Local anti-rent gouging authority; civil penalty.

Local anti-rent gouging authority; civil penalty.Provides that any locality may by ordinance adopt anti-rent gougingprovisions. The bill provides for notice and a public hearing priorto the adoption of such ordinance and specifies that all landlordswho are under the ordinance may be required to give at least twomonths' written notice of a rent increase and cannot increase therent by more than the locality's calculated allowance, describedin the bill as the maximum amount a landlord can increase a tenant'srent during any 12-month period, in effect at the time of the increase.The bill sets such allowance as equal to the annual increase in theConsumer Price Index or seven percent, whichever is less, statesthat such allowance is effective for a 12-month period beginningJuly 1 each year, and requires the locality to publish such allowanceon its website by June 1 of each year. Certain facilities, as outlinedin the bill, are exempt from such ordinance. The bill also allowsa locality to establish an anti-rent gouging board that will developand implement rules and procedures by which landlords may apply forand be granted exemptions from the rent increase limits set by theordinance. Finally, the bill provides that a locality may establisha civil penalty for failure to comply with the requirements set outin the ordinance.