Pasadena Considers Standards for Rent Cuts When Landlords Fail to Maintain Properties

Pasadena’s Rental Housing Board will consider establishing clear financial guidelines Thursday evening for how much rent should be reduced when landlords fail to maintain their properties or cut essential services.

The proposed valuation system would give tenants and hearing officers specific dollar ranges to reference when determining rent reductions for common problems like broken plumbing, pest infestations, damaged flooring, or loss of parking spaces.

Under the draft guidelines being presented at Thursday’s 6 p.m. meeting at City Hall, tenants could seek monthly rent reductions ranging from $10 to $455 depending on the severity and type of maintenance issue. For example, serious pest infestations or substantial holes in walls could warrant rent cuts of $18 to $228 per month, while defective plumbing could justify reductions up to $455 monthly.

The move comes as Pasadena implements its voter-approved rent control measure, known as Measure H, which passed in November 2022. The charter amendment gave the Rental Housing Board authority to create rules for rent stabilization and tenant protections, including the ability for renters to petition for rent reductions when landlords fail to maintain habitable conditions.

Currently, tenants can file individual petitions seeking rent adjustments for uninhabitable conditions or reduced services, but they must estimate the financial impact themselves and justify their calculations. The proposed guidelines would standardize this process by providing reference ranges based on systems already used in Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

“The decrease ranges are intended to be remedial in nature and are not designed to provide a precise correlation between the rental value of particular deteriorated conditions,” according to the Santa Monica model that the Pasadena Rent Stabilization Department is recommending as a template.

The guidelines would cover dozens of specific problems, from major issues like unsafe electrical wiring ($18-$338 monthly reduction) and insufficient hot water ($18-$286) to smaller problems like broken window screens ($10-$59) or missing caulking ($10-$39).

For service reductions like loss of parking, storage, or recreational facilities, the proposed system includes separate dollar ranges. Loss of parking could justify rent cuts of $36 to $715 per month, while loss of laundry facilities could warrant $36 to $228 in monthly reductions.

The guidelines also account for construction-related disruptions, with percentage-based reductions for issues like noise and dust (10-75% of monthly rent) or safety hazards that could warrant rent cuts of up to 100% in extreme cases.

The Rent Stabilization Department is recommending that the board establish these valuation guidelines as a reference tool for hearing officers, who would still consider individual circumstances when making final determinations.

The proposed ranges would be automatically adjusted every two years to account for inflation and changing market conditions, ensuring they remain relevant as rental costs evolve.

Pasadena’s rent control system, which took effect in December 2022, covers most rental properties in the city and includes both rent stabilization and just-cause eviction protections. The Rental Housing Board has been steadily implementing the various components of the voter-approved measure over the past two years.

Thursday’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Council Chamber at City Hall.