SR 08-23-2022 10H
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: August 23, 2022
Agenda Item: 10.H
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Douglas Sloan, City Attorney, City Attorney's Office, Code Enforcement
Subject: Introduction and First Reading of an Ordinance Amending the City’s Tenant
Protection Laws
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council consider introducing for first reading an
ordinance amending the City’s Housing Anti-Discrimination Code, Tenant Harassment
Code, and Tenant Protection Code.
Executive Summary
There are five proposed amendments, all of which concern Article Four of the Santa
Monica Municipal Code (S.M.M.C.). The first three would amend the Housing Anti-
Discrimination Code (Chapter 4.28) and the Tenant Harassment Code (Chapter 4.56),
and would expand the list of protected classes for tenant protections, to be consistent
with recent changes in state and federal fair housing laws. The amendments provide
additional examples of unlawful discriminatory harassment, and also provide examples
of unlawful housing discrimination based on source of income, in particular clarifying
what constitutes discrimination targeting recipients of housing subsidies such as Section
8 housing vouchers and COVID-related rental assistance.
The final two proposed amendments are to the Tenant Protection Code (Chapter 4.27).
The first of those two require landlords to report attempted evictions to the City. With
studies of Los Angeles County evictions showing that unrepresented tenants face
disruptive displacement over 90% of the time and less than 10% of the time when a
landlord serves an eviction or unlawful detainer, this reporting requirement will help the
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City track all endeavors to evict, and also assist the City in assessing evictions’ impact
on the community and the impact of the City’s pilot Right To Counsel program.
The second would require landlords to provide tenants notice of their rights to attorney’s
fees along with any change to attorney’s fees provisions. There have been several
attempts by landlords to change a residential lease’s attorneys’ fees provisions with
language that seemingly thwarts the tenant’s pursuit of attorney’s fees under Santa
Monica’s tenant protection laws. However, the right to pursue fees under those laws
and other civil rights in housing laws is not waivable. Therefore, such attempts to limit
fees are misleading.
Discussion
The primary purpose of these amendments is to update, clarify, and strengthen Santa
Monica’s tenant protection laws.
A. Amendment to the Housing Anti-Discrimination Code, SMMC Section
4.28.030
Santa Monica’s fair housing law, the Housing Anti-Discrimination Code, prohibits
landlords from committing several types of housing discrimination such as refusal to
rent, making discriminatory statements, and refusing to make reasonable
accommodations or modifications.
As an affordable housing measure, Santa Monica amended its fair housing law in 2015
to include protections against source of income discrimination. In particular—and in a
pioneering expansion of what “source of income” included—Santa Monica defined
“source of income” to include any type of rental assistance, such as the Section 8
housing voucher. The impetus for this law was evidence that Santa Monica landlords
were refusing to rent to Section 8 voucher holders or refusing to let their rent-burdened
tenants use a voucher or other types of rental assistance.
Community education about and enforcement of that law by the Public Rights Division
of the City Attorneys’ Office and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles has resulted
in dozens of refusals to rent by landlords being reversed. The enforcement program
also helps bring the diversity of the Section 8 pool to the City’s population in terms of
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income and race. But at the heart of the program are stories of low-income people and
families who had been turned away—sometimes several times. With the law and
enforcement protecting them, they were finally able to either move into a new home in
Santa Monica or were able to afford to stay in their existing home.
The City Attorney’s Office offers for consideration that the source of income protections
be clarified by providing specific types of discriminatory actions, all of which have been
documented in Santa Monica. Providing these examples is declaratory of existing law
and it will help landlords better understand their obligations and tenants their rights. It
will also help advocates, the courts, and the CAO with enforcement.
The proposed language would be added to Section 4.28.030 and would read as follows:
(i) Refuse to accept from a prospective or current tenant rent in the
form of rental assistance from any federal, state, local, or non-profit-
administered benefit or subsidy program including, but not limited to, the
Section 8 voucher program. Refusal to accept includes failure or an
unreasonable delay in filling out and returning any necessary paperwork.
