Sacramento Report
By Ron Kingston

State of the Legislature 2009

In case that you were lying awake wondering if the state legislature would leave us alone this year, you can forget it. The mystery has been solved.

So, you will be well taken care of from Sacramento.

One bill that will affect our businesses was introduced on the very first day that a legislator could introduce a bill for the 2009 legislative year. We are aware of five more bills that will be introduced within the month. I assure you more than three dozen other measures will follow.

The first bill that was introduced for the 2009 legislative session that we will be heavily involved in is AB 49 (Feuer), a measure would require the state to achieve a 20 percent reduction in urban per capita water use by December 31, 2020. Some may observe that it is a “spot bill” or in other words, a legislative measure that still needs to be “flushed out” a bit before it could be considered by the legislature. Others, like our association will look at it from the standpoint that the issue is of key interest to us because of the general direction of the bill.

Assuming the bill targets a 20 percent reduction in per capita water usage within 11 years, landlords could confront problems beyond their wildest imagination. Landlords who have master water meters will have implementation issues, which will not be easily resolved. Landlords could only plead with tenants to reduce water usage. For those landlords that have water features or pools, the ever present question will be if those amenities will continue to operate should AB 49 be signed into law. Landlords in rent control communities will have to balance reduction of water usage and tenants that will seek a reduction in rent due to the actions of the landlord. For those landlords that rent to large families, “policing” water usage will be next to impossible if there is a water reduction mandate. It can be argued that this bill might serve as an incentive for landlords to engage in residential utility billing (RUBS) for the first time.

Another bill that will be introduced will be sponsored by the Western Center on Law and Poverty (WCLP), the most prominent tenant organization in the state. That measure will seek to permanently require landlords in non-rent controlled communities to give a 60-day notice to terminate a month-to-month tenancy if the tenant has been in the premises more than one-year.

Assembly Member Mike Davis has promised to re-introduce a bill that has failed in the last two previous sessions. The bill focuses on requiring the owner of a sub-standard property or a property that has any building code violation to report private and confidential information about every owner of that property to the appropriate local government, file an annual detailed corrective action plan, permit local governments to adopt and enforce new laws that would permit that government to seek civil penalties in an amount of up to $25,000 for every building violation that could be found regardless of circumstances and how small or large the violation.

Senator Lowenthal has talked with us about a bill that he carried last year that was vetoed by the governor that would have required the installation of carbon monoxide devices in all residential units within prescribed time periods. We successfully worked out our amendments with the Senator last year. Those key amendments focused on the time periods to install the devices in rental units, and for the first time, a tenant will have an affirmative obligation to notify us in the event of an inoperable or deficient problem in the unit, which in this case will be a problem with the CO devices, and finally the owner would not be subject to a fine for a deficient or inoperable device if we have not received a notice from the tenant of the deficiency or inoperability.

Another bill that will be introduced will allow any tenant in an unlawful detainer action to file a cross complaint against a landlord. The fact pattern that gives rise to this issue is pretty interesting. A tenant in the city of Alhambra requests the landlord to repair a water leak under a kitchen sink and to repair a front door lock. The landlord did not respond over a period of a few months and then the tenant takes the issue to the media. You guessed it, the landlord serves a notice to terminate which is followed by the filing of a unlawful detainer action. The tenant appears in court and is not aware of any affirmative defense that has been in law for decades. The court grants possession to the landlord. Soon thereafter, the tenant contacts her member of the state Assembly and asks for additional tenant protections so that this type “injustice” does not happen to other tenants. It is really unfortunate that the tenant was not aware of the enumerable defenses that may be proffered in court against a landlord. I’m confident this bill should be introduced by the time the next AACSC magazine lands on your doorstep.

Ron may be reached at: Ron@CALPCG.com
or you can call him at (916) 447-7229.