CALIFORNIA APARTMENT ASSOCIATION
EFFECTS POSITIVE CHANGE ON LEGISLATION

As the Legislature comes upon its summer recess, we bring to you a mid-year update on the high profile bills that are making their way through the process.

SB 985 (Kuehl):
90-Day Notice to Terminate a Tenancy
This bill is one of the priority bills for the tenant organizations this year, and needless to say, it has given CAA members the most heartburn. As initially written, this bill required rental property owners to give tenants a 90-day notice prior to terminating a tenancy. CAA members actively lobbied against this measure, and when it was heard in the Assembly Judiciary Committee in early July, it did not appear to have the votes necessary to move out of committee. The author, therefore, chose to amend the bill to make it a 3-year pilot program in the Cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood. Owners in those cities who wish to terminate a tenancy must give a 60-day notice to a tenant who has lived at the property for one year or longer. Given that the California Apartment Association is a statewide trade association, representing owners throughout California, CAA will continue its opposition on the grounds that this pilot is not fair to the owners in those cities and that it sets a negative precedent. The bill must gain a majority of the votes on both the Assembly and Senate Floors before moving to the Governor.

SB 1098 (Alarcon):
Moratoriums on Rental Housing
This is a bill sponsored by the California Apartment Association. It prevents local governments from using interim ordinances to block the construction of multifamily housing. Current law allows localities to establish minimal evidence to stop an apartment project for up to two years. The bill has successfully moved out the Senate and is now awaiting a hearing in the Assembly Local Government Committee. As local cities and counties dust off their rent control ordinances in light of very low vacancy rates, the California Apartment Association introduced this measure to direct the debate away from rent control solutions and towards local governments' refusal or inability to provide adequate housing in their communities.

SB 732 (Ortiz):
Toxic Mold
Senator Ortiz has substantially amended this bill to address the concerns raised by the California Apartment Association. As initially written, SB 732 would have made toxic mold a substandard housing code violation and would have held owners to strict standards of compliance and disclosure. This bill will now require the Department of Health Services to convene a task force to advise the Department on the development of standards for the identification and remediation of mold. The task force must be comprised of members of the rental housing industry, among others. The bill specifically states that an owner is not obligated to conduct a test to determine whether the presence of mold exceeds any developed standards nor shall owners be required to utilize a third-party specialist to test or remediate mold from a building. The bill does contain language that requires owners to disclose the presence of mold to prospective and existing tenants only when the owner knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, there is mold present in the unit and that mold exceeds the established standards. At the same time, owners will be required to provide a general disclosure pamphlet to tenants on the potential dangers of molds.

AB 12 XX (Simitian)
Rental Property Water Bill Allocation
This California Apartment Association sponsored bill authorizes rental property owners who own buildings that are master-metered for water to allocate water bills to tenants based upon the number of tenants or the square footage of each unit. As water costs have continued to climb in some part of the state, rental property owners have found that tenants have no incentive to conserve water when they do not receive a bill for their water use. The bill is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly in August.