This amendment’s clarification that a “current tenant” is protected from discrimination
will also help the City with one of its top three stated goals in its 2020 Assessment of
Fair Housing -- to “prevent displacement of low- and moderate-income residents.”
The CAO will continue to assign an attorney from its Public Rights section to oversee
and monitor the law. The CAO will work with the Housing and Human Services Division
to initiate education efforts to inform families, tenants, landlords, and legal aid providers
about this amendment.
B. Amendments to the Tenant Harassment Ordinance, SMMC Chapter 4.56
1. Adding specific examples of unlawful harassment
The City’s Tenant Harassment Ordinance prohibits landlords from bad faith harassment
of tenants. The ordinance bans twelve types of harassment, including interruption of
services, discrimination, coercion to vacate, and baseless eviction attempts.
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Subsection 4.56.020(f) prohibits a landlord from, in bad faith, influencing or attempting to
influence “a tenant to vacate a rental housing unit through fraud, intimidation or
coercion[.]”
Staff proposes that specific examples of fraud, intimidation and coercion be provided.
Providing these examples will be declaratory of existing law and will help landlords
better understand their obligations and tenants their rights.
The proposed language would be added to Section 4.56.020(f) as follows:
Examples of such influence or attempts include but are not limited to
the following: excessive rent increases, baseless threats to evict,
threats to report immigration status, terminating tenancy on a
fraudulent basis of owner-occupancy, excessive and baseless entries.
A California appellate court has recently affirmed a city’s prohibition of excessive rent
increases made in bad faith. The California Immigrant Tenant Protection Act of 2020
prohibits threats to report immigration status. Such threats and the other examples have
all been the subject of harassment lawsuits filed by the Public Rights Division and with
successful outcomes.
2. Adding new classes protected under fair housing laws.
The current law provides an exhaustive and limited list of protected classes. A landlord
may not in bad faith “violate any law which prohibits discrimination based on race,
gender, sexual preference, sexual orientation, ethnic background, nationality, religion,
age, parenthood, marriage, pregnancy, disability, AIDS or occupancy by a minor child[.]”
This list has not been updated in over a decade. It does not include the City’s own
relatively new protected class, source of income and it does not include new state law
protected class of immigration status.
The additional protected classes would be added to Section 4.56.020(h), with the
proposed changes below in bold italics:
(h) Violate any law which prohibits discrimination based on race, gender,
sexual preference, sexual orientation, ethnic background, nationality,
religion, age, parenthood, marriage, pregnancy, disability, AIDS or
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occupancy by a minor child, immigration status, source of income, or
any other class expressly protected by a local, state, or federal law.
The proposal not only updates the ordinance with new classes but changes the nature
of the list from an exhaustive, limited list to a flexible one upon which any new class
protected under future state or federal laws are immediately protected from bad faith
harassment in Santa Monica.
C. Amendments to the Tenant Protection Code, Chapter 4.27.
1. Eviction Reporting Requirements
The primary purpose of this proposed ordinance is to monitor the extent of evictions and
their disruptive impact on Santa Monica tenants and families. A secondary purpose is to
assess the impact of the pilot Right to Counsel program. In December of 2020, the City
passed as part of its pandemic emergency orders an order requiring landlords to report
all endeavors to evict to the City Attorney’s Office. The order expires on March 31,
2022. Staff recommends converting the order into an ordinance so that the City has a
permanent means to assess the impact of evictions and the pilot Right to Counsel
program.
In the wake of the public health and economic crises created by the COVID-19
emergency, the City is at risk of an unprecedented wave of evictions. City and state
eviction moratoriums have delayed and blunted the impact of potential early evictions.
But there is little doubt that among Santa Monica’s 32,000-plus renter households, the
aftermath of the COVID-19 emergency will result in a significant number continuing to
be unable to pay rent and facing eviction efforts in a system stacked against
unrepresented tenants. Data suggests as well that the tenants most likely to face
eviction will be minority and low-income tenants.
Making sure that Santa Monica’s tenants have access to legal representation aligns
with the City’s commitment to maintaining an inclusive and diverse community and
offering housing at all affordability levels. Along with its measurement of evictions’
impact on the community, the reporting requirement will also help the City monitor how
well local programs and advocacy are doing with respect to legal services.
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According to the 2019 STOUT report, Cost-Benefit Analysis of Providing A Right to
Counsel to Tenants In Eviction Proceedings, Los Angeles County’s most vulnerable
tenants are frequently unrepresented and evicted by landlords who are represented by
experienced counsel. Providing tenants with counsel is critical to leveling the playing
field and would significantly improve the likelihood that eviction cases are decided fairly
and on the merits.
The STOUT report concluded that 97% of Los Angeles County tenants are
unrepresented in eviction cases while landlords are unrepresented in just 12% of their
cases. Unrepresented tenants in LA County get displaced 99% of the time, but if they
get representation, they avoid displacement 95% of the time. The STOUT report also
concluded that 25 of 51 Right to Counsel programs likely result in many direct and
indirect benefits to the community: decreased use of shelters, increased housing
stability, decreased impact on employment, decreased impact on law enforcement, and
decreased impact on the health of displaced children.
The reporting requirement will enable the City to create its own report each year, much
like the STOUT Report, and assess the impact that evictions have in the City. The
information will also help inform need for the City’s right to counsel program and help
the City accomplish one of its top three stated goals in its 2020 Assessment of Fair
Housing -- to “prevent displacement of low- and moderate-income residents.” The CAO
will assign an attorney from its Public Rights section to oversee and monitor the
program. The CAO will work with the Housing and Human Services Division to initiate
education efforts to inform families, tenants, landlords, and legal aid providers about the
availability of this program and the new reporting requirements.
This ordinance is drafted to parallel a nearly identical emergency order issued in
December of 2020 and which has been extended until December 31, 2022.
2. Attorney’s Fees Notice Requirement
The primary purpose of this proposed ordinance is to assure that tenants are not misled
about their rights to pursue attorneys’ fees under Santa Monica’s tenant protection laws.
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The Santa Monica Municipal Code (S.M.M.C.) has two tenant protection laws that have
attorneys’ fees provisions, the Housing Anti-Discrimination and Tenant Harassment
Codes. A landlord who violates the provisions of these Chapters is liable for attorneys’
fees and costs, along with damages and penalties. (See S.M.M.C. section 4.28.060 (d)
and Section 4.56.040 (d). California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) also
makes landlords liable for attorneys’ fees and costs. (See Cal. Gov’t Code section
12965(b))
The CAO has become aware over the past few years of landlords and their attorneys
sending their in-place tenants a notice that changes the attorney’s fees provisions in
their lease. For example, we have seen landlords attempt amendments that include
sweeping language that seemingly removes any chance of pursuing fees in any type of
legal dispute that might arise between the landlord and the tenant. In other examples,
the amount of fees have been capped.
However, Santa Monica’s two attorneys’ fees provisions cited above do not have any
exception nor do they allow any caps; the landlord is liable for fees regardless of what a
lease might provide or an amendment to the lease.
Therefore, such amendment attempts would very likely be found to be null and void if
the tenant pursued her attorneys’ fees as the prevailing party at the end of litigation.
However, the concern is that unknowing tenants and even their attorneys might be
misled into believing they are prevented by the amendment from pursuing fees or that
the total is capped by the amendment. This could discourage tenants from pursuing
their rights to begin with. It could also discourage attorneys from taking the case,
especially in the case of low-income tenants who cannot afford to pay attorneys’ fees.
(Attorneys’ fees provisions are often included in civil rights laws to better assure the
possibility that the tenant, especially low-income tenants, can obtain willing legal
representation.) It could also thwart the Santa Monica laws providing for those fees.
