The Sacramento Report

Landlord-Tenant Legislation Now Appearing at the State Capitol

by Debra Carlton

With the February 2002 deadline for bill introductions at the State Capitol behind us, CAA’s Legislative advocates have identified a number of bills that, if signed into law, will impact the every-day business operations of rental property owners. Here’s an overview of the most crucial:

SB 1403 - Senator Sheila Kuehl. In February, The Sacramento Bee carried a front-page story (on four consecutive days) about a property owner in Sacramento who served 30-Day Notices to terminate the tenancy on over 200 families living in rental homes in Sacramento. The owner claimed he was selling the homes and refused to provide additional notice. Needless to say, this issue has served the consumer advocates well at the state Capitol in their efforts to convince legislators to extend the current 30-Day Notice provisions under state law.

Members of the California Apartment Association (CAA) quickly came forward and offered replacement housing for those residents in Sacramento who were displaced. CAA members agreed to reduce or waive their security deposits and to maintain the rents at current levels for a minimum of three months. Simultaneously, CAA and the Rental Housing Association of Sacramento Valley also jointly sent the offending rental owner a letter condemning his practice and asking him to provide the residents with additional time to move.

Despite the fact that this Sacramento incident was extremely unusual, the legislature has responded by introducing SB 1403 and it is the tenant advocate’s primary bill for 2002. It does three things:

First, it authorizes a local city or county, upon a finding that the local residential rental vacancy rate is less than 10 percent, to require that rental property owners provide tenants with a 60-day notice prior to terminating a tenancy.

Second, the bill requires an owner to give a tenant a written notice prior to entering the rental unit. Current law does not specifically require that the notice be in writing.

Third, it changes the existing state Ellis Act law, which currently mandates that if an owner goes out of the rental housing business in a rent control community, the owner must “rollback” the rents if they put the rental housing back on the market within two years. SB 1403 extends the time period to five years.

SB 617 by Senator Deborah Ortiz also extends the termination notice provisions. This legislation, however, was introduced specifically to address the recent events in Sacramento and Santa Rosa where one rental property owner served 30-day termination notices to approximately 500 tenants living in his single-family rental homes. SB 617 requires an owner to give tenants a 90-day notice if an owner serves notices of termination on 50 or more dwelling units within a 5-mile radius. This bill is slated as “urgency” legislation and needs a 2/3 vote of the Assembly and Senate members in order to move to the Governor. It will become effective immediately if the Governor signs it.

AB 2330 by Assembly Member Carol Migden prohibits a rental property owner from retaliating against a tenant if a court has allowed the tenant to remain in the unit due to hardship—even though the owner has attempted to evict the tenant. The tenant must continue to pay the rent and follow all the rules.

AB 1433 by Assembly Member Horton is a bill that extends eviction protections for enlisted members of the National Guard who are called to service. The bill language is currently in transition, and we will report to you more specifics as the bill is amended.

CAA’s State Government Committee members will meet this month to discuss these bills and a host of others. We will report to you their recommended positions on all bills next month. Stay tuned. For current updates, go to CAA’s Web site.

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.