Rental Housing Board Beefs Up City’s Tenant Protection Ordinance for No-fault Evictions, Excessive Rent Increases

The Pasadena Rental Housing Board (PRHB) adopted a resolution Wednesday which requires landlords to provide renters relocation assistance and services if they are displaced by no-fault evictions and excessive rent increases.

Since 2017, Pasadena has had in place a Tenant Protection Ordinance, which protects low-income Pasadena tenants from unfair evictions by requiring landlords to pay monetary relocation and moving expense allowances to tenants evicted for no fault of their own. 

The new regulations adopted by the PRHB provide additional monetary assistance for displaced tenants, beyond what they are entitled to receive under the city ordinance. 

“Our regulations today would be stronger than the one that already exists,” said Chair Ryan Bell. “There is an income qualification on the Tenant Protection Ordinance so not every tenant will get relocation assistance under the current law that the city has.” 

Bell said unlike the existing ordinance, the new regulations adopted by PRHB will apply to all tenants, no matter what their income. 

The new regulations, which will be effective immediately, apply to tenants evicted due to necessary repairs, owner move-in, the permanent withdrawal of the unit from the rental market, or government order. Tenants who are displaced due to their inability to pay excessive rent increases are also covered by the regulations.

According to the resolution, the relocation assistance is the sum of Base Relocation Payment, which will be based on the length of stay and the Fair Market Rent (FMR), as well as the Moving Expense Allowance.

“For a tenant who has resided in their unit between zero and three years, the Base Relocation Payment would be three months of fair market rent,” Nazanin Salehi from law firm Goldfarb & Lipman said. 

For tenants who have been staying at their unit for three years and one day up to 10 years, the Base Relocation Payment would be four months FMR, and for anyone who has been in their unit for 10 or more years, the Base Relocation Payment is five months FMR.

Landlords are also required to pay an additional payment of three times the FMR for Special Circumstances Households or households with at least one member who is a senior, disabled, terminally ill, or a minor child. 

The Moving Expense Allowance is the same as the one provided in the city’s Tenant Protection Ordinance. 

The ordinance provides that from September 27, 2023, through September 30, 2024, the Moving Expense Allowance for eligible tenant households is at $1,536. 

The allowance for Special Circumstances Household under the Tenant Protection Ordinance is at $4,634.

In addition to the relocation assistance, landlords are required to provide a full refund of the tenant’s security deposit, minus funds that may be necessary to repair tenant’s intentional or negligent damage to the unit. 

Landlords must also provide the tenant unlimited access to a rental agency subscription.

The landlord must file a notice of intent with the PRHB at least 30 days before serving the tenant with a notice of termination of tenancy in order to allow sufficient time for the PRHB to prepare the forms and notices that need to go to the eligible tenant household. 

The PRHB will email the form to the tenant within 15 days. The eligible tenant household must fill out the form and return it to the board. 

The first Relocation Assistance payment, which must be of at least 50 percent of the total Relocation Assistance amount, must be made within 10 days of service of the notice of termination of tenancy. The Landlord may either pay the remaining balance of the Relocation Assistance into an escrow account no later than 28 days prior to the expiration of the termination notice to be disbursed upon certification of the eligible tenant household’s vacation of the unit or pay the remaining balance directly to the Eligible Tenant Household no later than 28 days prior to the expiration of the termination notice.

A total of eight members voted in favor of the resolution, two members of PRHB voted against and one abstained from voting after expressing reservations due to the impact of the new regulations on small landlords. 

“We have to still be just and equitable for everybody and we have to find a way to make this work for mom and pop landlords,” said Vice Chair Brandon Lamar, who abstained from the voting. “That is something we have to discuss — what is the definition of mom and pop landlords.” 

Members of the PRHB agreed to explore programs for small landlords who would be burdened by the new set of regulations in the future.