12955.05.
(a) For purposes of this section:(1) “Criminal history information” means any record that contains individually identifiable information and describes any aspect of an individual’s criminal history or contacts with any law enforcement agency. Criminal history information includes information describing an individual’s arrests and subsequent dispositions, information that an individual has been charged with or indicted for a felony, misdemeanor, or other criminal offense, and information indicating that an individual has been questioned, apprehended, taken into custody or detained, or held for investigation by a law enforcement, police, military, or
prosecutorial agency, whether or not the contact with law enforcement led to a criminal conviction. Criminal history information includes both records from any jurisdiction and records that are not prepared strictly for law enforcement purposes, such as investigative consumer reports.
(2) “Evidence of rehabilitation or other mitigating factors” includes, but is not limited to, the following:
(A) A person’s satisfactory compliance with all terms and conditions of parole, probation, mandatory supervision, or Post Release Community Supervision, provided that the person’s inability to pay fines, fees, and restitution due to indigence shall not be considered noncompliance with terms and conditions of parole or probation.
(B) Evidence of maintaining steady employment, particularly related to a person’s postconviction employment.
(C) Employer recommendations, particularly related to a person’s postconviction employment.
(D) Educational attainment or vocational or professional training since conviction, including training received while incarcerated.
(E) Completion of or active participation in rehabilitative treatment, including alcohol or drug treatment.
(F) Letters of recommendation from community organizations, counselors, case managers,
teachers, community leaders, parole officers, and probation officers who have observed the person since the person’s conviction.
(G) A person’s familial relationship with a person who may be currently residing in the housing accommodation.
(H) The age of the person at the time of the conviction.
(I) Explanation of precedent coercive conditions, including physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, whether the person was the victim of crime, untreated substance abuse, mental illness, or disability that contributed to the conviction.
(J) The amount of time that has passed since the date of conviction.
(K) Evidence that the individual has maintained a good tenant history before or after the conviction, or both.
(3) “Initial application assessment phase” means the period before a decision is made to rent or lease a rental housing accommodation, which includes the time during which a person seeking a rental housing accommodation requests, and is provided with, an application and the time during which the assessment of rental history and credit history, the checking of sources of income, and the scheduling of an applicant interview routinely occur.
(b) (1) It is an unlawful housing practice for the owner of a rental housing accommodation, or another individual or business establishment, to inquire about, or to require an applicant for a rental housing accommodation to disclose, or to otherwise seek, consider, use, or take adverse action on, criminal history information during the initial application assessment phase, unless otherwise required by state or federal law.
(2) (A) Following the successful completion of the initial application assessment phase, an owner of a rental housing accommodation, or another individual or business establishment, may request a criminal background check of the applicant pursuant to subdivision (c) and consider an applicant’s criminal history information in deciding whether to rent or lease. If the owner of a rental
housing accommodation is considering denying an application to rent or lease after requesting a criminal background check and considering an applicant’s criminal history information, and the possible denial is based in whole or in part on the criminal background check or an applicant’s criminal history information, the owner shall, within five days of receiving the information that is the basis of the possible denial, provide the applicant with a written statement conforming with paragraph (2) of subdivision (e) listing the reasons for the possible denial before making a final decision.
(B) If any information in a criminal background check or an applicant’s criminal history information is used as the basis for a possible denial for rental housing accommodation, the written statement conforming with paragraph
(2) of subdivision (e) shall list all of the following for each conviction:
(i) The date of the conviction.
(ii) The county and state where the conviction occurred.
(iii) The applicable law providing the basis for the conviction.
(3) If, within three days of receipt of the written statement described in paragraph (2), the applicant provides the owner of the rental housing accommodation notice
in the manner specified by the owner of the rental housing accommodation, of evidence demonstrating the inaccuracy of the item or items within the applicant’s criminal history information or evidence of rehabilitation or other mitigating factors, the owner of the housing accommodation shall reconsider their decision in light of the information and delay the denial for no longer than five days after receipt of the information. If, upon review of the applicant’s criminal history information and the evidence of rehabilitation and mitigating factors, the owner of the housing accommodation chooses to deny the application, then the owner of the housing accommodation shall notify the applicant of the owner’s final decision to deny the application in writing.
