California Apartment Association

The California Apartment Association is fighting newly proposed legislation that would allow tenants to withhold rent and avoid eviction based on their own, unqualified opinions about whether apartments are outfitted with water-saving fixtures.

CAA contends that AB 723 by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, would fail to further water conservation, while needlessly subjecting rental property owners to litigation and lost rent.

While it’s too late in the session to propose a new bill, lawmakers will sometimes get around this by jamming a new legislative proposal into an existing bill. Such is the case with AB 723, which was gutted and amended last week and heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 14.

The proposal would needlessly require rental property owners to disclose on leases, starting Jan. 1, 2016, that they install water-saving plumbing fixtures in apartments by 2019, as required by law. The legislation also would allow renters to play low-flow plumbing police.

“Allowing tenants to withhold rent for something they know nothing about is beyond inappropriate. What would prevent a tenant from tampering or removing plumbing fixtures to withhold rent?” CAA’s letter says.

“AB 723 gives tenants the ability to enforce a state law that goes into effect in 2019 relative to low-flow plumbing fixtures,” CAA says in its opposition letter to Rendon. “Tenants in California are not all plumbers and certainly not building code experts. They are absolutely NOT qualified and do NOT have the technical expertise to determine whether a toilet, faucet or shower head is in fact low-flow. An incorrect determination will result in confrontation, loss of rent, and potential litigation.”

The proposal also would let renters to withhold rent when they assert that water-saving fixtures are not in place.

“Allowing tenants to withhold rent for something they know nothing about is beyond inappropriate. What would prevent a tenant from tampering or removing plumbing fixtures to withhold rent?” CAA’s letter says. “The landlord would have to spend significant time and resources to go to court and prove that the plumbing fixtures were installed.”

The withholding of rent for non-health and safety issues is unprecedented in California law. Owners rely on that rent in order to pay their mortgage and other expenses at the property.

AB 723 would also prohibit an owner from evicting a tenant who has deducted rent by claiming low-flow fixtures are missing. This means that an owner could not evict such a tenant, even if that renter is engaging in illegal activity, destroying property or has amounts of past due rent that exceed $25.

This senseless bill comes after CAA has responded to the drought by supporting actual water conservation efforts in the Legislature, such as mandating water submeters on new construction.

“AB 723 is an unnecessary and poorly written ‘gut and amend’ that does little to accomplish any water conservation objectives,” CAA’s letter says. “Property owners are already strongly motivated to retrofit their plumbing and many of them have done so years before the required deadline.”