California’s new habitability requirements now require landlords, for leases entered into as of Jan. 1, to provide and maintain a working stove and refrigerator in most rental units — an expansion the Pasadena Rental Housing Board signaled could affect local hearing-officer standards and rent-adjustment petitions.
Board members pressed the Board’s attorney on how the rule applies to month-to-month tenancies and how tenants would enforce it, including whether complaints go through City code enforcement or rent-board processes.
The new state law, Assembly Bill 628, “requires newly as of this law that every rental unit have a stove and a refrigerator provided by the landlord and maintained in good working order,” Board attorney Allyssa B. Martinez told members during a legislative update at the Board’s Feb. 19 meeting. She said the statute goes further by requiring that the appliances be “not subject to recall.”
Martinez told the Board the requirement “adds to whether or not a unit is habitable” and could warrant changes to the Board’s Chapter 6 evaluation guidelines that guide hearing officers.
Board members focused on two immediate, practical questions: how the rule applies to month-to-month tenancies and where tenants turn when an owner does not fix or replace an appliance.
Board member Ryan Bell asked whether month-to-month tenancies are “renewed every month” for purposes of the statute’s applicability, or whether it applies only when parties execute a new lease. Martinez said the statute “does not get that granular,” and said the first people to deal with the question could be hearing officers or housing counselors.
Bell also asked whether a broken landlord-provided refrigerator, paired with an unresponsive landlord, becomes a code-enforcement issue or something a tenant would bring through the rent board’s processes.
“They could take it to code enforcement,” Martinez said. She also said a tenant could potentially explore both paths.
During the discussion, a board member sought clarification that the refrigerator and stove do not have to be new, but must be in good working order.
Martinez said the law applies to leases “entered into” as of Jan. 1 of this year and excludes certain housing types, including single room occupancy units, assisted living, and residential hotels, among others she grouped as “and the like.” She said the measure amends Civil Code section 1940.1.1.
While the state rule makes the landlord’s duty affirmative, Martinez said the law also contemplates a tenant opting out of having the landlord supply a refrigerator. She said a lease starting Jan. 1 onward would have to include language “in substantially this form” explaining the right and the tenant’s election to bring their own refrigerator, along with an option for the tenant to later reverse course by giving 30 days’ notice that they no longer wish to have their own refrigerator. Martinez said, at the end of that 30-day notice, “the landlord must install a refrigerator in good working order.” She also said the landlord is not responsible for maintaining a refrigerator the tenant provides.
Martinez said landlords cannot condition a tenancy on the tenant providing a refrigerator, describing the landlord’s duty as affirmative under state law.
The statute also addresses recalls, Martinez said. If a stove or refrigerator is “subject to recall,” she said, the law requires the issue be addressed within 30 days of the landlord receiving notice that it is subject to recall, framing it as a safety provision.
Board members raised questions about how the new duty might be reflected in rent-board decisions, including rent reductions tied to habitability and possible landlord requests for higher rents tied to new compliance costs.
Alternate board member Peter Dreier said the requirement is now part of habitability and said the Apartment Owners Association had lobbied against it. He said the Board would eventually need to decide how hearing officers quantify the issue “in terms of a rent decrease,” and he raised concerns about how the Board would know whether compliance occurred if hearing officers do not inspect properties and tenants do not raise the issue.
A board member asked whether landlords could seek an upward rent adjustment to cover the cost of supplying appliances they were not previously required to provide. A staff member said those costs can be included in an upward application, but said it was not clear whether that factor alone would satisfy the broader analysis used in such cases.
Board members also debated practical questions about stove replacement, including whether a landlord could switch from gas to electric. The vice chair said that moving to an electric stove can raise building-permit issues and practical installation questions, including electrical requirements such as outlet amperage, and said those questions were not ones the Board could fully answer on the spot.
In a related exchange, members questioned what qualifies as a “stove,” discussing whether it includes an oven and contrasting it with options such as griddles or “glorified hot plates.” The chair said staff was looking up what the term means under the statute, including whether “stove” includes a working oven.
The Pasadena Rental Housing Board met Feb. 19 in the Council Chamber at Pasadena City Hall.
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