Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles’ Advocacy Efforts Stop Bad Laws From Advancing

This Legislative Session, we have seen dozens of proposed housing bills, many of which had they advanced to the Governor’s desk and been signed, would have had extremely harmful effects on owners and managers of rental housing.  Fortunately, as in years past, our advocacy efforts have proven successful in defeating many of the “worse of the worse” proposals.

Just a few of this year’s highlights on successful opposition include the following bills stopped in part due to efforts of your Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles:

Assembly Bill 2021 (Wicks) - Property Tax Sales: Access to Tax-Defaulted Property Information 

• This bill would have required tax collectors to prepare a listing of all properties that have been on the tax delinquent role for at least 5 years and include specified information on their internet website, including, among other things, information on how to obtain the tax-defaulted properties on the list are available for purchase. The bill would have also required formation of a joint advisory group to submit a report to the Legislature with recommendations for facilitating the sale of tax delinquent properties to nonprofit organizations and local governments. Initially, this bill provided a right of first refusal for governments or non-profits to purchase tax-defaulted properties. Status: Did Not Pass.

Assembly Bill 2383 (Jones-Sawyer) - “Ban the Box” 

• Bill would have made it an unlawful housing practice for the owner of a rental housing accommodation or business establishment to merely inquire about or require an applicant for a rental housing accommodation to disclose, a criminal record during the initial application assessment phase. This bill would have limited the ability of housing providers to determine the criminal history of tenant applicants. Status: Did Not Pass.

Senate Bill 1026 (Wieckowski) - Residential Energy Efficiency Disclosure

•  This bill would have required the commission and the Department of Housing and Community Development to prepare a residential energy efficiency disclosure statement form for landlords and other lessors of residential properties to use to disclose to tenants and lessees’ information about the energy efficiency of the property. This bill would require a landlord by January 2024 to provide to potential tenants who pay for an energy supply or include specified information in the application for the residential property the residential energy disclosure statement. With our lease packages already near 100 pages with mold and lead disclosures, this bill would have added another 25-50 pages at least! In addition, the requirement that property owners have prepared the disclosure statement would have been costly and a major administrative burden. Status: Did Not Pass.

Some of the “good” bills we have been successful in moving forward and hopefully towards passage on the “floor” and eventual signature by the Governor include:

Assembly Bill 916 (Salas)  - ADU Height Limits

• The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles has sponsored this bill which would streamline the creation of bedrooms and increase the height limit of ADUs, passed the Senate’s Appropriations Committee on consent. We have worked very hard over the past few weeks to negotiate with all stakeholders on the language dealing with height changes.  The provisions below reflect the final language, which should be amended into Assembly Bill 916 prior to a vote on the Senate Floor.  The bill would:
• Allow ADUs to be 18-feet tall if they are located on a parcel with an existing multi-story-multifamily building, “or” a parcel within one-half mile of a major transit station. Additionally, ADUs are allowed an additional 2-feet of height (total of 20 feet) to accommodate a roof pitch that aligns with the roof pitch of the primary residence.
• Allow ADUs to be 25 feet tall or the height limitation in the local zoning ordinance that applies to the primary residence, whichever is lower, if the ADU is attached to a primary residence.

Senate Bill 843 (Glazer) - Renter’s Tax Credit

• Bill increases the renter’s credit for the first time since 1979 and reform the credit to give more help to single parents and the most vulnerable Californians. Support. Status: PASSED Assembly’s Appropriations Committee with amendments to strike expenditures and require credit information to the Legislature.

Senate Bill 897 (Wieckowski) - ADU Reform

• Bill requires that the standards imposed on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) be objective and defines “objective standard” as subjective judgment by a public official and is uniformly verifiable. Also, requires a local agency to issue a demolition permit for a detached garage replaced by an ADU at the same time. The bill also prohibits a local agency from denying an application for an ADU permit due to the correction of nonconforming zoning conditions or unpermitted structures that are not affected by the construction of the accessory dwelling unit. Support. Status: PASSED Assembly’s Appropriations Committee.

Senate Bill 1262 (Bradford) - Court information

• This bill would require publicly accessible electronic indexes of defendants in criminal cases to permit searches and filtering of results based on a defendant’s driver’s license number or date of birth, or both. Passage of this bill will assist owners in running accurate credit checks and criminal background checks. Status: PASSED Assembly’s Appropriations Committee on August 8^th.

The bills discussed in this News Alert address only a handful of the “bad” bills stopped from progressing during this year’s Legislative session.  Advocacy counts!  You can help our advocacy efforts in many ways by writing or calling your elected official when asked to do so, and by giving generously to our Political Action Committees: