Tenancy: rent control: certification.

(1) Existing law regulates the terms and conditions of residential tenancies. Existing law, the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, prescribes statewide limits on the application of local rent control with regard to certain properties, including those that have a certificate of occupancy issued after February 1, 1995. Existing law requires a local ordinance or charter controlling residential rent prices that requires registration of rents to provide for the certification of permissible rent levels and prescribes a process in this regard, including a requirement that, upon the request, a local agency provide a landlord and a tenant with a certificate reflecting the permissible rent levels of the rental unit. Existing law provides that the permissible rent levels reflected in the certificate are, in the absence of intentional misrepresentation or fraud, binding and conclusive upon the local agency unless the determination of the permissible rent levels is appealed. This bill would specify that the certification provisions described above, on and after January 1, 2016, do not apply to tenancies for which the owner of residential property may establish the initial rent under the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, as specified. The bill would except from this exclusion a tenancy for which the property owner provides the local rent control agency with a writing, signed under penalty of perjury, of the tenancy's initial rent that complies with the agency's requirements, which would create a rebuttable presumption that the statement of the initial rent is correct. By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.