at Closing
California Civil Code Section 1950.5(i) requires the selling landlord to do one of two things with every security deposit at the sale: transfer the remaining amount (after any lawful deductions) to the new owner, or return it to the tenant with an itemized accounting. Nearly every residential sale uses the first option — the deposits appear as a credit from seller to buyer on the closing settlement, and the buyer takes over the obligation to eventually refund the tenant.1California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 1950.5 – Security for Rental Agreement
The seller must also notify each tenant in writing, by personal delivery or first-class mail, that the deposit has been transferred, stating the amount and the new owner’s name, address, and phone number. If the seller mishandles the transfer, the buyer is not off the hook. Subdivision (j) makes buyer and seller jointly and severally liable for returning the deposit, so the tenant can pursue either party, and the buyer cannot force the tenant to post a fresh deposit to cover one the seller never handed over.1California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 1950.5 – Security for Rental Agreement
When a tenant eventually moves out, the new owner has 21 calendar days to return the remaining deposit with an itemized statement of any deductions, supported by receipts or invoices.2California Legislative Information. California Code 1950.5 – Security for a Rental Agreement
Rent for the closing month is prorated. Escrow uses the actual day count and the rent figures listed on the TOPA, so inaccurate rent data on the form flows straight into a distorted credit. Make sure the amount on the form reflects the rent currently being collected, not the rent the original lease stated; if the seller raised rent mid-tenancy, the current figure is what proration uses. The buyer should cross-check against the estoppel certificate and recent bank deposit records before signing off on the settlement statement.
What the Buyer Inherits Under State Law
Signing the TOPA as buyer means stepping into the Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482), which applies to most residential rentals statewide and transfers automatically with the property.3State of California – Department of Justice. Landlord-Tenant Issues
The rent cap holds annual increases to the lesser of 10% or 5% plus the local change in the cost of living, measured over a 12-month period. Increases of 10% or less within that window require at least 30 days’ written notice; anything above 10% requires 90 days.4California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 827
Just-cause eviction protections apply once a tenant has lived in the unit for 12 continuous months. After that, termination requires a specific statutory reason: nonpayment of rent, lease breach, criminal activity on the premises, or a listed no-fault ground such as owner move-in or withdrawal of the unit from the rental market.3State of California – Department of Justice. Landlord-Tenant Issues
Several categories sit outside these protections. Single-family homes not owned by a corporation or REIT are exempt, provided the owner gave the tenant written notice of the exemption in the statutory language. Units that received a certificate of occupancy within the past 15 years are exempt, as are owner-occupied duplexes where the owner lived in one unit at the start of the tenancy and still does. Confirm any claimed exemption, and confirm the required notice was properly delivered, before assuming the property is unregulated.3State of California – Department of Justice. Landlord-Tenant Issues
If You Plan to Move In Yourself
An owner move-in eviction under Civil Code Section 1946.2 is a no-fault just cause, so the tenant did nothing wrong; you simply need the unit for yourself or a qualifying family member (spouse, domestic partner, children, grandchildren, parents, or grandparents). The notice must name the person moving in, state their relationship to the owner, and inform the tenant they may request proof.
The intended occupant has to actually move in within 90 days after the tenant leaves and live there as a primary residence for at least 12 consecutive months. If that does not happen, you must offer the unit back to the displaced tenant at the original rent and reimburse reasonable moving expenses.3State of California – Department of Justice. Landlord-Tenant Issues
Statewide relocation assistance for a no-fault eviction equals one month of the tenant’s rent at the time notice is served, paid directly or waived as the final month’s rent in writing, within 15 calendar days of the notice. Owner move-in cannot be used as a pretext when a similar vacant unit already exists on the property. Local ordinances in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Santa Monica set relocation payments well above the state minimum, so check the rules for the property’s city before budgeting a buyout or eviction. The one-month state figure is a floor.
Getting Access to the Form
Form TOPA is a proprietary California Association of Realtors standard form. Licensed agents access it through C.A.R.’s transaction management platform or other authorized software that integrates the C.A.R. form library. The form is not freely available for public download. A buyer or seller working without an agent should ask the escrow officer or a real estate attorney for the current version, or contact C.A.R. directly about form access.