The proposed notice requirement does not delve into the language of specific attempted
amendments. Rather, it simply requires a notice about the effect of Santa Monica’s
attorneys’ fees provisions.
Here is the language of the proposed notice:
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“The attorney’s fees provisions in tenant protection laws such as the City’s
Tenant Harassment Code and Housing Anti-Discrimination Code that
allow a prevailing tenant to pursue his or her own attorney’s fees from the
landlord (fee-shifting) cannot be waived by a tenant or changed or capped
by a landlord’s amendments to a lease. Any such lease amendments or
provisions are null and void with respect to the fee-shifting in tenant
protection laws.”
Requiring this notice will also work hand in hand with the pilot Right to Counsel program
by making it clear that tenants and their attorneys have the right to pursue attorneys’
fees if an eviction case involves fair housing or tenant harassment violations. It will also
help the City accomplish one of its top three stated goals in its 2020 Assessment of Fair
Housing -- to “prevent displacement of low- and moderate-income residents.”
Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, staff finds that there is a significant public interest in making
these amendments to update, clarify, and strengthen the City’s tenant protection laws.
Enforcement
As a matter of standard practice, the Public Rights Division will conduct outreach and
education about these amendments. Enforcement itself occurs through warning letters
and then, when necessary, lawsuits.
The City of Santa Monica has a long history of protecting tenancies to stabilize housing.
The Public Rights Division (PRD) of the City Attorney’s Office has also consistently and
actively enforced tenant harassment and anti-discrimination laws to the benefit of many.
The PRD also provides significant community education and rights projects that help
both landlords and tenants better understand their rights and responsibilities. Those
efforts include two housing rights workshops each year attended by nearly 150 people
annually and articles in the Santa Monica Daily Press that often focus on housing rights.
Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
No financial impacts will result from these amendments.
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Prepared By: Eda Suh, Deputy City Attorney
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. ORD-ord-Tenant Amendments
B. Written Comment
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City Council Meeting August 23, 2022 Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER ____ (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA
MONICA AMENDING SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL CODE SECTIONS 4.56.020,
4.28.030, AND ADDING SECTIONS 4.27.060 AND 4.27.070 TO CHAPTER 4.27
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Monica is committed to protecting housing for all
segments of the community, in particular for its most vulnerable residents, as a matter of
social justice and human dignity and in order to preserve diversity; and
WHEREAS, a crisis exists in the City of Santa Monica due to the lack of affordable
housing, the high number of homeless people, and the high number of people at risk of
homelessness; and
WHEREAS, this crisis has been created in part by high rental prices, insufficient
production of affordable units, housing discrimination, tenant harassment, the inability of
tenants to afford attorneys to represent them in evictions, and a lack of awareness of
tenants’ rights; and
WHEREAS, a second and even more dire crisis has been created by the COVD-
19 pandemic and its economic fallout, followed by high inflation in Santa Monica and in
which many tenants have lost income while facing higher expenses to the extent they
have difficulty paying all or part of their monthly rent; and
WHEREAS, local, state, federal and court moratoriums on evictions are beginning
to end or have new legal requirements for further protection, setting up an unprecedented
wave of attempted evictions, and
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WHEREAS, approximately 71% of Santa Monica households (32,295) rent their
homes; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Desmond reports in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Evicted:
Poverty and Profit in the American City, “Eviction’s fallout is severe. Losing a home sends
families to shelters, abandoned homes, and the street. It invites depression and illness,
compels families to move into degrading housing in dangerous neighborhoods, uproots
communities, and harms children;” and
WHEREAS, Santa Monica renters will not experience this housing and eviction
crisis equally. Poor and working-class tenants, tenants of color, families with children, and
persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and housing
crisis due to inequities and shortcomings in health care, employment, and housing
WHEREAS, providing Santa Monica residents with access to legal services for
unlawful detainer actions will help mitigate these crises and reduce the serious threats to
