Renters May Get More Notice If Their Monthly Rates Are Going Up
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - California renters pay some of the highest rates in the country and now the Legislature is trying to make sure they have more notice if a landlord wants to raise the rent.
Assembly Bill 1110 passed the Asm. Judiciary Committee Tuesday by a vote of 9-3. It would require landlords to give tenants of month-to-month units 90 days notice if the rent increases 10%-15%. If the rent goes up more than 15% then landlords would need to give 120-day notice.
Current law requires landlords to give at least 30 days notice if the rent will go up less than 10%. If the landlord will raise the rent more than 10% they're required to give at least 60 days notice.
The notice must be delivered to the tenant in-person or through the mail.
The USC Price School of Public Policy just issued a report showing a lack of affordable rent plagues cities nationwide. It ranked the least affordable metros and found 4 of the top 10 are in California.
- Washington, DC
- San Diego
- Virginia Beach
- Los Angeles
- Riverside-San Bernardino
- New Orleans
- Miami
- Denver
- Houston
- Sacramento
SEE ALSO: City Proposes Rent Increase Negotiations For Landlords And Tenants
The Southern California Rental Housing Association opposed AB 1110, writing:
"AB 1110 would require 120 days' notice if a landlord of a residential dwelling with a month-to-month tenancy increases the rent by more than 15% of the amount of the rent charged to a tenant annually. We don't understand the jump. 10% or less currently is a 30-day notice, while over 10% is a 60-day notice. Under this legislation, 60 days are gone altogether. We think you should leave the law as is, but for more than 15% it can be 90 days. Without a natural progression like 30, 60, and 90, it is confusing and could make operations more difficult for those who use software platforms to calculate rent and notices."
The Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles supports the bill, writing:
"We support the extension of the notice period for rental increases between 10 and 15% to 90 days and for those over 15% to 120 days and the recognition of the harsh impact this will have on most tenants. However, given our experiences, 90 to 120 days may not be enough and [we] would suggest that the 90 day period be extended to 120 days and the 120 [day] period be increases to 180 [days]."
California voted against rent control in the November election. Proposition 10 would have given local governments more flexibility to implement or expand rent control rules while guaranteeing landlords the right to a fair rate of return on their investment. Rent control policies range from curbing how much landlords can raise rents each year to limiting what they can charge new renters.
A bill introduced this session would have expanded rent control but the lawmaker who proposed it ended up pulling the legislation.