The Sacramento Report
by Debra Carlton
As we begin a new year, a review of the legal disclosures required for the rental housing industry is always helpful. The following CAA overview offers some of the legally required disclosures that rental property owners and their agents must provide to prospective tenants prior to entering into a rental agreement.
Lead Paint: Before renting pre-1978 housing, owners must disclose the presence of known or suspected lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards in the dwelling. Tenants must receive a federally approved pamphlet on lead poisoning prevention and must sign an acknowledgement that signifies their receipt of the pamphlet. Owners must make all reports about lead on the property available to tenants.
California Data Base — Sex Offenders: The law requires that property owners include a specific notice regarding the data base maintained by the State of California on the locations of registered sex offenders in all written leases and rental agreements for residential rental property. Specific type size is required. The notice must read as follows:
Notice: The California Department of Justice, sheriff’s departments, police departments serving jurisdictions of 200,000 or more and many other local law enforcement authorities maintain for public access a data base of the locations of persons required to register pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 290.4 of the Penal Code. The database is updated on a quarterly basis and a source of information about the presence of these individuals in any neighborhood. The Department of Justice also maintains a Sex Offender Identification Line through which inquiries about individuals may be made. This is a “900” telephone service. Callers must have specific information about individuals they are checking. Information regarding neighborhoods is not available through the “900” telephone service.
Pesticide Contracts: Rental property owners must provide new tenants with a copy of any notice that is provided by the registered structural pest control company when a contract for periodic pest control service has been executed between the owner and the service company.
Rental Payments: Rental property owners or their agents must disclose to each tenant the telephone number, name and address of the person or entity to whom documents are to be served and rent payments are to be made and the form or forms in which rent payments are required by the owner. The owner or the agent must also provide a copy of the rental agreement or lease to the tenant within 15 days of its execution by the tenant.
Illegal Drug Labs: A residential rental property owner who has actual knowledge, or knows by receipt of a notice from a law enforcement official, that an illegal substance is located on the property (e.g., via a methamphetamine lab—even though the lab was abated from the property) must provide written notice to the prospective tenants prior to the execution of the rental agreement.
Hazardous Chemicals — Proposition 65: The owner or company with 10 or more employees must warn tenants regarding potential exposure to chemicals that may be on the property and are known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. Although there are hundreds of chemicals on the state’s list, the chemicals most commonly found at residential properties are tobacco smoke, lead, asbestos, carbon monoxide and gasoline components.
Spanish Contracts: When the lease period is for more than one month and the owner negotiates primarily in Spanish with the tenant, the owner must provide the tenant with a rental agreement written in Spanish. The owner must also provide the tenant with all future notices in Spanish.
The California Apartment Association has prepared forms and background materials on the disclosures outlined above. For more information, go to CAA’s website. Failure to provide some of these disclosures can result in hefty penalties. Don’t get caught undisclosed.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the SFAA or the SF Apartment Magazine. Debra L. Carlton is the Vice President of Policy and Research for the California Apartment Association and is CAA’s chief lobbyist. © Copyright 2002.