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Below is a list of some new laws that will affect most owners of rental properties in California. To see each law in its entirety, please visit http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov./
Assembly Bill 1620 -Right of disabled tenant in locally rent-controlled property to move to first floor unit at same rental rate – (Effective January 1, 2024)
Allows a jurisdiction with local rent control to require an owner of a rent-controlled unit to allow a tenant with a permanent physical disability to relocate to an available comparable or smaller unit located on an accessible floor of the property and retain their same rental rate.
AB 1620 creates a statutory process by which a locality with a rent control ordinance or charter could provide for unit swaps in certain situations where a disabled tenant is living in a rent-controlled unit, and the tenant would retain their current rent.
This process would only be available to tenants in rent-controlled units who
Live in units that are not served by an operational elevator,
- Are not subject to eviction for nonpayment,
- Where the jurisdiction has opted into AB 1620.
Assembly Bill 1764 – Landlord/Tenant: Option to provide receipts for tenant screening fees by email when both landlord and tenant agree to it first. (Effective January 1, 2024)
Landlords will have the option to provide receipts for tenant screening fees via email when both landlord and applicant agree to it first.
Presently, landlords are required to provide, personally, or by mail, a receipt for the screening fee paid by the applicant. The receipt must itemize the out-of-pocket expenses and time spent by the landlord or the agent to obtain and process the information about the applicant.
Under AB 1764, the landlord or their agent and the applicant may agree to have the landlord provide a copy of the receipt for the fee paid by the applicant to an email account provided by the applicant.
Assembly Bill 1764 is codified in relevant part as Civil Code § 1950.5. Effective January 1, 2024.
SB 267 – Landlord must offer “ability to pay” in lieu of reliance on credit history and reports in assessing a tenant’s rental application when prospective tenant is receiving a government rent subsidy such as a Section 8 rental voucher – (Effective January 1, 2024)
A landlord must offer “ability to pay” in lieu of reliance on credit history and reports in assessing a tenant’s rental application when a prospective tenant is receiving a government rent subsidy such as a Section 8 rental voucher.
SB 267 makes it unlawful, in instances where there is a government rent subsidy, for a landlord to use a person’s credit history as part of the application process for a rental accommodation without offering the applicant the option, at the applicant’s discretion, of providing lawful, verifiable alternative evidence of reasonable ability to pay the portion of the rent to be paid by the tenant, including, but not limited to, government benefit payments, pay records, and bank statements.
When so offered, the applicant may elect to provide alternative evidence of reasonable ability to pay. In which case the landlord must provide the applicant reasonable time to respond with that alternative evidence and reasonably consider that alternative evidence in lieu of the person’s credit history in determining whether to offer the rental accommodation to the applicant.
Nonetheless, the landlord may still request information or documentation to verify employment, to request landlord references, or to verify the identity of a person.
SB 712 – Tenants may keep bicycles, e-bikes and other “micromobility” transport devices in their units. (Effective January 1, 2024)
SB 712 prohibits a landlord from prohibiting a tenant from owning personal micromobility devices or from storing and recharging up to one personal micromobility device in their dwelling unit for each person occupying the unit, subject to certain conditions and exceptions.
Personal micromobility devices are things like bicycles, scooters, hoverboards, skateboards, and their electric counterparts such as an e-bike or e-scooter.
SB 712 prevents landlords from prohibiting tenants from owning personal micromobility devices and also prevents landlords from banning the storage and recharging of personal micromobility devices in their dwelling units if the devices meet certain criteria as follows – Either:
- They are not powered by an electric motor, or
- They comply with certain safety standards for e-bikes and e-scooters (see below), or
- Failing compliance with such safety standards, the tenant has insurance covering storage of the device within the unit.
Batteries for e-bikes should comply with either the UL 2849 standard, recognized by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, or the EN 15194 European Standard for electrically powered assisted cycles. E-scooters, on the other hand, need to align with the UL 2272 standard from the U.S. or the EN 17128 European Standard for personal light-electric vehicles.
However, landlords have the option to provide tenants with exterior “secure, long-term storage” for their devices. If such storage is offered without charge, landlords can prohibit the in-unit storage of these devices.
A landlord is not required to modify or approve a tenant’s request to modify a rental dwelling unit for the purpose of storing a micromobility device inside of the dwelling unit. A landlord may prohibit repair or maintenance on batteries and motors of personal micromobility devices within a dwelling unit. A landlord can require a tenant to store a personal micromobility device in compliance with applicable fire code.
AB 1418 – Criminal Background Checks: Prohibition on local government “crime free” housing programs and ordinances. Prohibits local ordinances that penalize tenants and landlords for various types of law enforcement contacts, i.e., local “crime free” rental housing programs and ordinances. (Effective January 1, 2024)
This law prohibits cities and counties from enacting local policies that:
1) Require landlords to use criminal background checks. Make alleged criminal behavior, without a felony conviction, a basis to evict a tenant.
2) Require landlords to evict an entire household when a household member is convicted of a felony.
3) Define nuisance behavior to include police contact, police service calls, or anything else outside the scope of the existing state definition of a nuisance.
4) Require landlords to include lease provisions that provide a basis for eviction beyond those in existing state law.
The law also prohibits a local government from promulgating, enforcing or implementing an ordinance, rule, policy, program, or regulation affecting tenancy, that does any of the following:
- Imposes or threatens to impose a penalty against a resident, owner, tenant, landlord, or other person solely as a consequence of contact with a law enforcement agency.