the public health, safety and general welfare of the residents of Santa Monica; and
WHEREAS, a lack of knowledge and awareness of tenants’ rights, a lack of
knowledge and awareness about recently enacted laws (such as the COVID-19 Tenant
Relief Act of 2020) and orders (such as the Santa Monica Eviction Moratorium), and the
fear of being evicted and being forced to seek housing in a limited housing market
discourages many tenants from fighting evictions and asserting rights they may not be
aware of, and this fear contributes to disruption of families and communities and to
homelessness; and
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WHEREAS, this housing emergency destabilizes families and neighborhoods,
especially the most vulnerable among us, resulting in homelessness, and harm to social
tranquility and the general welfare of Santa Monica, and
WHEREAS, due to an inability to obtain legal representation because of a lack of
resources, Santa Monica’s most vulnerable tenants are frequently unrepresented and
evicted by landlords who are represented by competent and experienced counsel; and
WHEREAS, landlords are overwhelmingly represented by attorneys in eviction
cases in Los Angeles County, and tenants are not; and
WHEREAS, according to the December 2019 STOUT report, Cost-Benefit
Analysis of Providing A Right to Counsel to Tenants In Eviction Proceedings, providing
Los Angeles County tenants with counsel levels the playing field and significantly
improves the likelihood that eviction cases are decided fairly and on the merits; and
WHEREAS, the STOUT report concluded even before the pandemic that Right to
Counsel programs are investments (in the case of Los Angeles, at least $3 back for each
dollar spent) in a community in that by preventing the displacement of its residents, a city
will later spend much less on social services, law enforcement, and shelter and other
housing services; and
WHEREAS, providing tenants with counsel will increase housing stability,
particularly for poor and working-class tenants, tenants of color, families with children and
people with disabilities, which in turn will help prevent potentially massive displacement
and homelessness; and
WHEREAS, the City must track how many evictions and endeavors to evict occur
in Santa Monica, along with the nature of these attempts and their outcomes, and
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WHEREAS, the City has made commitments to preserve and protect affordable
housing in its current Consolidated Plan, Analysis of Fair Housing Impediments, and its
April 2020 Assessment of Fair Housing; and
WHEREAS, one of the City’s top three stated goals in its April 2020 Assessment
of Fair Housing was to “prevent displacement of low- and moderate-income residents”
and the top strategy for achieving that goal is “explore the feasibility of a Right to Counsel
Ordinance to protect tenants’ legal rights; and
WHEREAS, Santa Monica City Council has police and emergency powers under
its charter, and
WHEREAS, pursuant to these aforementioned police and emergency powers, in
order to protect the health, safety and welfare of the residents of Santa Monica, it is
necessary to provide access to legal services to tenants who are subject to eviction
proceedings.
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Monica has a long history of protecting and tenants
and applicants for housing from housing discrimination, tenant harassment, bad faith
evictions, and bad faith business practices; and
WHEREAS, protecting applicants and tenants from housing discrimination and
tenant harassment is of paramount importance, especially during the current affordable
housing crisis, and
WHEREAS, the City Attorney’s Office’s successful enforcement program
regarding Section 8 and rental assistance discrimination has not only helped reverse
numerous refusals by landlords to rent to protected tenants and applicants, it has also
revealed the types of such discrimination, and
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WHEREAS, the City’s Tenant Harassment Ordinance prohibits a landlord from, in
bad faith, influencing or attempting to influence “a tenant to vacate a rental housing unit
through fraud, intimidation or coercion” it does not provide clarifying specific examples of
such conduct, and
WHEREAS, examples of such harassment include excessive rent increases,
baseless threats to evict, threats to report immigration status, terminating a tenancy on a
fraudulent basis of owner-occupancy, and excessive and baseless entries by landlord or
landlord’s agents, and
WHEREAS, the City’s Tenant Harassment Ordinance prohibits bad faith housing
discrimination based on several protected classes such as race and disability, it does not
include several relatively new classes added to state fair housing law such as source of
income and immigration status, and
WHEREAS, a landlord’s change-of-lease terms limiting attorneys fees can be
misleading in that a Santa Monica resident has a legal right under local law to attorneys
fees if they are the prevailing party in a tenant protection case, and
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.56.020 Prohibitions:
