(1) Existing law, the California Self-Service Storage Facility Act, specifies remedies and procedures for self-service storage facility owners when occupants are delinquent in paying rent or other charges. Under existing law, if rent or other charges due from an occupant remain unpaid for 14 consecutive days, an owner may terminate the right of the occupant to the use of the storage space at a self-service storage facility by sending a preliminary lien notice by certified mail to the occupant’s last known address, defined to mean the address provided by the occupant, as specified. Existing law attaches the lien if the charges remain unpaid by a specified time and allows the owner to take specified actions. At that time, existing law requires the owner to send documentation related to the lien sale to the occupant’s last known address, as defined.
Existing law, until January 1, 2023, authorizes the notice and documentation to be sent by electronic mail subject to specified conditions and allows the owner to demonstrate actual delivery and receipt of documents by, among other methods, the occupant acknowledging receipt of the electronic transmission of the notice by executing an electronic signature or by transmitting the notice to the occupant through an application on a personal electronic device.
This bill would remove the January 1, 2023, repeal date and would thereby extend indefinitely the authority to send the notice and documentation by electronic mail and the associated method of demonstrating actual delivery. The bill would make conforming changes.
Existing law, until January 1, 2023, deems the lien to attach if the notice has been sent and the total sum due has not been paid by the termination date specified in the
notice. Beginning January 1, 2023, existing law would deem the lien to attach if the notice has been sent and the total sum due has not been paid within 14 days of the specified termination date.
This bill, by removing the January 1, 2023 repeal date, would continue indefinitely the provisions that deem the lien to attach if the total sum due has not been paid by the specified termination date.
(2) Existing law specifies various disclosure requirements applicable to certain transfers of real property. Existing law provides that if information disclosed in accordance with these requirements is subsequently rendered inaccurate as a result of any act, occurrence, or agreement subsequent to the delivery of the required disclosures, any inaccuracy resulting therefrom does not constitute a violation of these requirements.
This bill would provide
that the disclosure requirements in effect on the date that all of the parties enter into a contract or agreement subject to those requirements are the requirements that apply to that contract or agreement. The bill would also provide that any amendment to those disclosure requirements that becomes effective after the date that the parties enter into a contract or agreement would not alter the disclosure requirements that apply to that contract or agreement.
(3) Existing law defines and regulates data brokers, requiring them to register with the Attorney General pursuant to specified requirements. Existing law prescribes definitions for this purpose, including references to terms defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA). The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, approved by the voters as Proposition 24 at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election, amended, added to, and reenacted the CCPA.
This bill would make changes to the definitions relating to data brokers to conform with the changes made by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020.
(4) Existing law requires a subpoena requiring the attendance of a witness, and a subpoena duces tecum for the production of books, records, documents and other evidence, at an arbitration proceeding or for certain depositions to be issued in a specified manner.
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that provision.
(5) Existing law provides that an intangible interest in a business association, as evidenced by the stock or membership records of the association, escheats to the state if, for a period of more than three years, the owner has neither claimed a dividend or other designated sum nor corresponded in
writing with the association or otherwise indicated an interest, as specified, and the association does not know the location of the owner at the end of the 3-year period. Existing law requires a person holding funds or other property that escheated to the state to submit a report to the Controller with information about the escheated property.
This bill would exempt the interest that escheats from required reporting unless and until the per share value is equal to or greater than $0.01 or the aggregate value of the security held exceeds $1,000.00, as specified.
(6) Existing law, the Unclaimed Property Law, governs the disposition of unclaimed property, including the escheat of certain property to the state. Existing law requires a person holding funds or other property escheated to the state to report to the Controller certain information regarding the property and the owner.
Existing law requires all escheated property delivered to the Controller to be sold by the Controller to the highest bidder at public sale, as specified. Existing law requires securities listed on an established stock exchange be sold at the prevailing prices on that exchange. Existing law authorizes the Controller to sell other securities over the counter at prevailing prices, as specified. Existing law requires the Controller to sell securities no sooner than 18 months, but not later than 20 months, after the final date a person holding funds or other property escheated to the state is required to report to the Controller, as specified.
