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for renters to learn about the funds made available and then to seek them out. Short of putting a giant billboard in front of apartment buildings, the efforts to educate tenants on their rights have been colossal. There has been an enormous outreach and the availability of assistance is embedded in statutorily required notices themselves.
For our part, we have urged our community time and time again to work alongside tenants to participate in rent relief programs, even recommending a visit to the rental unit with an iPad or laptop in hand to help renters complete an application.
WHERE WE GO FROM HERE
Rental housing providers are admonished to stay abreast of new requirements of AB 2179, including new documentation and disclosures. As we wade through the new law and formulate guidance, now is the time for landlords and property managers to get their financial houses in order by documenting when rent became due and during what time periods, as well as putting together a ledger of what rent was paid.
It is also prudent to take inventory of any notices sent throughout the lifetime of the tenancy.
Just to make sure that everyone knows the law has teeth, Attorney General Bonta chimes in and sends reminders
California’s Attorney General has issued a stern warning to landlords and their attorneys that it is unacceptable to file evictions against tenants who have applied for rental assistance. Bornstein Law was in receipt of 90-some letters sent to landlord attorneys and, as we told Mercury News, our office felt a bit insulted that we have to be reminded of our obligations to follow the law.
In a press release, Attorney General Rob Bonta said that his office has “reason to believe that some landlords and their attorneys may be filing false declarations to push hardworking Californians out of their homes,” going on to say that such actions are illegal and only aggravate the suffering of families already struggling with high housing costs.
It sounds like a script out of a Star Wars movie, but the Attorney General’s office has assembled a “strike force” to ensure that tenants are not improperly displaced. We’ve heard this Jedi term once before when a strike force was established to enforce laws that told local governments to get out of the way of new housing development.
While there will always be some bad actors, our office has always been committed to providing sound counsel for landlords to comply with the law, and not get around it. Along with our colleagues from other firms, we resent the innuendo that somehow attorneys are attempting to sidestep the law. This type of messaging seems politically motivated and beneath the Attorney General, the state’s top law enforcement official.
We will have more guidance soon on how to comply with the newly-minted bill of AB 2179 and while we say, “argh, we have to do this again,” we are confident that this is the last time we express our angst as we soon near the time when managing landlord-tenant relationships return to how it was before the pandemic.
Until then, please be careful. Landlords have an intergalactic target on their backs.
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CS-18 MAY 2022 - APARTMENT MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE