O1859
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City Council Meeting 7-30-96
Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER 1859 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF SANTA MONICA AMENDING CHAPTER 4.56 OF THE
SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL CODE RELATING TO
TENANT HARASSMENT AND DECLARING THE
PRESENCE OF AN EMERGENCY
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES ORDAIN AS
FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1: Findings and Purpose. The city Council finds and
declares:
(a) At its meeting of July 23, 1996, the city Council heard
testimony from numerous City residents regarding instances of
tenant harassment occurring in the City.
These residents
testified that instances of tenant harassment have been increasing
in the City since the passage of AB 1164 -- the statewide vacancy
decontrol measure. They also testified that acts of harassment
threaten tenants' well-being, their quiet enjoyment of their units,
and the stability of the community. Additionally, they expressed
concern that tenant harassment would continue to increase in
magnitude.
(b) statistical information supplied by the Rent Control
Board staff shows that since the passage of AB 1164, controlled
rental units are being vacated at SUbstantially higher rates.
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(c) Individual reports of tenant harassment and statistical
information on vacancy rates tend to show that the existing Tenant
Harassment Ordinance, Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.56.010
et seq., does not offer an adequate mechanism to address and
prevent acts of tenant harassment.
(d) It is therefore necessary to amend the existing ordinance
to modify those provisions of the ordinance which inhibit effective
enforcement and to broaden the scope of the ordinance's
prohibitions. For the reasons set forth above, there exists a
current and immediate threat to the public health, safety, peace,
or welfare.
SECTION 2. Chapter 4.56 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is
amended to read as follows:
4.56.010 Definitions.
The following words or phrases as used in this
Chapter shall have the following meanings:
(a) Fraud. Intentional misrepresentation, deceit or
concealment of a material fact.
(b) Housinq Service. Housing services include, but
are not limited to, hot and cold water, heat,
electrici ty, gas, refrigeration, elevator service, window
shades and screens, storage, kitchen, bath and laundry
facilities and privileges, janitor services, refuse
removal, furnishings, telephone, parking, effective
waterproofing and weather protection, painting, and any
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other benefit, privilege or facility that has been
provided by the landlord to the tenant wi th use or
occupancy of any rental housing unit. Services to a
rental housing unit shall include a proportionate part of
services provided to common facilities of the building in
which the rental housing unit is contained.
(c) Landlord. An owner, lessor, sublessor, or any
other person entitled to receive rent for the use and
occupancy of any rental housing unit, or an agent,
representative or successor of any of the foregoing.
(d) Malice. An intent to vex, annoy, or injure
another person.
(e) Rental Housing Agreement. An agreement, oral or
written or implied, between a landlord and tenant for use
or occupancy of a rental housing unit and for housing
services.
(f) Rental Housing unit. A housing unit in the city
of Santa Monica that constitutes a controlled rental unit
pursuant to City Charter Section 1800 et seq. including
a room in a single family home, hotel or motel,
roominghouse or apartment, single family home, mobile
home or mobile home space, trailer or trailer space.
(g) Tenant. A tenant, subtenant, lessee, sublessee
or any other person entitled under the terms of a rental
housing agreement to the use or occupancy of any rental
housing unit.
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4.56.020 prohi~ition.
No landlord shall, with respect to property used as
a rental housing unit under any rental housing agreement
or other tenancy or estate at will, however created, do
any of the following with malice:
(a) Interrupt or terminate
required by contract or by state,
housing, health or safety laws.
(b) Fail to perform repairs and maintenance
required by contract or by state, county, or local
housing, health or safety laws.
(c) Fail to exercise due diligence in completing
repairs and maintenance once undertaken.
(d) Abuse the landlord's right of access into a
rental housing unit as that right is specified in
California civil Code Section 1954.
(e) Abuse the tenant with words which are offensive
and inherently likely to provoke an immediate violent
reaction.
housing
county,
services
or local
(f) Seek to entice or entice a tenant to vacate a
rental housing unit through fraud.
(g) Threaten the tenant, by word or gesture, with
physical harm.
(h) Violate any law which prohibits discrimination
based on race, gender, sexual preference, sexual
orientation, ethnic background, nationality, religion,
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age, parenthood, marriage, pregnancy, disability, AIDS,
or occupancy by a minor child.
(i) Take action to terminate any tenancy including
service of any notice to quit or other eviction notice or
bring any action to recover possession of a rental
housing unit based upon facts which the landlord has no
reasonable cause to believe to be true or upon a legal
theory which is untenable under the facts known to the
landlord.
This subsection shall not apply to any attorney who
in good faith initiates legal proceedings against a
tenant on behalf of a landlord to recover possession of
a rental housing unit.
(j) Interfere with a tenant's right to quiet use
and enjoYment of a rental housing unit as that right is
defined by California law.
4.56.030 Lawful evictions.
Nothing in this Section shall be construed as to
prevent the lawful eviction of a tenant by appropriate
legal means nor shall anything in this Section apply to
occupancies defined by sUbdivision (b) of Civil Code
section 1940.
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4.56.040 Enforcement and penalties.
(a) Criminal Penalty. Any person who is convicted
of violating this Chapter shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a
fine of not greater than five hundred dollars or by
imprisonment in the County Jail for not more than six
months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(b) civil Action. Any person, including the city of
Santa Monica, may enforce the provisions of this Chapter
by means of a civil action. A violation of this Chapter
may be asserted as an affirmative defense in an unlawful
detainer action.
(c) Injunction. Any person who commits an act,
proposes to commit an act, or engages in any pattern and
practice which violates Section 4.56.020 may be enjoined
therefrom by any court of competent jurisdiction. An
action for inunction under this subsection may be brought
by any aggrieved person, by the City Attorney, or by any
person or entity who will fairly and adequately represent
the interest of the protected class.
(d) Penalties. Any person who violates or aids or
incites another person to violate the provisions of this
Chapter is liable for each and every such offense for the
actual damages suffered by any aggrieved party or for
statutory damages in the sum of Five Hundred Dollars and
Zero Cents ($500.00), whichever is greater, and shall be
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liable for such attorney I s fees and costs as may be
determined by the court in addition thereto. The court
may also award puni ti ve damages in a proper case as
defined by civil Code Section 3294.
(e) Nonexclusive Remedies and penalties. The
remedies provided in this Chapter are not exclusive, and
nothing in this Chapter shall preclude any person from
seeking any other remedies , penalties or procedures
provided by law.
SECTION 3. This Ordinance is declared to be an urgency
measure adopted pursuant to the provisions of Section 615 of the
Santa Monica city Charter. It is necessary for preserving the
public health, safety, peace, or welfare, and the need for its
adoption is set forth in the Findings and Purpose Section above.
SECTION 4. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code
or appendices thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this
Ordinance, to the extent of such inconsistencies and no further, is
hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary to effect the
provisions of this Ordinance.
SECTION 5. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or
phrase of this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or
unconstitutional by a decision of any court of competent
jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the
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remaining portions of this Ordinance.
The City Council hereby
declares that it would have passed this Ordinance and each and
every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not declared
invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion
of the ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or
unconstitutional.
SECTION 6.
The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall
attest to the passage of this Ordinance.
The city Clerk shall
cause the same to be published once in the official newspaper
within 15 days after its adoption.
This Ordinance shall become
effective upon its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
~~
MARSHA J~S MOUTRIE
City Attorney
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Mayor
State ofCabfoffim )
County of Los Angeles) 5S
CIty of Santa Maruca )
I, Mana M Stewart, CIty Clerk of the CIty of Santa Moruca, do hereby certIfy that the foregomg
OrdInance No 1859 (CCS) had Its first readIng on July 3D. 1996. and had Its second readmg on
July 30. 1996 and was passed by the follOWIng vote
Ayes
CouncIl members
Abdo. Ebner, Genser, Greenberg. Holbrook, O'Connor.
RosensteIn
Noes
CouncIl members
None
Abstam
Councll members
None
Absent
CounCIl members
None
ATTEST
'-- - .. "-.u
CIty Clerk
~
I,
.
PROOF O' PUBLIA110N
(2015.S C.C. PJ
STATE OF CALIFORNIA,
County of Los Angeles,
I am a citizen of the United States and a
resident of the County aforesaid; I am over
the age of eighteen years, and not a party to
or interested in the above-entitled matter, I
am the principal clerk of the printer of the
,.................I..........~......................
THE OUTLOOK
...................~.........I......................
a newspaper of general circulation. printed
and published .Q.~.I.\-X. fc;~9.f.:.IT .~J!1f.QAX.
in the City of .~:rA."9HJ~^............
County of Los Angeles. and which
newspaper has been adludged a newspaper
of general circulation by the Superior Court
of the County of Los Angeles. State of
California, under the date of.l~~...~~ 19 .~~.,
Case Number .. ;n~.:n.!!.....; that the notice,
of which the annexed is a printed copy (set
in type not smaller than nonpareil). has
been published in each regular and entire
issue of said newspaper and not In any
supp'ement 'thereof on the following dates,
to-Wit:
AUG 10
......................... ..........,...............
all in the year 19.. 9.~.
I certify (or declare) under penalty of
perjury that the foregoing is true and
correct.
SANTA lliONICA
"141 ........ .., ............ ....~, .... .........
1920 Colorado Ave.
Santa Monica, California 90404
(310) 829-6811
1\_1.... LOS lL.....ao.a-a
vr'f ANGELES .~
This space \s for the .ntv Clerk's Filing Stamp
Proof of Publication of
...............~..f........................~.......a..........
EO 8-82
City of Santa MODica
Ordinance NQmbet' 1859 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY
COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA
MONICA AMENDING CHAI"'1'1!;j( .. 58
OF THE SANTA MONiCA MUNICI-
PAL CODE RELATING TO TENANT
HARASSMENT AND DECLARING
THE PRESENCE OF AN EMER-
GENCY
The followmg IS a summary of Ordi-
nance Number 1859 (CeS) prepared by
thl: Office of the City Attorney
Ordinance Number 1859 (Ces) 1& an
emergency ordinance which amends Chap-
ter 4 56 of the Santa Momca MuniCipal
Code relatmg to tenant h8r8l!Slnent The
Ordmance adds a defimtlon of "malice" tc
Section 456010, to read 8S follows "all
Intent to vex, annoy, or illJure another
person H The Ordinance alj;O amends Sec-
tIOn 4 56 020 to proVide that landlords are
, prohibited from domg certam acts With
, mahce Two such acts have been added to
; the hst of prohibited lICtlons by the Onl1-
I nance The first prolublts landlords from
vlOlatmg any law wluch prohIbits dl&Cl'l1ll-
: matwn baaed on race, gender, lleltual pref-
erence. seltual orientation. ethnfc back-
ground, nattDnahty, rehglOn, age,
parenthood, marnage, 'pregnancy, dls!lbll.
Ity, AIDS, or occupancy by a minor child
The second prohilnts landlords from mter-
fenng With a tenant's nght to qUiet Ul!e
and enjoyment of a rental h~u8mg urnt 8lI
that nght 1& defined by Cahformalaw In
additIOn, the Ordmance epl!C1fically adds
county laws to the hst of hoUIllng, health
and safety laws With which a landlord
must comply when he OJ' she mterrupts
or termmates hOUSing services Qr when
rep9.1rs and mS.lIltenance are performed
The Ordmance WIHI amends SectIOn
4 56 040 to provide for statutory damllge8
In the event of a violauon of thIS Chap-
ter The statutory llatnage& a{'e estab-
hshed 1Il the amount of $500 00 to be
awarded shlluld the actual damages suf-
fered by a ten~t be lesl than that
amount
Ordmance l'umber 1859 ICCSl was
adopted on July 30, 1996, and shall
become clI'ect!ve lmmedtately
I, Marla M Stewart, City Clerk, do
heretly <<rtlfy that Ordinance Number
1859 lecs) Md Its .fil':$t IIIl,ll;fmal readmg
on July 30. 1996, and was. p~ by the
folloWIng vote -
Ayes Counell members Abdo, Ebner,
GenBer, Greenberg, Holbrook, O'Connor,
Roaenstem
Noes Counc1I members
Abstam Councll member~
Absent CaunCl! members.
{Sf MARlA M STEWART
City Clerk
The full text of the aOOYe On:hnance is
aVlJIlable upon requeljt ~m the office of
the Cll;}' Clerk, locil'wl. ai. -1685 J.lain
Street, Room 102,. Banta' M.onica. Phone
(3101 458-8211
Pub AUj!\Jllt 10, 1996
)
. - .