This bill would instead require the Controller to sell securities no sooner than 18 months, but not later than 20 months, after the actual date of filing of the required report, as specified.
(7) Existing federal law recognizes the sovereignty of
federally recognized Indian tribes and provides for financial, developmental, and operational support of tribal justice systems. Under existing law, one or both of the parties to a tribal court proceeding may file an application for recognition of a tribal court order that establishes a right to child support, spousal support payments, or marital property rights to a spouse, former spouse, child, or other dependent of a participant in a retirement plan or other plan of deferred compensation, that assigns all or a portion of the benefits payable with respect to the plan participant to an alternate payee. Existing law prescribes a filing fee of $100 for a joint application.
This bill would provide that the filing fee applies in cases in which the parties agree to file a joint application as well as in cases in which one of the parties does not agree to join in the application, as specified.
(8) Existing law obligates a parent to support their child. Existing law authorizes a local child support agency, when an order of child support is assigned to the county or the local child support agency is providing child support enforcement services, to issue a notice directing the child support payments to be made to the local child support agency, another county office, or the State Disbursement Unit. Existing law requires the local child support agency to serve this notice on the support obligor and obligee and to file the notice in the action in which the child support order was issued.
This bill would instead require a local child support agency to issue that notice directing that the child support payments be made to the local child support agency, another county office, or the State Disbursement Unit. This bill would also require the local child support agency to provide notice to the obligor,
obligee, and the court when it is no longer providing services in accordance with the Social Security Act. This bill would clarify that the local child support agency is required to comply with the Code of Civil Procedure when serving notice.
Existing law also authorizes the Department of Child Support Services or the local child support agency, upon request from the support enforcement agency of another state where a custodial party has either assigned the right to receive support or has requested support enforcement services, to issue a notice to change a payee on an issued support order. Existing law requires the notice of the administrative change of payee to be filed with the court in which the order was issued or last registered.
This bill would require the department or the local child support agency to issue a notice to change a payee on an issued support order.
Because the bill would require local agencies to perform additional duties, it would impose a state-mandated local program.
(9) Existing law permits a petitioner to seek a restraining order to protect against domestic violence or gun violence. Existing law requires, by July 1, 2023, a court or court facility that receives petitions for domestic violence restraining orders or gun violence restraining orders to permit those petitions to be filed electronically. Existing law also permits parties and witnesses to appear remotely at a hearing on a petition for a gun violence restraining order or domestic violence restraining order. Existing law requires the superior court of each county to provide telephone numbers for the public to call to obtain information regarding electronic filing and remote appearances, respectively. Existing law requires the superior court of each county to develop, and to post on its
internet website, local rules and instructions for electronic filing and remote appearances, respectively.
This bill, commencing July 1, 2023, would revise those provisions to instead require a court or court facility that receives petitions for domestic violence or gun violence restraining orders to permit the petitions and related filings to be submitted electronically and acted upon in accordance with specified procedures. The bill would require the request, notice of the court date, copies of the request to serve on the respondent, and the temporary restraining order, if granted, to be provided to the petitioner electronically, unless the petitioner notes that the documents will be picked up from the court or court facility, as specified. The bill would require information regarding electronic filing and access to the court’s self-help center to be displayed on the court’s homepage, as specified. The bill would retain the requirement for courts to develop and
post local rules and instructions only with respect to remote appearances, and would authorize the Judicial Council to adopt or amend rules and forms to implement these electronic filing provisions.
(10) Existing law, the Uniform Parentage Act, governs actions to determine a parent and child relationship, including when the pregnant person conceives through assisted reproduction. Existing law authorizes a local child support agency to secure child support and to establish paternity, among other duties. Existing law also provides that a hearing or trial under the act filed on or before January 1, 2023, may be held in closed court, and all papers and records, other than the final judgment, pertaining to the action or proceeding are subject to inspection only in exceptional cases upon an order of the court for good cause shown. If a hearing or trial is held in closed court under the act, existing law requires the papers and
records pertaining to that proceeding to be part of the permanent record of the court and subject to inspection by the parties to the action and their attorneys, pursuant to written authorization, and by a local child support agency, as specified. Existing law further authorizes an action to establish a parent-child relationship for a child conceived pursuant to an assisted reproduction agreement for gestational carriers to be filed before the child’s birth in a specified county, including where the child is anticipated to be born or the county where the intended parent or parents reside.
