The Pasadena Rental Housing Board will vote Thursday on three resolutions that would change how Pasadena tenants and landlords petition to raise or lower rents, how those petitions are heard and how the Board handles appeals.
One resolution would end the requirement that parties attend a prehearing settlement conference before a hearing on a petition to raise rent.
Chapter 5 now requires parties to an individual rent adjustment petition to meet with a settlement conference facilitator. The only available definition of an individual rent adjustment is in Section 1803(l) of the Pasadena City Charter, so the Rent Stabilization Department’s Hearing Division has held the conferences for every petition, whether to raise or lower rent.
Conferences on upward adjustment petitions cannot produce a settlement, staff reported, because hearing officers cannot allow a rent above the Annual General Adjustment. A Board majority indicated support July 16 for limiting the requirement to downward adjustment petitions. A companion resolution would strike “settlement” from Chapter 7, so tenants would be encouraged to raise hardship at a prehearing conference instead.
A third resolution would make four changes to Chapter 6, beginning with postponement procedures for Board appeal hearings, which the regulations lack. The department could grant a written request received at least seven calendar days before a hearing for good cause when postponement serves the interests of justice. The Board directed July 16 that staff decide. Illness, travel beyond the Greater Los Angeles area and other circumstances making attendance impractical would qualify for one postponement. A medical emergency or similar significant conflict could be allowed inside that window if it was unforeseen and the party gives immediate notice with reasonable documentation.
Parties would have to sign a time waiver form when a postponement or rescheduling pushes a hearing past Chapter 6’s 60-day deadlines.
AB 628, signed in October 2025, added a working stove and refrigerator to California’s minimum habitability standards under Civil Code Section 1941.1. Hearing officers could find a unit untenantable based on those conditions, in addition to valuation guidelines.
The Board could rehear an appeal from scratch only upon finding egregious circumstances requiring it to rectify a manifest injustice, with 14 days’ written notice.
Adoption is not anticipated to affect the budget of the Board or the department, according to the report by Helen Morales, executive director of the Rent Stabilization Department, and Stacey Haro, senior hearing officer.
The Board meets at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Council Chamber at Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave., Room S249. Information: (626) 744-7999 or https://www.cityofpasadena.
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