PROOF OF PUBLlCI.ON
(2015.5 C.C.P.)
STATE OF CALIFORNIA.
County of Los Angeles,
I am a citizen of the United States and a
resident of the County aforesaid; I am over
the age of eighteen years. and not a party to
or interested in the above-entitled matter I
am the principal clerk of the printer of the
THE OUTLOOK
.............................................,.............................................. ...
a newspaper of general circulation. printed
and published .~"'.I.liX.~~~f:.~.~J.l~J?A.X.
in the City of .~M.T^."'9NJk^.......,....
County of Los Angeles. and which
newspaper has been adjudged a newspaper
of general Circulation by the Superior Court
of the County of Los Angeles, State of
California. under the date of.J~!"!~.~~ 19 .~~.,
Case Number ..;U~.~l~.....; that the notice.
of which the annexed is a printed copy (set
in type not smaller than nonparei!), has
been published in each regular and entire
Issue of said newspaper and not in any
supplement thereof on the following dates.
to-wit:
AUG 10
...,..~.................................................
all in the year 19.. ~R.
I certify (or declare) under penalty of
perjury that the foregoing IS true and
correct.
SANTA ~10NICA
..... ...... 110.. ...... ,.............. ill..... II "'. II ....
1920 Colorado Ave.
Santa Monica, Callforma 90404
(310) 829-6811
ep., ~~tES ~
.
This space Is for the Cotty Clerk's Filing Stamp
Proof of Publication of
..........................................................
EO 8-82
City of Santa MODIca
Ordinance Number 1859 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY
COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA
MONICA AMENDING CHAPTER 466
OF THE SANTA MONICA MUNICI.
PAL CODE RELATING TO TENANT
HARASSMENT AND DECLARING
THE PRESENCE OF AN EMER.
GENCY
The followmg IS a summary of Onh.
nance Number 1859 (CCS) prepared by
the Office of the City Attorney
Ordmance Number 1859 (CCSl IS an
emergency ordmance which amends Chap-
ter 4 56 of the Santa MOnica Muntclpal
Code relating to tenant harassment. The
Ordmance adds a defimtlOn of "mahce" k
SectLOn 4 56 010, to read as follows "an
mtent to vex, annoy, or IllJuxe another
person n The Ordmance also amends Sec.
tlon 4 56 020 to proVlde that landlords are
prohibited from domg certam acts WIth
mabce Two such acts have been added to
! the hst of prohibited actions by the Ordl.
nance The first prohibits landlords from
vlolatmg any law whIch prohibits dlllCl'lm-
matlOn baaed on race, gender, sexual pref.
erence, sexual onentatlon, ethntc back.
ground, nabonahty, religion, age,
parenthood, marnage, 'pregnancy, dlsabll-
Ity, AIDS, or occupancy by a mmor cluld
The second prohlblt8 landlords from Inter-
ferml{ With a tenant's right to qUiet use
and enjoyment of a rental hOUSing Unit l\$
-
that right IS defined by California law In
addItion, the Ordmance speCifically adds
county !aWl! to the hst of housmg, health
and safety laws With whIch a landlord
must comply when he or she mterrupts
or termmates housmg servlce~ or when
repairs and m8lntenance are performed
The Ordmance also amends Section
4 56 040 to provide for statutory damages
m the event of a VlolatlOn of thIS Cha~
tel' The statutory damages are estab.
lIshed m the amount of $500 00 to be
awarded should the actual damages suf-
fered by a tenant be less than that
amount
Ordmance Number 1859 (CCS) was
adopted on July 30, 1996, and shall
become effective Immedlatelv
I, Marla M Stewart, C~ty Clerk, do
hereby .certify that Ordmance Numb~r
1859 (CCS) had IU first and final readmg
on July 30, 1996, and was passed by the
followmg vote
Ayes <AJunClI members Abdo, Ebner,
Genser, Greenberg, Holbrook, O'Connor,
Rosenstem
Noes Councd members
Abstain Councll members
Absent CounCil members
is! MARIA M STEWART
Cltv Clerk
The full text of the above Ordmance IS
available upon request from the office of
the City Clerk, located at 1685 MaID
Street, Room 102. Santa MOnica Phone
(3101 458.8211
Pub AultUst 10, 1996