News Alert: WE WON! NO Rent Stabilization for Claremont!
The Potential Spread of Rent Control Across Los Angeles County Has Been Stopped…For Now!
On May 9th the Claremont City Council considered imposing a rent stabilization ordinance and a separate Just Cause ordinance requiring the payment of substantial relocation fees for all No-Fault evictions. As initially proposed, the relocation fees would have far exceeded those already provided under state rent control and tenant protection law, Assembly Bill 1482 (AB1482) in amounts on par with either the City of Los Angeles’ current relocation fees of up to $22,950 or Santa Monica’s current relocation fees of up to $35,200.
Rent Stabilization Outcome
The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) successfully advocated for the Claremont City Council to reject the rent stabilization ordinance in its entirety and to substantially reduce the Just Cause No-Fault relocation fees from up to $35,200 down to 3 months’ worth of rent with an exemption for owners with 9 or fewer units and elimination of Anti-Tenant Harassment provisions. AAGLA submitted two detailed comment letters (as the vote was extended from the prior City Council meeting), reached out individually to City Council members and provided public comment in-person during the City Council meeting. AAGLA also reached out individually to our members in Claremont and sent a Red Alert to all of our members in Los Angeles County to make them aware of the meeting and solicit their support to defeat the spread of this harmful policy of price controls to a city like Claremont and potentially across all of Los Angeles County. Thanks to AAGLA’s extensive efforts and our members’ support, we achieved this extremely important victory! This result is a testament that advocacy does work.
The vote to reject the ordinance was unanimous with all four Council Members voting against with Mayor Reece recusing himself from voting as he is a rental housing provider. A special thank you to Council Member Calaycay who was our champion and refused to participate even in discussing the ordinance in protest against it being brought forward.
Key arguments made by AAGLA included the fact that there was no data from the City to prove that there had been any substantial rent increases citywide in Claremont to justify such an expensive, complex and extremely harmful ordinance, especially for “moms-and-pop rental housing providers. We also referenced data from CoStar (a third-party aggregator of rental data) that showed there were no substantial rent increases in Claremont over the past 5 years, including both before and after COVID-19.
Relocation Fee Outcome
AAGLA also successfully advocated for the Council to reject using either the Los Angeles’ or Santa Monica’s rental relocation fee amount schedules (up to $22,950 and $35,200, respectively) as neither City is similar to Claremont in population size, rental rates or City budgets. We also argued that relocation fees are intended to cover the actual costs of moving and are not supposed to serve as windfall profit or private welfare for renters, including those making middle- and high-incomes. The Council agreed and instead adopted a relocation fee requirement equal to three months of rent for all No Fault tenancy terminations. In addition, AAGLA urged the Council to provide an exclusion from all relocation fees for small, mom-and-pop owners who have suffered significant financial harm over the past three years due to State and Countywide moratoriums. The Council agreed and provided an exclusion for all owners with 9 or fewer units. Lastly, AAGLA argued against the extremely vague and ambiguous language contained in the Anti-Tenant Harassment provision and it was removed from the ordinance in its entirety.
We are still awaiting the publishing of the final version of the Just Cause ordinance and will provide additional information to our members when it becomes available.
Our victories in Claremont show that when our members get involved, we can achieve success in battling against the harmful spread of rent stabilization and other bad policies across Los Angeles County. We urge our members in Claremont and throughout Los Angeles County to join our new AAGLA advocacy teams to participate in meetings directly with your City Council members and AAGLA. Please reach out to Max Sherman at Max@aagla.org to join a team today!
This article is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions regarding your property or specific tenancies and the requirements of any local law changes described herein, please consult with an attorney.