California Apartment Association

The California Apartment Association has helped derail a bill that would have given tenants new avenues to stall the eviction process.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, tried to bring back the legislation as a two-year bill last week, but CAA’s arguments against AB 969 helped stamp out the measure shortly after lawmakers reconvened for 2014.

The bill would have encouraged tenants who face eviction to claim retaliation by a landlord  and stop paying the rent.  It also promoted jury trials for eviction cases in courts where juries were not currently being used to decide cases. By law, the eviction process is supposed to be speedy, and jury trials  delay cases for many months while a tenant lives rent free.

The bill was set to be heard Tuesday, Jan. 14, in the Assembly Judiciary Committee, however, the author removed it from the calendar after CAA announced its continued opposition.

Read CAA’s opposition to the bill.