This bill would clarify that the provisions regarding a closed court action and the access to records under the act apply only to those actions filed before January 1, 2023. The bill would further provide that those closed court action and limited access to records provisions continue to apply to a child conceived through assisted reproduction or a child conceived pursuant to an
assisted reproduction agreement for gestational carriers, regardless of when the action was filed. The bill would require the Judicial Council to create a new form or modify an existing form, as it deems appropriate, to require a party regarding a child conceived by assisted reproduction or assisted reproduction for gestational carriers to designate the action or proceeding as being an assisted reproduction filing, as specified. The bill would continue to authorize the parties and their attorneys, and a local child support agency, to access the permanent record of the court regarding assisted reproduction actions, as specified.
(11) Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency under the direction of the Director of Civil Rights and sets forth its powers and duties relating to the enforcement of civil
rights laws with respect to housing and employment, including, among others, the authority to provide assistance to communities and persons in resolving disputes, disagreements, or difficulties relating to discriminatory practices based on specified characteristics that impair the rights of persons in those communities under the Constitution or laws of the United States or of this state.
Existing law limits the availability of those services to circumstances in which peaceful relations among the citizens of the community involved are threatened.
This bill would, instead, limit the availability of those services to circumstances in which peaceful relations among the persons of the community involved are threatened.
Existing law establishes the Civil Rights Council within the Civil Rights Department and gives the council certain functions, powers, and duties, including, among others,
to create or provide technical assistance to advisory agencies and conciliation councils to aid in effectuating the purposes of the FEHA, to empower them to study the problems of discrimination, to foster good will, cooperation, and conciliation among the groups and elements of the population of the state, and to make recommendations to the Civil Rights Council for the development of certain policies and procedures, as specified.
Existing law requires these advisory agencies and conciliation councils to be composed of representative citizens.
This bill would, instead, require those agencies and councils to be composed of representative persons.
The bill would make clarifying changes relating to the functions, powers, and duties of the council.
(12) Existing law, the FEHA, makes certain
discriminatory employment practices unlawful, and authorizes a person claiming to be aggrieved by an alleged unlawful practice to file a verified complaint with the Civil Rights Department. The FEHA requires the department to make an investigation in connection with a filed complaint alleging facts sufficient to constitute a violation of the FEHA, and requires the department to endeavor to eliminate the unlawful practice by conference, conciliation, and persuasion. If conference, conciliation, mediation, or persuasion fails and the department has required all parties to participate in a mandatory dispute resolution, as specified, the FEHA authorizes the director to bring a civil action in the name of the department on behalf of the person claiming to be aggrieved within a specified amount of time. Existing law establishes deadlines for bringing such a civil action, depending on the type of complaint. These deadlines are tolled during a mandatory or voluntary dispute resolution proceeding commencing on the
date the department refers the case to its dispute resolution division and ending on the date the department’s dispute resolution division closes its mediation record and returns the case to the division that referred it.
The FEHA requires the department, if such a civil action is not brought by the department within 150 days after the filing of a complaint, or if the department earlier determines that no civil action will be brought, to promptly notify, in writing, the person claiming to be aggrieved that the department shall issue, on request, the right-to-sue notice, or, if not requested, upon completion of its investigation, and not later than one year after the filing of the complaint. In the case of group or class complaints, the FEHA requires the department to issue a right-to-sue notice upon completion of its investigation, and not later than 2 years after the filing of the complaint.
This bill would toll these
right-to-sue notice deadlines during a mandatory or voluntary dispute resolution proceeding commencing on the date the department refers the case to its dispute resolution division and ending on the date the department’s dispute resolution division closes its mediation record and returns the case to the division that referred it.
