INFORM

LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

The California State Legislature goes on summer break in July. In the meantime, some property owner and renter laws have been passed or are still moving through the process. East Bay Rental Housing Association (EBRHA) advocates for its members and tries to keep everyone apprised of important legislation that can affect the industry.

Among the new laws passed, and that EBRHA maintains an interest in, is AB 1738, which mandates the installation of EV charging stations in the parking lots of every multifamily property. AB 1738 was just amended at EBRHA’s request. The bill mandated the installation of EV charging stations in the parking lots of every multifamily property. Residential property owners would have collectively spent billions of dollars to comply with the proposed mandate. As amended, and per our request, the bill will not impose that mandate unless owners pull a building permit and undertake major remodeling of parking lots.

While the cost requires extra expenditures, it’s unlikely that residential property owners will not face this change one way or the other when such

a strong push at the state and federal levels exists to reverse climate change and promote sustainable sources of energy. It’s an inevitable change in the industry, so the passage of this law demonstrates lawmakers’ commitment toward change; however EBRHA acts to make it manageable for our members to meet the requirements.

Other laws that EBRHA is tracking and strongly opposes include the following:

AB 2053 establishes a massive, new state agency, the California Housing Authority, for the purpose of developing mixed income “SOCIAL HOUSING” (emphasis added). This bill calls into question who should own and operate “affordable” rental housing in the state.

AB 2053 (Lee) creates the CA Housing Authority, but more important it establishes the CA Social Housing Act. The sole purpose of the bill is for the entity to “own housing which shall be provided at sub-market prices and allocated (to renters) according to specific rules (price control) rather than according to market mechanisms (privately owned rental housing). The entity that would be created is charged with the responsibility to buy existing rentals and develop new housing. It will openly compete with private ownership and benefit by not paying any taxes, thus driving market prices of all rental housing. The bill will soon be heard in the Senate.

AB 2383 protects convicted felons by creating a new class of protected individuals that are not recognized as a protected class by any other civil rights legislation (other than Oakland and San Francisco). The safety and security of renters will be compromised. The bill treats all felonies as if they have the same consequences and allows applicants that have a felony to dispute owners' decision not to rent. Available rental units would be kept off the market for up to three weeks, during which time the applicant presents their arguments. All other qualified applicants would be forced to wait until the “felon” applicant exhausts all of their remedies to rent.

AB 2597 requires the state Building Standards Commission (BSC) to approve mandatory building standards for the safe indoor ambient air temperature in all rental housing. AB 2597 (Bloom) was recently approved by the lower house of the Legislature, the Assembly. EBRHA continues to oppose the bill, despite significant amendments. At one time the bill would have declared all existing rental housing to be substandard if at the dwelling it did not provide adequate cooling (not defined).

Now, the bill charges the state Housing and Community Development Department to develop, propose and recommend new building code requirements to the state Building Standards Commission for all new and existing housing to provide for adequate residential cooling. This ill-defined standard will (not could) cost thousands of dollars per existing dwelling.

An important bill that didn’t pass is SB 1335, which prohibited the use of any of a person’s credit history/report as part of applying for a residential rental unit if that applicant provides “alternatives of financial responsibility,” which didn’t get defined. The committee accepted arguments that credit reports are universally used by creditors.

The bill would have supplanted the lawful and purposeful use of credit reports. The use of the term “alternatives of financial responsibility” did not assure the legal obligation to always pay rent in the event of default nor did it guarantee prompt payment. Unlawful detainers would have become far more complicated than ever. EBRHA is quite pleased that the bill died along with many other bills regarding the use of credit reports.

Information reprinted with permission from The Rental Housing Digest.