Following the Chula Vista City Council action on November 1, 2022 to adopt Chula Vista Municipal Code (“CVMC”) chapter 9.65, the City’s Residential Tenant Protection Ordinance (“Ordinance”) is now in effect as of March 1, 2023.
With rental housing making up more than 42% of available housing in the City of Chula Vista and 44% of all Chula Vista renters paying more than 50% of their income toward housing costs (as local rents also increased in 2022), councilmembers cited the importance of addressing community requests for assistance following reports of “No Fault” evictions and tenant harassment.
The “California Tenant Protection Act,” a statewide law, has been in place since January 1, 2020. The state law has required landlords provide tenants with notice of the law, required just cause for terminating a tenancy, and required disclosure of the specific reasons for the termination of a tenancy. Such state law provisions are found in Civil Code Section 1946.2.
The purpose of the City’s Ordinance (viewable at https://chulavista.municipal.codes/CVMC/9.65 ) is to “require just cause for termination of residential tenancies consistent with Civil Code Section 1946.2, to further limit the reasons for termination of a residential tenancy, to require greater tenant relocation assistance in specified circumstances, and to provide additional tenant protections.”
The Ordinance does not prevent lawful evictions or just-cause terminations and primarily strengthens statewide protections already in place, while providing greater tenant protections in certain instances of no-fault terminations of tenancy in the City of Chula Vista. Relocation assistance is available to impacted tenants of properties subject to the Ordinance, along with increased protection from instances of landlord harassment and retaliation. Landlords whose properties are subject to CVMC 9.65 are now required to provide notice of Ordinance protections to existing tenants by March 1, 2023 and to tenants who renew or commence leases on or after March 1, 2023.
The City’s Tenant Landlord webpage (chulavistaca.gov/landlordtenant) provides helpful information and sample notice forms for properties subject to and for properties exempt from the Ordinance. The notices are translated by the City as a courtesy in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Korean.
Beyond the requirement to provide the updated notice, the following property types are not affected by further action:
- Owned by a single-family owner who lives at the residence and rents two rooms/units or less.
- Duplex in which the owner lives in one of the units and rents the other.
- Single-family home or condo not owned by a real estate investment trust, corporation, LLC or managed by a mobile home park.
The required Notice to Tenants for properties exempt from CVMC 9.65 is required to be provided to the Tenant(s) at lease renewal or as an addendum to the lease or rental agreement on March 1, 2023.
Additional action beyond notification is only required if a landlord takes the following actions:
- Issues a notice for Termination of Tenancy, and
- Rents or owns three or more residential units, operates real estate investment trusts, or manages commercial apartment/condo complexes.
The Ordinance was created with extensive input from responsible landlord and tenant groups who emphasized that the requirements should protect good tenants by reducing instances of landlords exploiting loopholes in state law. The City gathered stakeholder groups for multiple in person and virtual meetings and conducted a survey in the summer of 2022 to learn more about local terminations, why they were occurring and suggestions for improvements. Over 270 tenants and 89 landlords renting 116 separate units provided survey responses.
Public input was requested through community groups, city social media channels, media coverage, the city newsletter and via engagement with public-facing NGOs like CSA San Diego County and other agencies participating in the City’s stakeholder meetings, including ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Institute), CAA (California Apartment Association, LASSD (Legal Aid Society of San Diego), PSAR (Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors), SDAR (San Diego Association of Realtors) and SCRHA (Southern California Rental Housing Association).
The City Landlord Tenant webpage also provides additional general and legal resources for tenants and landlords, such as CSA San Diego County which is committed to promoting and enforcing fair housing laws and equal housing opportunities for all individuals who live in San Diego County. Find CSA San Diego County at (619) 444-5700 or www.c4sa.org; and Legal Aid Society of San Diego which assists any tenants who believe they have been unlawfully evicted or need legal advice. They can be reached at 1-877-534-2524, www.lawhelpca.org, or https://housing.ca.gov/resources/tenant.html.
