Residential real property: rent control: withdrawal of accommodations.

(1) Existing law, commonly known as the Ellis Act, generally prohibits public entities from adopting any statute, ordinance, or regulation, or taking any administrative action, as specified, to compel the owner of residential real property to offer or to continue to offer accommodations, as defined, in the property for rent or lease. Existing law authorizes a public entity acting pursuant to the Ellis Act to require an owner who offers accommodations for rent or lease within a period not exceeding 10 years from the date on which they were withdrawn, as specified, to first offer the unit to the tenant or lessee displaced from that unit by the withdrawal, subject to certain requirements. If the owner fails to comply with this requirement, the owner is liable to a displaced tenant or lessee for punitive damages not to exceed 6 months' rent. This bill would prohibit a payment of the above-described punitive damages from being construed to extinguish the owner's obligation to offer the accommodations to a prior tenant or lessee, as described above. (2) Existing law qualifies the Ellis Act prohibition on compelling owners to offer or to continue to offer accommodations by, among other things, permitting a public entity to require an owner to provide notice that the owner has initiated actions to terminate tenancies and, in this situation, the date of withdrawal of accommodations would be 120 days from the delivery of the notice. Existing law extends the term for the withdrawal of accommodations, in this context, to one year if the tenant or lessee is 62 years of age or older, or disabled, and other conditions are met. This bill, with regard to the withdrawal of accommodations and the extension of tenancies, as described above, would require the date of withdrawal for the accommodations as a whole to be the latest termination date among all tenants within the accommodations for purposes of calculating specified time periods, as specified. The bill would make conforming changes to clarify the application of these provisions with respect to accommodations with multiple units and with respect to requirements to give notice to public entities and tenants with extended tenancies. The bill would also conform a statement of legislative intent relating to the Ellis Act to specify that it is not intended to permit an owner to return to the rental market less than all of the accommodations, among other things. The bill would also amend this statement of legislative intent to make further statements regarding what the act is not intended to permit on the part of an owner.