2020 is going to be the year tenant protections are implemented in California thanks to AB 1482, until then, Mayors, Supervisors, and City Council members in various cities across the Monterey County area have added more emergency tenant protections to protect tenants who may be facing evictions.
Although the additional tenant protections excited tenant advocacy groups, the reality is that there are already tenant protections on the books and local landlords plus Realtor® organizations can find no compelling reasons for these new ordinances.
About the New Tenant Protection Ordinances
Any notice of a no-fault eviction after November 2, 2019, will place any move-out date or eviction trial into 2020 and it is the understanding of C.A.R. legal that the tenant will automatically be protected by the new law – meaning that under the new law, landlords who evict tenants under the no-fault provisions of AB 1482 will still be required to provide relocation assistance equal to one month’s rent or one month’s rent forgiveness.
Landlords who noticed tenants vacate the premises after November 2, 2019, will not be able to avoid the relocation fee or rent forgiveness. This renders the urgency ordinances to provide additional “protection” to current tenants unnecessary.
Moreover, contrary to erroneous reporting by local media, landlords who set rent increases above the rent cap limit of 5% plus CPI, after March 1, 2019, do not have to “reimburse” tenants the difference beginning in 2020. The law simply requires landlords to reset the rent increase to within the limits of the AB 1482 rent cap effective January 1, 2020. Landlords are entitled to keep the difference; again, no reimbursement required.
Source – Monterey County Association of Realtors®
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