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AB-1188 State rental assistance program: data.(2021-2022)

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Date Published: 04/19/2021 09:00 PM
AB1188:v97#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  April 19, 2021
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 05, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 1188

Introduced by Assembly Members Wicks and Kalra
(Coauthor: Senator Wiener)

February 18, 2021

An act to add Section 1942.10 to the Civil Code, and to add Section 50468 50897.7 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to residential tenancies.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1188, as amended, Wicks. Rental registry online portal. State rental assistance program: data.
Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and requires it to administer various housing programs. Existing law establishes a program for providing rental assistance, using funding made available pursuant to existing federal law to provide financial assistance and housing stability services to eligible households, as provided, administered by HCD.
This bill, in order to ensure that data is available for research and analysis to inform future state policy and programs, would require HCD to retain data from designated sources for at least 10 years, including data on the state rental assistance program, information submitted by eligible grantees that received the federal funding, and data on rental registries operated by local governments, as specified.

Existing law regulates the terms and conditions of residential tenancies. Existing law creates various programs for the creation of housing.

This bill would require cities and counties to create and administer a rental registry online portal, which would be designed to receive specified information from landlords, including state and local governmental agencies that own or operate public housing, that own or operate 5 or more rental dwelling units regarding their residential tenancies and to disseminate this information to the general public. The bill would require that the rental registry online portal, and the form necessary to support it, be completed by January 1, 2024. The bill would require landlords, under penalty of perjury, to provide a variety of information regarding the location of rental property, its ownership, and its occupancy, among other things. The bill would prohibit a landlord from issuing various notices to increase the rent or terminate a tenancy unless the landlord has submitted a form on the rental registry online portal, as specified.

The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.

By increasing the duties of local officials, and by expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YESNO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 50897.7 is added to the Health and Safety Code, immediately following Section 50897.6, to read:

50897.7.
 Notwithstanding any law, in order to ensure that data is available for research and analysis to inform future policy and programs in this state, the department shall retain all data from the following sources for a period of at least 10 years:
(a) The state rental assistance program created pursuant to this chapter.
(b) Information submitted by eligible grantees that received funding under Section 501 of Subtitle A of Title V of Division N of the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260) to the state rental assistance program, as provided in Sections 50897.2 and 50897.3.
(c) A rental registry operated by a city, county, or city and county that identifies the location of any of the following within the jurisdiction’s limits:
(1) Rental properties.
(2) Residential tenancies.
(3) Mobilehome tenancies.

SECTION 1.Section 1942.10 is added to the Civil Code, to read:
1942.10.

A landlord that fails to complete and submit a rental registry form for a dwelling unit as required by Section 50468 of the Health and Safety Code shall not take any of the following actions until a form is submitted that substantially complies with that section:

(a)Issue a notice of a rent increase.

(b)Issue a notice pursuant to Section 1946.1.

(c)Issue any notice or initiate any action pursuant to Section 1161 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

SEC. 2.Section 50468 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:
50468.

(a)For purposes of this section:

(1)(A)“Landlord” means either of the following:

(i)A person or entity that hires dwelling units subject to Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 1940) of Title 5 or Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code.

(ii)A state or local governmental agency that owns or operates public housing.

(B)“Local government” means either of the following:

(i)Except as otherwise provided in clause (ii), a city, including a charter city.

(ii)With respect to residential rental property located in an unincorporated area, a county.

(2)“Landlord” does not include a person or entity that owns or operates fewer than five rental dwelling units.

(b)(1)Each local government shall create and administer a rental registry online portal pursuant to the requirements of this section. The rental registry online portal shall be designed to receive information from landlords within the jurisdiction of the local government, as described in subdivision (c), and then disseminate the information to the public.

(2)A local government shall create a rental registry form, or approve a form created by a contractor, which shall be available on the rental registry online portal in a manner that produces machine readable data.

(3)(A)The rental registry online portal, and all forms necessary for its effective and efficient use, shall be complete and operational by January 1, 2024.

(B)The rental registry shall be available in, at minimum, English and the languages specified in Section 1632 of the Civil Code.

(C)A landlord subject to this section shall complete and submit, under penalty of perjury, a rental registry form for each property annually to the applicable local government.

(c)The rental registry form shall be drafted to collect all of the following information from a landlord:

(1)The legal address of each property, and all associated rental unit numbers.

(2)The legal name and business address of the beneficial owner or ownership entity for each property, including, but not limited to, limited partners, general partners, limited liability company members, and shareholders with 10 percent or more ownership of the entity.

(3)The ownership type of each property and the year the owner acquired the property.

(4)The year in which the residential structure was originally constructed on the property.

(5)The number of bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and occupancy status of each rental unit.

(6)The month and year that the most current occupancy began for each rental unit.

(7)The total number of months that each rental unit was rented during the previous calendar year and the number of months the unit was vacant.

(8)The amount of payments collected for rent and utilities during the month of January of the current year for each rental unit. This amount shall include the amount paid for utilities that is included in the rent.

(9)The month and year of the effective date of the last rent increase and decrease for each rental unit and the amount of the increase or decrease.

(10)Whether each rental unit is subject to a legally enforceable affordability restriction and, if so, the level of affordability required for that unit, including for units that are owned and operated by a governmental entity and units included in accordance with an inclusionary housing ordinance.

(11)Whether each rental unit is subject to any law, ordinance, rule, or regulation that limits or restricts the amount of rent that may be charged to tenants.

(12)The number of tenants residing at the property for which the landlord submits the rental registry form for which the landlord terminated a tenancy in the previous calendar year, and the reason for each termination.

(d)(1)A local government that establishes a rental registry pursuant to this section shall ensure that the rental registry includes all the information described in subdivision (c) and that it produces machine readable data.

(2)A local government that maintains a rental registry as of the operative date of the act adding this section shall update that registry as necessary to ensure that the rental registry includes all the information described in subdivision (c) and that it produces machine readable data.

(e)A landlord that completes a rental registry form as required by this section shall receive electronic confirmation of their submission.

(f)The rental registry online portal created pursuant to this section shall comply with all relevant state and federal laws regarding privacy and personally identifying information.

(g)The Legislature finds and declares that this section addresses a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution. Therefore, this section applies to all cities, including charter cities.

SEC. 3.

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution for certain costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district because, in that regard, this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.

However, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains other costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.