The Law Offices of Ted Smith continues its diligence as a watchdog on legislative bills, both good and bad, as they come before the legislature. In the last Landlords & The Law, we forewarned of three pending bills that would greatly impact the eviction process and other relevant issues of landlord/tenant law. We are happy to report that each of the following bills went down to defeat, and justifiably so.
-The “just cause” bill would have made eviction requirements across the state more difficult and costly to evict the tenants. AB 2925 would require rental owners, statewide, to list a “cause” for a reason when deciding termination of tenancy. It would not matter how long the tenant was in possession.
-The second eviction-related bill that, as originally written, would have expanded the notice requirements for removing tenants under the Ellis Act, also died on the Assembly floor.
-The third eviction-related bill (originally drafted to prolong the eviction process) was amended to simply provide minor amendments to the service of the eviction summons, rendering it of minimum concern to landlords in California. AB 2343 advanced from the Assembly to the Senate only after the author, David Chiu, D-San Francisco, overhauled the bill. This bill would have added, to an already lengthy eviction process, the ability for the tenants to pay rent in the middle of the month. The rental law, as you know, provides that you can serve a Three Day Notice any time you want to so long as it is after the due date of the rent. Many times on the 5th, 6th, or 7th, not the 15th. All of these provisions were deleted from the bill. So that’s good news for landlords in San Diego County.