(c) The owner of a rental housing accommodation shall
not, in an application for rental housing accommodations or as otherwise part of the application process, seek, consider, use, or take an adverse action based in whole or in part on any of the following:
(1) A previous arrest that did not result in a conviction.
(2) Participation in, or completion of, a diversion or a deferral of judgment program.
(3) A conviction that has been judicially dismissed, expunged, voided, invalidated, sealed, vacated, pardoned, or otherwise rendered inoperative, including, but not limited to, as is provided under Section 1203.4, 1203.4a, or 1203.41 of the Penal Code, or for which a certificate of rehabilitation has
been granted pursuant to Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 4852.01) of Title 6 of Part 3 of the Penal Code.
(4) A determination or adjudication in the juvenile justice system or information regarding a matter considered in or processed through the juvenile justice system.
(5) Information pertaining to an offense other than a felony or misdemeanor.
(6) A conviction that is not directly related to one or more substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory purposes that support the owner’s business interests. In determining whether a criminal conviction is directly related, a practice should include consideration of the nature and severity of
the crime and the amount of time that has passed since the criminal conduct occurred.
(7) Information pertaining to a conviction that occurred more than
seven years before the date of the conviction, if consideration of that conviction would violate Section 12269 of Title 2 of the California Code of Regulations, or any successor to that regulation, as it reads on the date of the application for rental housing accommodations.
(8) Information indicating that an individual has been questioned, apprehended, taken into custody, or detained, or held for investigation by a law enforcement, police, military, or prosecutorial agency.
(d) (1) An owner of a rental housing accommodation that uses criminal history information as part of the screening criteria to evaluate an applicant shall include the following notice in the application
for tenancy of a rental housing accommodation:
(2) “This property will run a criminal background check as the final part of the application process. You are not required, and the owner cannot require you, to disclose criminal history information until your application has met all of the property’s other screening requirements. If your application may be rejected based on your criminal history information, the owner will provide you with written notice about the possible rejection. You will then have three days after you receive written notice from the owner about the possible rejection to provide evidence showing that the criminal history information described in the notice is inaccurate or to show evidence of rehabilitation or other mitigating factors. If you provide this information to the owner, they are
required to inform you of their decision within five days of receiving the information. A list of information that can be used to show evidence of rehabilitation or other mitigating factors can be found at the Department of Fair Employment and Housing website: dfeh.ca.gov.”
(3) An owner of rental housing accommodation is not required to provide the statement in paragraph (2) if the owner is otherwise required by state or federal law to consider criminal history information prior to the final part of the rental application process.
(e) (1) An owner of a rental housing accommodation that requests a criminal background check of the applicant shall provide the following notice to an applicant who is found to have criminal history information that does not meet the property’s
requirements:
(2) “Your application met all the initial requirements. After running a criminal background check the owner found the following criminal history information that could be the basis for rejecting your application: [INSERT REQUIRED INFORMATION]. You have three days from the time you received this notice about the possible rejection of your application to provide evidence showing that the criminal history information described above is inaccurate or to show evidence of rehabilitation or other mitigating factors. If you provide this information to the owner they are required to inform you of their decision within five days of receiving the information. A list of information that can be used to show evidence of rehabilitation or other mitigating factors can be found at the Department of Fair Employment and Housing website:
dfeh.ca.gov.”
(3) For the notice described in paragraph (2), for each instance of criminal history information that could be the basis for rejecting an applicant, the owner shall include the information required by subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (b).
(f) This section shall not apply under either of the following circumstances:
(1) The rental housing accommodation is a single-family home, duplex, triplex, or accessory dwelling unit in which the owner occupies a unit or bedroom as a principal residence.
(2) A tenant of the rental housing accommodation seeks a cotenant or roommate.
(g) This section does not diminish any other applicable law related to the consideration of criminal history information in housing, including, but not limited to, Article 24 of Title 2 of the California Code of Regulations.
(h) If an ordinance, resolution, regulation, administrative action, initiative, or other policy adopted by a city, county, or city and county conflicts with this section, the policy which provides greater protections to individuals seeking or residing in rental housing units shall control.