4.56.020 Prohibitions.
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 in bad faith:
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(a) Interrupt, terminate or fail to provide housing services required by contract or by
State, County or local 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. This includes entries for “inspections” that
are not related to necessary repairs or services; entries excessive in number; entries that
improperly target certain tenants or are used to collect evidence against the occupant or
otherwise beyond the scope of an otherwise lawful entry;
(e) Abuse the tenant with words which are offensive and inherently likely to provoke
an immediate violent reaction;
(f) Influence or attempt to influence a tenant to vacate a rental housing unit through
fraud, intimidation or coercion (Examples of such influence or attempts include but are not
limited to the following: excessive rent increases, baseless threats to evict, threats to report
immigration status, terminating a tenancy on a fraudulent basis of owner-occupancy,
excessive and baseless entries by landlord or landlord’s agents.)
(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, age, parenthood,
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marriage, pregnancy, disability, AIDS or occupancy by a minor child, immigration status,
source of income, or any other class expressly protected by a local, state, or federal law.
(i)(1) 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. No landlord shall
be liable under this subsection for bringing an action to recover possession unless and until
the tenant has obtained a favorable termination of that action.
(2) 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;
(k) Refuse to acknowledge receipt of a tenant’s lawful rent payment;
(l) Interfere with a tenant’s right to privacy, including, but not limited to, entering or
photographing portions of a rental housing unit that are beyond the scope of a lawful entry
or inspection.
SECTION 2. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.28.030, Prohibited Activities.
4.28.030 Prohibited activities.
It shall be unlawful for any person offering for rent or lease, renting, leasing, or
listing any housing accommodation, or any authorized agent or employee of such person,
to do or attempt to do any of the following:
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(a) Refuse to rent or lease a housing accommodation, or access to or use of the
common areas and facilities of the housing accommodation, serve a notice of termination
of tenancy, commence an unlawful detainer action, or otherwise deny to or withhold from
any person or persons, a housing accommodation on the basis of disability, age, source
of income, parenthood, pregnancy, or the potential or actual occupancy of a minor child.
(b) Represent to any person, on the basis of disability, age, source of income,
parenthood, pregnancy, or the potential or actual occupancy of the minor child that a
housing accommodation is not available for inspection or rental when such housing
accommodation is in fact available for inspection or rental.
(c) Make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published any notice,
statement, sign, advertisement, application, or contract with regard to a housing
accommodation offered by that person that indicates any preference, limitation, or
discrimination with respect to disability, age, source of income, parenthood, pregnancy,
or the potential or actual occupancy of a minor child.
(d) Include in any rental agreement or lease for a housing accommodation a clause
providing that as a condition of continued occupancy, the tenants shall remain childless
or shall not bear children or otherwise not maintain a household with a person or persons
of a certain age.
(e) Threaten to commence or commence eviction proceedings against any tenant
on the grounds that he or she has breached a rental agreement if the alleged breach
arises out of an increase in the number of occupants due to the marriage of the tenant,
provided that the occupancy of the spouse and children of the spouse is otherwise lawful.
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(f) Threaten to commence or commence eviction proceedings against any tenant
head of household on the grounds that he or she has violated the provisions of a rental
agreement where the violation consists of an increase in the number of occupants arising
out of the birth, adoption, or change of legal custody of a minor child of whom the tenant
head of household or his or her spouse is the parent or legal guardian, and provided that
the occupancy of said minor child is otherwise lawful.
(g) Refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or
services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford a person with a
disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy any dwelling.
