Changes to Rental Rights

Landlords are now obligated to offer a one-year lease with a 60-day advance notice, as opposed to the previous requirement of 90 days. Furthermore, after the second year, landlords are not required to continue offering one-year leases unless requested by tenants; they are only required to offer them upon tenant request.

For evictions pertaining to owner move-in, family move-in, or manager move-in, prospective tenants are now required to move in within two months after the current occupant vacates and must occupy the unit for a minimum duration of one year.

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Landlords may not utilize owner or family move-in evictions as grounds to evict a qualified tenant, unless no other comparable unit is available.

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Termination based on rent is when tenants decide to vacate premises due to a rent increase of 7% or more. In this are, there have been changes in the banking provisions, specifically concerning the look-back period for the bank. Previously, there were no limits, but now the look-back period is restricted to the preceding 3 years for any effective rent increase. 

A new provision has been added to the program called intentional disrepair/damage to rental units/complex code section 9.30.040. Intentional disrepair occurs when a landlord knowingly allows a rental unit to deteriorate, such as by neglecting to address significant issues reported by tenants. In such cases, when these issues necessitate repairs and requires the tenant to be vacated, the landlord is obligated to provide accommodations to the tenant and is prohibited from evicting the tenant on grounds of repairing the unit.

There has been a change in the area of exemptions. Tenants who are part of the Housing Choice Voucher program (Section 8) are no longer exempt from the Rental Rights Program, meaning all protections apply. 

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Another area of change in the exemptions relates specifically to Major-Rehab Evictions, properties containing four or fewer units on a parcel are now exempt from the requirement to provide relocation assistance for major rehabilitation purposes.

Evictions for major rehabilitation purposes have undergone several alterations. The period of uninhabitability, defined as the duration during which a unit is uninhabitable due to major renovation , has been extended from 30 days to 45 days. Additionally, a more precise definition of "substantial remodel" has been introduced, prohibiting evictions for cosmetic remodels. Furthermore, properties containing four or fewer units on a parcel are now exempt from the requirement to provide relocation assistance for major rehabilitation purposes.

The relocation fee for no fault eviction has been updated, the new formula is: 

3 x the greater of the amount of the current rent or Fair Market Rent (FMR) for a rental unit of similar size + $2,000

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Relocation fee is doubled for qualified tenants.

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A Qualified Tenant can be classified into two categories: a Low-Income Tenant who is either 70 years of age or older, disabled or handicapped, or a school-aged child; or a Very Low-Income Tenant.

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When a landlord raises the rent by more than 7% without utilizing a bank, and a tenant opts to vacate the unit, the tenant can request relocation assistance. This assistance, previously determined by a multi-tiered system considering duration and income, has now been simplified to an amount equal to 3 times the Proposed rent.

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Relocation fee is doubled for qualified tenants.

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A Qualified Tenant can be classified into two categories: a Low-Income Tenant who is either 70 years of age or older, disabled or handicapped, or a school-aged child; or a Very Low-Income Tenant.

Rent Reduction for Rent reduction is a new provision add to the program. This provisions apply when a tenant is faced with a significant and prolonged decrease in housing services and amenities provided by the landlord in their lease agreement.

New administrative fees have been incorporated into the ordinance. These fees will be imposed for violations of the ordinance and will be assessed as follows: $400 for the first violation, $1,000 for the second violation, and $2,000 for the third violation.