News: Legislation
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With this month’s deadline for Gov. Jerry Brown to sign and veto bills in the proverbial rear-view mirror, CAA has compiled the following summaries of rental housing-related laws set to take effect Jan. 1, 2016:
Affordable Housing
Community Revitalization Authority
Assembly Bill 2 (D-Alejo)
AB 2 allows specified “disadvantaged” areas of California to create a new entity called a Community Revitalization Investment Authority. The purpose of the CRIA is to improve conditions with the intent to increase employment opportunities, reduce high-crime rates, repair deteriorating and inadequate infrastructure, clean up Brownfields and build affordable housing.
Density Bonuses and Parking Spaces
Assembly… Read More
Tagged: LegislationLegislative Summary
A bill signed by the governor this past week will undercut eviction-delay tactics by unscrupulous tenant attorneys who claim mold as a substandard housing condition.
On Friday, Oct. 9, Gov. Jerry Brown approved SB 655 by Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles.
What does this mean for the rental housing industry?
While the new law does add “visible mold” to the list of conditions that can make a property substandard or untenantable, SB 655 offers property owners a number of protections from bogus claims of mold contamination:
Visibility: The mold growth must be visible. No more air tests that tenants and… Read More
Tagged: LegislationMold
With a bill signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, disadvantaged communities in California will get help with the creation of a new form of redevelopment called Community Revitalization Investment Authorities.
Assembly Bill 2 by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, authorizes local governments in economically depressed areas to use certain tax revenue for public works and affordable housing improvements. The measure requires that no less than 25 percent of funds generated through a CRIA be set aside for affordable housing in a given community.
In 2011, the state dissolved redevelopment agencies, leaving many communities struggling to provide housing and maintain infrastructure. … Read More
Tagged: Affordable housingLegislation
Landlords and apartment complex employees who apply pesticides on a rental property must notify their tenants, according to a bill signed into law by the governor.
Since 1984, California law has required specific notification requirements of pest control companies when they apply pesticides at residential properties.
Legislation signed into law by Gov. Brown on Sept. 8 extends those tenant-notice requirements to landlords, their employees and agents when they personally apply pesticides, such as over-the-counter aerosol bug sprays and foggers, at rental properties. The law, SB 328 by Sen. Ben Hueso, D-Logan Heights, takes effect Jan. 1, 2016.
Prior to applying… Read More
Tagged: Legislation
By the time the 2015 legislative session wrapped up this past Saturday, the state Legislature had sent a number of rental housing-related bills to Gov. Jerry Brown for consideration.
Below are summaries of key rental-housing related bills that Brown signed – and others still awaiting a decision by the governor.
Signed by Gov. Brown
AB 418 (D-Chiu) – Domestic Violence – AB 418 reduces the time limit for a tenant (who is a victim of domestic violence) to give a notice of intent to vacate to the landlord from 30 days to 14 days. The bill originally required the landlord… Read More
Tagged: LegislationLegislative Summary
Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian’s bed bug legislation, AB 551, establishes protocols and duties for rental property owners and tenants to follow when bed bugs are identified in a rental unit.
All interested parties and members of the California Legislature worked diligently this year on the legislation. More work remains, however, before all interested parties are content with the final bill language. They have all vowed to continue their work in January.
As written, the bill would do a number of things:
Requirements for landlords
Requires use of Addendum to Rental Agreement (bed bug identification, importance of reporting promptly, tenant duties), like… Read More
Tagged: Bed bugsLegislation
A bill that will undercut eviction-delay tactics used by tenant attorneys who claim mold as a substandard housing problem advanced Wednesday from the Assembly Floor.
SB 655 by Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, specifically provides that a property owner has no obligation to repair a mold problem unless the owner has been notified of the problem. It also makes clear that the owner can enter the unit to repair any identified mold issue.
While the bill provides that mold is a substandard housing condition, it will only rise to that level if a health officer or code enforcement officer has… Read More
Tagged: LegislationMold
On Tuesday, Sept. 1, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a CAA-sponsored bill aimed at ensuring that tenants check their rental agreements before subletting their apartments via short-term home-sharing websites.
Brown signed SB 761 by Sen. Isadore Hall two weeks after it advanced from the Senate floor by a vote of 38 to 0.
While subletting is typically forbidden in rental agreements, and can even lead to eviction, many tenants don’t know this.
SB 761 will put the onus on operators of home-sharing websites — such as Airbnb, HomeAway and Flipkey — to remind apartment renters to check their leases… Read More
Tagged: Legislation
Several bills that would affect the rental housing industry are a vote or two away from heading to the governor’s desk.
After the state Legislature returns Monday from its summer recess, they’ll likely take about two weeks to hold final hearings on the following CAA priority bills:
On the Senate floor
AB 447 (R-Maienschein) Insurance Discrimination – This bill would prohibit insurers from discriminating against a property owner who offers housing for tenants with Section 8 vouchers or who are in other low-income programs. The Senate floor vote is one of two final stops for this bill. If passed by… Read More
Tagged: Bed bugsLegislation
As in past years, Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, introduced legislation in 2015 that would mandate the installation of water submeters in units of new multi-family housing. SB 7 would impose this mandate effective Jan. 1, 2017, and include provisions to clarify how multifamily property owners can charge tenants for water use.
A submeter gauges water use in an individual apartment. This gives the tenant a financial incentive to conserve water because it keeps the renter’s bill down. This is good for both the tenant – and California’s water supply, especially during California’s worsening drought.
Many property owners already have voluntarily… Read More