More than six months after the Eaton and Palisades wildfires razed nearly 13,000 homes and apartments near Los Angeles, owners are rebuilding. State Senator Aisha Wahab introduced SB 522 to keep renters protected after reconstruction. Before the fires, many tenants had rent control and limits on evictions, but existing law lets those protections lapse when destroyed units are rebuilt. The Tenant Protection Act of 2019 limits annual rent increases and restricts evictions to just-cause cases for most multifamily properties older than 15 years. SB 522 would extend those protections to units destroyed by wildfires, floods, or other natural disasters; stakeholders are sharply divided.
Before the January fires swept in, tenants in many of the apartment buildings had certain protections, including rent control and limitations on when a landlord could evict them. But, under existing law, the apartments will lose those protections once rebuilt. Wahab's bill, SB 522, aims to close a loophole in the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which expires in 2030.
The law limits annual rent increases and restricts evictions to only "just-cause" cases, including not paying the rent, violating the lease or withdrawing the unit from the rental market. The law applies on a rolling basis to most multifamily properties built more than 15 years ago. SB 522 would extend those protections to homes destroyed in a wildfire, flood or other natural disaster, rather than waiting another 15 years for the clock to restart.
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