City of Santa MonicaRent Control Department1685 Main St., Room 202Santa Monica, CA 90401(310) 458-8751Email the Rent Control Board
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Si tiene alguna pregunta, por favor llame a la Agencia de Control de Rentas al (310)458-8751 y pida hablar con un analista que habla español.
On October 12, 2020, in response to community input, the City Council adopted amendments to the new leasing requirements. These include permitting an owner who occupies a rental housing unit as their primary residence to lease that unit for more than 30 days and less than a year no more than twice a year for a total period of less than six months. Also, leases necessitated for temporary tenant relocation would not need to comply with any of the four main aspects of the leasing requirements listed above. Council adopted other amendments as well. For more information on leasing requirements, read the staff report or visit the City Planning webpage.
Although there was a temporary pause on the acceptance of new exemption applications, petitions and excess rent complaints due to the Declaration of Emergency related to the novel coronavirus, the closure of City Hall to the public, and the need to protect staff and the public, the Rent Control Office resumed these filings in early May. Petitions and applications may now be initiated by mail or email. Please call our office at 310-458-8751 to speak with an Information Coordinator before submitting your documents.
Mediations and hearings on all applications or petitions filed will be conducted by teleconference or videoconference until the appropriate authorities advise that it is safe for in-person meetings and hearings to resume.
Tenants submitting decrease petitions that include items requiring repairs inside the units must be willing to allow owners and/or their representatives to enter the unit to make the requested repairs. Tenants unwilling to allow entries to their units for the purpose of making repairs should omit those items from their petition. Alternately, they may consider waiting to file the petition until they are willing to allow access to their unit for repairs. (Note: Generally, a tenant may not file a new decrease petition within six (6) months of a final Board decision on a prior decrease petition.)
In Santa Monica, landlords and their agents are required to give tenants a notice of certain rights before offering any form of compensation in exchange for a tenant's agreement to voluntarily vacate a controlled rental unit. The Notice of a Tenant's Rights with Respect to a Buyout Offer is available at the Board's office and here. Landlords are required to file copies of all buyout agreements with the Rent Control Board no sooner than 31 days, and no later than 60 days, after the agreement has been signed by all parties. If a landlord fails to follow these requirements, a tenant may cancel the buyout agreement.
Tenants are under no obligation to accept buyout offers and should realistically evaluate whether any amount offered is sufficient to make up for the loss of a controlled rental unit. Additional information about buyouts and average amounts of buyout agreements filed with Rent Control since 2015 are available here by year, city area and unit size. You can also download a full spreadsheet of recorded buyout agreements.
Recognizing that knowledge may lead to more effective communications, the Rent Control Board recently adopted a regulation requiring that for all tenancies starting on or after July 31, 2017, landlords must give new tenants a Board-produced information sheet about the Rent Control Law at the time of lease signing.
The single-sheet document contains rent control basics including information about rent levels and rent increases, eviction protections, maintenance and repairs, and base amenities. It also includes information on other important issues affecting Santa Monica tenants and landlords such as home-sharing, smoking restrictions, harassment, and construction work in occupied buildings. Tenants are encouraged to acknowledge receipt of the information sheet by signing and dating the form. If a landlord fails to provide the information sheet to a tenant at the beginning of a tenancy, the landlord will not be able to implement the general adjustment for the unit until they comply with the requirement.
The information sheet can be downloaded here, but it will also be mailed to all landlords at the end of June. Additional copies can be picked up at the Rent Control Office in Room 202 of City Hall.
2/11/2021 Regular Rent Control Board Meeting, 7:00 p.m. via Teleconference. Click HERE for the agenda.
To view the Rent Control Board Meetings video archive or see the meetings live streamed, go HERE.
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