(h) Refuse to allow a person to make reasonable modifications, alterations or
additions to existing premises occupied or to be occupied by a person with a disability
that are necessary to make the rental property accessible by persons with disabilities,
under the following conditions:
(1) The landlord is not required to pay for the alterations, additions, or restoration
unless otherwise required by State or Federal law;
(2) The landlord has the right to demand assurances that all modifications will be
performed in a professional manner, and in accordance with applicable building codes,
permitting requirements and other applicable laws;
(3) The landlord may, where it is reasonable to do so, condition permission for
modification on the tenant’s agreement to restore the interior of the premises to its
preexisting condition, reasonable wear and tear excepted.
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(i) Refuse to accept from a prospective or current tenant rent in the form of rental
assistance from any federal, State, local or non-profit-administered benefit or subsidy
program including, but not limited to, the Section 8 voucher program. Refusal to accept
includes failure or an unreasonable delay in filling out and returning any necessary
paperwork.
(j) For purposes of this part, “disability” includes, but is not limited to, any physical
or mental disability as defined in California Government Code Section 12926.
(k) For purposes of this part, “source of income” includes any lawful source of
income or rental assistance from any federal, State, local or non-profit-administered
benefit or subsidy program including, but not limited to, the Section 8 voucher program,
for an existing tenant or prospective tenant.
SECTION 3. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.27.060 Landlord Reporting
Requirements for Endeavors to Evict Residential Tenants
4.27.060 Landlord Reporting Requirements for Endeavors to Evict Residential
Tenants
(a) For purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following
meanings:
(1) “Endeavors to evict” means any attempt to begin the termination of tenancy or
eviction process, such as notices to terminate tenancy, notices to pay rent or quit,
notices to quit, and filing of unlawful detainer cases in court.
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(b) Landlords shall email to the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office (CAO) at
EMReports@santamonica.gov unredacted copies of any notices of any endeavors to
evict (pandemic-related or not), including a termination notice or a Summons and
Complaint for Unlawful Detainer, within two (2) days of serving such notice or summons
and complaint on a tenant.
(c) Landlords shall also provide the CAO, by emailing to
EMReports@santamonica.gov the following information within three (3) days of its
availability to landlord: 1) whether tenant obtained a fee waiver; 2) whether tenant has
legal representation; 3) whether landlord has legal representation; and 4) outcome of the
endeavor to evict.
(d) This section shall be enforceable as a misdemeanor pursuant to Government
Code Section 8665 and Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 2.16.100, or through the
issuance of administrative citations in accordance with Chapter 1.09 of the Santa Monica
Municipal Code with a fine for each violation of this section up to a maximum of $1000.
Violations of this section do not result in an affirmative defense for the tenant in an
unlawful detainer action.
SECTION 4. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.27.070 Attorney fees
provision in leases
4.27.070 Attorney fees provision in leases
(a) No landlord shall serve notice of an amendment to a lease’s attorney’s fees
provision without including a separate notice that includes the following statement:
10.H.a
Packet Pg. 1293 Attachment: ORD-ord-Tenant Amendments (5318 : Tenant Amendments)
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“The attorney’s fees provisions in tenant protection laws such as the City’s Tenant
Harassment Code and its Housing Anti-Discrimination Code that allow a prevailing
tenant to pursue his or her own attorneys fees from the landlord (fee-shifting) cannot
be waived by a tenant or changed by a landlord’s amendments to a lease. Any such
lease amendments or provisions are null and void with respect to the fee-shifting in
tenant protection laws.”
(b) This section shall be enforceable as a misdemeanor pursuant to
Government Code Section 8665 and Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 2.16.100, or
through the issuance of administrative citations in accordance with Chapter 1.09 of the
Santa Monica Municipal Code with a fine for each violation of this section up to a
maximum of $1000.
SECTION 5. 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 6. 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 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.
10.H.a
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SECTION 7. 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 30
days from its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_________________________
Douglas Sloan, City Attorney
10.H.a
Packet Pg. 1295 Attachment: ORD-ord-Tenant Amendments (5318 : Tenant Amendments)
Item 10.H 08/23/22
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10.H.b
Packet Pg. 1296 Attachment: Written Comment (5318 : Tenant Amendments)