Tenancy: credit reporting: lower income households.

Existing law regulates the terms and conditions of residential tenancies, and requires a landlord to provide a tenant with various notices at the time the lease is executed and throughout the tenancy. The Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act and the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act regulate consumer credit reporting agencies that collect credit-related information on consumers and report this information to subscribers and the persons who furnish that information to consumer credit reporting agencies, as provided. This bill, beginning July 1, 2021, and until July 1, 2025, would require a landlord of an assisted housing development, as defined, to offer tenants obligated on the lease of units in the development the option of having their rental payments reported to at least one consumer reporting agency, as specified. The bill would authorize a landlord to charge a tenant that elects to have rent reported the lesser of $10 per month or the actual cost to the landlord to provide the service. The bill would prescribe requirements regarding how the offer of rent reporting is to be made for new and existing leases. The bill would authorize a tenant who elects to have rent reported to file a written request to stop that reporting, provided that, in this case, the bill would prohibit the tenant from electing rent reporting again for at least 6 months. The bill would declare that a tenant who elects to have rent reported does not forfeit specified tenant rights and if a tenant makes deductions from rent or otherwise withholds it, as authorized, the deductions or withholding does not constitute a late rental payment. The bill would exempt from these provisions a landlord of an assisted housing development with 15 or fewer dwelling units, unless specified conditions are met.