Rental Board Authorizes Tenants to Withhold From Rent if Landlord Disregarded Required Rate Roll Back

The Pasadena Rental Housing Board (PRHB) on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution that would authorize tenants to withhold from rent payments if their landlords failed to roll back rates to the base rent as required by the Measure H Rent Control Charter Amendment.

The new regulations contained in the adopted resolution will take effect this September 1. 

Measure H provided that upon the effective date of the Charter Amendment, “no landlord shall charge rent for a covered rental unit in an amount that exceeds the sum of the base rent plus any lawful rent increases.” 

The Charter Amendment went into effect in December 22, 2022 but eight months after the effectivity, Rental Housing Board Members said they are still receiving reports that some landlords have not rolled back their rents. 

Goldfarb Lipman’s Nazanin Salehi, General Counsel to the Board, said the withholding amount would either be 100% of the total monthly rent or 100% of the portion of the rent that is being overcharged plus a total amount that the tenant has overpaid since the effective date of the charter amendment, whichever is less. 

The proposed regulations provide that the landlords cannot charge late fees or penalties to a tenant for withholding rent that they are being overcharged.

It requires the tenant to first send their landlord a “Request for Rent Rollback” form which they can get from the Pasadena Rental Housing Board. Their landlord will be provided 10 days to respond to the request for roll back and provide any refund of the overpaid amount. 

Salehi said if the landlord does not respond within 10 days, the tenant may send a “Notice of Rent Withholding” on a form created by the PRHB. Upon notice of the rent withholding, the tenant may begin withholding rent. 

The tenant is required to file copies of both the “Request of Rent Rollback” and “Notice of Rent Withholding” with the Rental Housing Board within five days after the service of the “Notice of Rent Withholding” or after the first payment of Rent is withheld, whichever is later.

Counsel to the Board Karen Tiedemann said this is the optimal system the Board can implement as of now, since it has yet to create a rent registry and hire staff. 

“This is intended to be an interim regulation until we have both hearing officers and we have a registry in place. And to provide a self-help remedy for tenants, because at this moment in time that’s the best we can do.”