(13) Existing law, the FEHA, prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, source of income, disability, veteran or military status, or genetic information, and provides that discrimination in housing through a restrictive covenant includes the existence of a restrictive covenant, regardless of whether accompanied by a statement that the covenant is repealed or void. Existing law also provides that a provision in any deed of real property in
California that purports to restrict the right of any person to sell, lease, rent, use, or occupy the property to persons having the characteristics specified above by providing for payment of a penalty, forfeiture, reverter, or otherwise, is void, except as specified.
Existing law authorizes a person who holds an ownership interest of record in property that they believe is the subject of an unlawfully restrictive covenant, as specified, to record a Restrictive Covenant Modification, which is required to include a copy of the original document with the illegal language stricken.
Existing law, subject to authorization from the county’s board of supervisors, authorizes a county recorder to impose a fee of $2 to be paid at the time of the recording of every real estate instrument, paper, or notice required or permitted by law to be recorded for the purpose of funding the restrictive covenant programs, except as specified.
This bill would correct erroneous cross-references in these provisions and make other nonsubstantive changes.
(14) Existing law requires the California Commission on Disability Access to report to the Legislature its ongoing efforts, to implement specified law, annually, on or before January 31. Existing law also requires the commission to make an annual report to the Legislature of tabulated data relating to the various types of construction-related physical access violations alleged in demand letters and complaints by January 31 of each year.
This bill would instead require these reports to be made annually by March 31.
(15) Existing law, the Guardianship-Conservatorship Law, generally establishes the standards and procedures for the appointment and
termination of an appointment for a guardian or conservator of a person, an estate, or both. Existing law requires the court to appoint the public defender or private counsel to represent interests of a conservatee, proposed conservatee, or person alleged to lack legal capacity who is unable to retain legal counsel and requests the appointment of legal counsel. Existing law gives the proposed conservatee the right to choose and be represented by legal counsel and the right to have the court appoint legal counsel if the person is unable to retain legal counsel.
This bill would require the court to appoint legal counsel if the conservatee, proposed conservatee, or person alleged to lack legal capacity is not represented by legal counsel and does not plan to retain legal counsel. The bill would give the proposed conservatee the right to have the court appoint legal counsel if the person is not otherwise represented by legal counsel.
(16) Existing law specifies the information required on the form petitioning for the appointment of a conservator, including the location of the proposed conservatee’s residence and alternatives to conservatorship considered by the petitioner or proposed conservator and reasons why those alternatives are not available.
This bill would require the petition to include the location and nature of the proposed conservatee’s residence and why the considered alternatives to conservatorship were not suitable.
(17) Existing law establishes procedures for the creation, modification, and termination of a trust, and regulates the administration of trusts by trustees on behalf of beneficiaries. Existing law generally authorizes the revocation of a trust when the person holding the power to revoke the trust is competent. Existing law
provides that if no person holding the power to revoke the trust is competent during the time that a trust is revocable, the trustee is required to provide specified notice to each beneficiary within 60 days of obtaining information establishing the incompetency of the last person with the power to revoke the trust. Existing law authorizes the trustee to rely on specified methods to establish incompetency.
This bill would clarify that the trustee is required to provide the above-described notice within 60 days of receiving information establishing the incompetency of the last person with the power to revoke the trust, and would provide that incompetency may be established by specified methods.
(18) Existing law authorizes the juvenile court to adjudge a child to be a dependent child of the court or a minor to be a ward of the court under specified circumstances, including, among
others, there is a substantial risk that the child will suffer serious physical harm inflicted nonaccidentally. Existing law requires the juvenile court in these proceedings to inquire whether a child is or may be an Indian child, and, if so, the federal Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 requires, among other things, the notification of the proceedings to the Indian child’s tribe. Existing law requires the Judicial Council to adopt rules of court to allow for telephonic or other remote appearance options by an Indian child’s tribe in these proceedings. Existing law prohibits telephonic or other computerized remote access for court appearances from being subject to fees.
This bill would make a clarifying change regarding the prohibition on fees being charged for telephonic or other computerized remote access for court appearances.
(19) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12931 of the Government Code proposed by SB 523 to be operative only if this bill and SB 523 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
(20) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1821 of the Probate Code proposed by AB 1663 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1663 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
(21) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.