Some Pasadena Tenants Still Battling Landlords Over Rent Rollback

In correspondence to the Pasadena Housing Renal Board, multiple local tenants said that their landlords have refused to roll back their rent to the May 2021 level mandated by Measure H.

“I am a renter here in Pasadena. I have lived here for 8 years. The property where I live is subject to the protections of measure H,” according to one tenant identified as Joseph.

According to Joseph, the management company and landlord of the property where he lives have refused to honor the rollback.”

Tenants living in the building are paying the rollback amount, on the management company’s payment portal.

But late fees and “past due” rent continues to accrue.

“They are even trying to implement a rental increase based off of the non-rollback rent.”

The Pasadena Rental Housing Board was scheduled to vote Wednesday on a resolution that would allow tenants to withhold paying rent if their Landlord has failed to roll back the rent rate to the base rent price in May 2021.

“Members of the Rent Board have heard from many tenants in the community that their landlord has refused to roll back their rent to the new ‘base rent’ in keeping with Article XVIII of the Pasadena City Charter (Measure H),” Board Chair Ryan Bell told Pasadena Now earlier this week. “Many tenants say they have been overpaying their rent for eight months for fear of eviction, even though they have the legal right to a lower rent.”

“Landlords who refuse to comply with the base rent are in violation of the law. The board is considering an action to create a mechanism for tenants to withhold the rent they have overpaid and have protections against retaliatory eviction notices.”

The proposed regulations would allow the tenant to withhold the lesser of the total monthly rent for the covered rental unit or the sum of the rent that is being overcharged plus the total amount the tenant has overpaid since the effective date of the charter amendment.

The resolution would go into effect next week on on September 1.

“A close relative in Pasadena has been overcharged on her rent by $300 per month since January 1, 2023 because her landlord has not honored the rent rollback in Measure H,” wrote Gail Gallaher. “She sent him a letter informing him of the rent rollback in January 2023, including citing the Measure that was already in effect. She also followed up afterwards. He still has not rolled back the rent. She has been nervous to continue to talk with him about the rent rollback out of worry about what he might do. In all, she has been overcharged $2400 so far this year – nearly a full month’s rent.”

Enforcement of the rollback has been delayed as the rental board was formed, and continues to get up to speed.

However, the rollback has been law since Dec. 22 which could leave some landlords vulnerable to court action.

After the measure passed, the California Apartment Association lost a lawsuit to block the initiative. The group has taken steps to appeal the judge’s decision, but on Wednesday a spokesperson for the CAA told Pasadena Now that there was nothing new to report when asked about court documents and a hearing date.

“My landlord is currently still not following Measure H, despite it’s legal activation in December 2022. It is wildly stressful. It should not be my job to have to do hours and hours and hours worth of research, spend days contacting people, asking questions, figuring out amounts, etc,” wrote Trystan Lynn.

“I’m not the one being paid to do this, they are the ones profiting and not even working. Not to mention, doing that takes a huge toll on not only physical time out of what I actually need to be doing in my life, but a hard hit to mental as well.

“It is completely terrifying to have to approach somebody to assert my own basic rights to housing to someone who basically has the power to tell me to GTFO at any moment for any reason,” wrote Trystan Lynn.

Lynn has spent hours doing research, contacting people and figuring out the overpay. Lynn said the work has taken a huge toll and led to a hard mental hit.

“Uprooting your life sucks. You must take time off work to pack, you must rent a storage unit, you must spend a long, long time looking for housing, you spend hundreds of dollars on application fees, you likely are downsizing, and likely end up paying more, you are leaving your neighborhood, your friends, your family, your job, your schools, you are taking even more time off of work to unpack, or even look for a new job, etc.

“We have a right to stable, affordable, healthy housing.”