- Requires or encourages a landlord to do, or imposes a penalty, on a landlord for the failure to do, the following:
- Evict or penalize a tenant because of the tenant’s association with another tenant or household member who has had contact with a law enforcement agency or has a criminal conviction.
- Evict or penalize a tenant because of the tenant’s alleged unlawful conduct or arrest.
- Include a provision in a lease or rental agreement that provides a ground for eviction not provided by, or that is in conflict with, state or federal law.
- Perform a criminal background check of a tenant or a prospective tenant.
- Defines as a nuisance, contact with a law enforcement agency, request for emergency assistance, or an act or omission that does not constitute a nuisance under California law.
- Requires a tenant to obtain a certificate of occupancy as a condition of tenancy.
- Establishes, maintains, or promotes a registry of tenants for the purposes of discouraging a landlord from renting to a tenant on the registry or excluding a tenant on the registry from rental housing within the local government’s jurisdiction.
Comment: The prohibitions in this law are prohibitions against a local ordinance, rule, policy or program. They are not prohibitions against landlords themselves. For example, this law does not prevent a landlord from performing a criminal background check within the parameters of existing state and federal law. Nor does it prevent a landlord from evicting all tenants based on nuisance or the criminal activity of a single tenant.
AB 12 – Security deposits limited to one month’s rent. (Effective July 1, 2024)
Landlords may collect no more than one month’s rent for either furnished or unfurnished units in addition to the first month’s rent. There is an exception for small landlords, defined as a landlord who is a natural person or LLC, and owns no more than two residential rental properties with no more than a total of four units offered for rent.
AB 12, beginning July 1, 2024, prohibits a landlord from demanding or receiving security for a rental agreement for residential property in an amount or value in excess of an amount equal to one month’s rent, regardless of whether the residential property is unfurnished or furnished, in addition to any rent for the first month paid on or before initial occupancy.
Exception for small landlords: A small landlord may demand or receive a deposit in an amount or value not in excess of two month’s rent, whether or not the unit is furnished, in addition to any rent for the first month, if the landlord (1) is a natural person or a limited liability corporation in which all members are natural persons and (2) owns no more than two residential rental properties that collectively include no more than four dwelling units offered for rent. The exception for small landlords includes family trusts.
This small landlord exception does not apply if the prospective tenant is a service member.
Landlords who currently hold a security deposit or demand or collect a security deposit in excess of one month’s rent prior to July 1, 2024, may continue to retain the security even if it is more than one month’s rent.
SB 567 – Tenant Protection Act: – (Effective April 1, 2024) Tightens up requirements for no fault evictions; adds damages, penalties, attorney fees and enforcement mechanisms for violations. (Please see the article following this one.)
Assembly Bill 1317 -Landlord/Tenant: Unbundled Parking Spaces for 16 unit apartments in specified counties. (Effective for specified properties in which a certificate of occupancy was issued on or after January 1, 2025.)
Requires landlords to unbundle parking from the price of rent for the life of the property. The agreement to lease the parking spot shall not be included in a rental agreement or addendum. “Unbundled parking” means the practice of selling or leasing parking spaces separate from the lease of the residential property.
A tenant will have the right of first refusal to parking spaces built for their property. If no parking spaces are available for a new tenant, and a space subsequently becomes available, the new tenant will receive a right of first refusal to the available parking space.
Unleased parking spaces can be rented to other on-site users or off-site residential users on a month-to month basis.
A tenant’s failure to pay the parking fee pursuant to a separately leased parking agreement shall not form the basis of any UD action. If a tenant fails to pay by the 45th day following the date payment is owed for a separately leased parking space, the property owner may “revoke that tenant’s right to lease that parking spot.”
This law will only apply to units in which:
- A certificate of occupancy is issued on or after January 1, 2025,
- The property has at least 16 residential units and
- The property is located in the following counties: (I)Alameda. (II)Fresno. (III)Los Angeles. (IV)Riverside. (V)Sacramento. (VI)San Bernardino. (VII)San Joaquin. (VIII)Santa Clara. (IX)Shasta. (X)Ventura.
There are exemptions for a residential property where the individual garage is “functionally a part of the property” and various types of deed-restricted affordable housing and housing built with specified tax credits.
SB 71 -Small Claims limit increased from $10,000 to $12,500 for natural persons among other limit increases – (Effective January 1, 2024.)
Presently, the small claims court limit for a natural person is $10,000 (if no more than two claims in one calendar year). This is now increased to $12,500.
For a non-natural person, the limit is presently $5,000 (if no more than two claims in one calendar year). This is now raised to $6,250.
The threshold limits on a variety of other types of cases have also been raised.
However, if a person, either a natural person or an entity, brings more than two claims in a calendar year, then the threshold limit remains the same at $2,500.
Assembly Bill 537 – Vacation Rentals: disclosure of all mandatory fees – (Effective July 1, 2024)
AB 537 prohibits a place of short-term lodging, as defined, from advertising, displaying, or offering a room rate that does not include all fees or charges required to stay at the short-term lodging, except government-imposed taxes and fees.
Violations: Violations of provisions are subject to a specified civil penalty not to exceed $10,000 and would authorize an action to enforce those provisions may be brought by a city attorney, district attorney, county counsel, or the Attorney General.
This is not legal advice. You may want to consult a lawyer about this question.