Page 76 - AAGLA-MAY 2022

Member Update
Here’s What Tenant Rights Groups Are Saying About AProposed Restrictions on the Use of the Ellis Act
Executive Director, Daniel Yukelson Responds to Tenant Propaganda
ssembly Bill 854 (A.B. 854), proposed available. Penalties are actual damages, special damages of by Democratic, Northern California not less than $2,000 in addition to attorneys’ fees.
Assembly Member, Alex Lee, was an attempt to strip rental property owners of their rights to leave the rental housing business, even when YOU may be losing money! A.B. 854 was another re-treaded
attack on California’s Ellis Act, and fortunately, through our Association’s strong lobbying efforts, Assembly Bill 854 failed on the Assembly floor when it was not even considered for a vote.
But wait, Assembly Member Lee is back with another proposal that would place restrictions on the use of the Ellis Act...twice in one year! Is this the definition of insanity? Keep trying the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result? Well, it appears that way. Under Assembly Member Lee’s latest Trojan Horse approach, he is back again stripping away the rights of property owners with Assembly Bill 2050 (A.B. 2050), which if passed and eventually signed by the Governor, it could become State Law compelling YOU to continue offering housing for rent or lease no matter the circumstances.
A.B. 2050, like its failed predecessor A.B. 854, seeks to prohibit filing a notice of an intent to withdraw a rental property that is under rent control, from recovering possession of rental units, or from even threatening to do so, unless all the owners have owed the property for at least 5 continuous years or have withdrawn another rental property from the rental market or recovered possession of rental units with the intention of withdrawing such units within the past ten (10) years. This proposed bill would also require rental property owners to notify the local jurisdiction of an intention to withdraw the property from rent or lease and to identify each person or entity having an ownership interest in the property, which information would be made publicly
The Ellis Act is a 1985 California state law that allows landlords to evict residential tenants to “go out of the rental business” despite any desires by local governments to compel them to continue providing rental housing. The Ellis Act was passed in response to the California Supreme Court’s decision in Nash vs. City of Santa Monica that held that municipalities could not prevent landlords from evicting their tenants to “go out of business” in order to withdraw their property from the rental market. Only in California do we need a law to allow us to go out business in a money-losing business enterprise!
Tenant advocate group, Housing Now, has published various, so-called “myths” about A.B. 854 and have provided responses to each such “myth” which they characterized as “facts” but which we shall call “tenant propaganda” because we will always call things as they are!
1. MYTH: “A.B. 2050 forces property owners to stay in business even when they can no longer afford to do so. In some situations, A.B. 2050 would prevent an owner from ever moving into their own unit.”
TENANT PROPOGANDA: “Owner move-in evictions are a just cause eviction under Assembly Bill 1482 and are not affected by A.B. 2050. Property owners are still able to sell their building without using the Ellis Act to evict long-term tenants. A.B. 2050 does not force property owners to stay in business, it prevents speculators from evicting tenants without ever even being in the rental business.”
REALITY: Owner “move-in” has nothing to do with this because when using the Ellis Act, owners are taking their
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MAY 2022 • WWW.AAGLA.ORG