Rental Housing Board Approves Proposed Just Cause Eviction Policies

The Pasadena Rental Housing Board (PRHB) has approved proposed just cause eviction policies related to the implementation of the Measure H rent control charter amendment. 

A total of nine Board members voted in favor while two members voted against the regulations at the Board meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 15. 

Measure H Charter Amendment prohibits a landlord from taking action to terminate a tenancy unless one of the enumerated “just cause” conditions exist. Included among the just cause conditions are: necessary and substantial repairs; owner move-in; and government order.

Nazanin Salehi, General Counsel to the Board said these are not the only just causes that are provided for in the Measure H Charter Amendment. “There are a number of other ones including non-payment of rent, nuisance, criminal activity but the focus of the regulation is on the three just causes,” she told Board members.  

According to the regulations, those who will evict tenants based on necessary and substantial repairs must provide tenants being displaced with both a right of first refusal to a comparable unit owned by the landlord and a right of return to the unit once the repairs are completed.

A landlord may evict the tenant if the landlord or a qualifying relative wants to move into a unit. The landlord must be a natural person with at least 50% recorded ownership interest in the rental unit.

Salehi said the owner move in must be done in good faith and the charter amendment provides that no eviction is permitted if the landlord or the qualifying relative such as the landlord’s spouse, domestic partner, children, grandchildren, parents or grandparents are already occupying a comparable unit.

A landlord cannot evict on the basis of the owner move-in if the tenant has resided in the unit for at least five years and the tenant is either elderly, disabled or terminally ill.

An owner who will evict tenants based on owner move-in condition is required to move into the property within 60 days after the tenant moves out. They must occupy the unit for at least 36 months.

At the meeting, the Board decided that the landlord is not acting in good faith if the landlord or the qualifying relative for whom a tenant has been evicted does not intend to move into the rental unit within 60 days after the tenant vacated the unit or if the owner or qualifying relative does not intend to occupy the rental unit for a minimum of 36 months. 

If the landlord or the qualifying relative fails to comply with these occupancy requirements, the landlord must reoffer the rental unit to the displaced tenant at the same rent the tenant was paying at the time they vacated the unit and must pay the tenant’s moving expenses.

Those landlords who will evict tenants based on government order to vacate the property must also offer the tenant both a right of first refusal to a comparable unit owned by the landlord and a right of return to the same unit after the unit has been found to be in compliance with the government order.