Sacramento Report
By Ron Kingston

We were involved in more state legislative measures this past year than any other previous year. Most notably, there were more bills that directly affected our members’ businesses. Ten bills of the more than four-dozen could have adversely affected our members’ pocketbooks. We will review those bills in numeric order.

The big ten:

SB 1518 (Correa) AACSC: Oppose until it was amended. The CA Apartment Association sponsored the bill and we successfully opposed the measure. The bill proposed to require every residential landlord that had a master water meter to retrofit the building to provide for individual water meters. Thankfully, the author agreed to remove the provision that we stridently opposed. Shortly after the author agreed to amend the bill to remove this provision,he decided to delete all language in the bill affecting real property concerns.

SB 1598 (Padilla) AACSC: Oppose. Alex Padilla was the author of this bill, which was sponsored by the CA Apartment Association. We successfully opposed the mea-sure. The bill would have prohibited any residential landlord from prohibiting smoking inside a dwelling and would have required landlords to wait an entire year to change the terms of a tenancy if he/she wanted to limit or ban smoking outside a rental unit. This would have totally changed our current contractual right to establish no smoking policies. It would have authorized local governments to adopt a patchwork quilt of additional and unknown requirements to prohibit smoking. In the final analysis, the bill would have prohibited landlords from protecting other tenants. The measure died in the Assembly.

SB 1126 (Cedillo) AACSC: Oppose until it was amended. The bill contained a pro-vision that would have subjected landlords to asset seizure of their rental properties if there was criminal street gang activity on or near the property. We were successful in convincing the author to remove this provision. The bill was signed into law.

SB 1386 (Lowenthal) AACSC: Oppose until it was amended. It was sponsored by one of the largest manufacturers of carbon monoxide devices. We worked very care-fully with the author to obtain the necessary amendments to protect landlords.The bill would have required carbon mon-oxide devices in all residential homes within a specified time frame. We focused on the language in the bill relating to rental units to assure that landlords are not liable for improper use or disablement. A sufficient time period was also worked out to assure proper compliance. Vetoed by the Governor.

AB 2383 (Ruskin) AACSC: Oppose. It was a bill which would have prohibited landlords from transmitting information about a prospective resident over the Internet. Can you imagine mailing the secure information to find out about an applicant’s credit information? The author dropped the bill.

AB 2052 (Lieu) AACSC: Oppose until it was amended. It was signed into law giving victim's of domestic violence greater protection. At one time, the bill would have authorized any person involved with the medical field or minister to determine if a person was a victim of domestic violence thereby authorizing the victim to seek to be released from a rental agreement. Atone time, the bill required landlords to return all of the security deposit to a victim as he/she was vacating the unit. The final version of the bill only authorizes a court or an officer to make a determination if a person is a victim and enables a victim to seek a termination of a lease under certain circumstances.

AB 2586 (Torrico) AACSC: Oppose until it was amended. It was sponsored by a tenants association to give—among other things—squatters rights to occupy a property that was in foreclosure. We opposed that part in the bill. We also opposed a provision in the bill that would have given tenants 60-days of free rent immediately following foreclosure in the event that the successor in interest was going to terminate the tenancy. Even though amendments deleted those provisions,the bill was vetoed.

SB 1299 (Migden) AACSC: Op-pose. It was sponsored by a San Francisco tenants association which proposed to require that every landlord that chose to go out of business would be required to replace those units prior to going out of business. Of course,we opposed and the bill ultimately died.

AB 2925 (Davis) AACSC: Oppose.It would have subjected landlords to a fine of up to $25,000 per building code violation, authorized local governments to provide confidential information to residents and permitted tenants to stop paying rent in the event of any building code violation. Once again we opposed the measure.The bill died in the Senate.

SB 1137 (Perata) AACSC: Oppose until it was amended. It would have given tenants 60-days free rent following a foreclosure. We successfully opposed that provision. The bill was signed into law.

A brief review of the remaining landlord and tenant bills for 2008:

AB 725 (Lieber) AACSC: Support. It would have required the Department of HCD to convene a working group, including a representative from AACSC, to draft a uniform affordable housing rental application. The bill was vetoed.

AB 822 (Levine) AACSC: Watch.The bill would have required multifamily owners of 5 or more units to arrange for recycling services. We obtained an amendment that provided the recycling services to be consistent with current state law. Vetoed.

AB 1771 (Ma) AACSC: Watch. It provides that in determining whether good cause exists to issue an order in which a complaint or indictment charging a crime of domestic violence has been filed that the court may consider the underlying nature of the offense. Signed into law.

AB 1779 (Jones) AACSC: Amend. The bill would have prohibited any person that sells services and accepts as payment a credit card, debit card, or other payment from storing retaining or sending that data unless authorized. The bill died.

AB 1873 (Lieu) AACSC: Watch. It would have required that a postponement of a hearing state whether any previous requests to postpone we remade. The bill was vetoed.

AB 2007 (Horton) AACSC: Watch. It would have required the Department of Justice to make available to the public on its web site whether a person, while registered as a sex offender, was convicted of another sex offense. The bill died.

AB 2013 (Krekorian) AACSC: Watch. It would have required the state to adopt building standards that authorize the use of water-permeable pavement in the construction of any paved surface. The bill died.

AB 2025 (Silva) AACSC: Support. The bill provides for the disposition of personal property remaining on the premises of commercial real property. If the landlord believes that the resale value of that property is the lesser of $750 or $1 per square foot landlord may retain the property or dispose of it in any manner. Signed into law.

AB 2068 (Aghazarian) AACSC: Watch. It authorizes a sheriff or marshal for any order or injunction relating to harassment, workplace violence,domestic violence to notify the protected person by electronic or telephonic means within 24 hours after service of process that the order or injunction has been served. Signed into law.

AB 2112 (Saldana) AACSC: Watch. It would have required the state Building Standards Commission to adopt energy and water conservation standards to require new residential construction on or after 1/1/20 that the use of photovoltaic technology is cost effective and the new buildings to result in zero net energy. Died.

AB 2175 (Laird) AACSC: Watch. The bill would have required the development of model water efficient landscaping. Died.

AB 2200 (Plescia) AACSC: Watch. The bill expressed the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would prohibit any person from concealing,harboring or sheltering any immigrant. Died.

AB 2256 (Duvall) AACSC: Watch. It would have increased the homeowners’ exemption from $7000to $45,000 of the full value of a dwelling. Died.

AB 2288 (Torrico) AACSC: Oppose/Amend. The State Fire Marshal would have required the installation of automatic fire extinguishing systems. Died

AB 2309 (DeSaulnier) AACSC: Oppose. The bill would have required electrical corporations that perform energy audits to make cost-effective changes in energy consumption and would have require the PUC to develop a procedure to determine which of the recommendations have been completed by owners. Vetoed.

AB 2334 (Runner) AACSC: Watch. It would have redefined “frivolous” in connection with frivolous lawsuits. Died.