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[Citations.]’ [Citation.] ‘The party claiming that general state law preempts a local
ordinance has the burden of demonstrating preemption.’ ” (Coyne, supra, 9 Cal.App.5th
at p. 1225.)
I. The Ordinance is Not Preempted Under Birkenfeld
The Property Owners contend the Ordinance is preempted by the state’s unlawful
detainer statutes (Code Civ. Proc., § 1159 et seq.). The relevant framework is set forth in
Birkenfeld v. City of Berkeley (1976) 17 Cal.3d 129 (Birkenfeld), in which the plaintiff
argued a local law limiting the grounds for eviction of rent-controlled tenants was
preempted by the unlawful detainer statutes. (Id. at pp. 147, 149.) Our Supreme Court
rejected the argument with the following reasoning: “The purpose of the unlawful
detainer statutes is procedural. The statutes implement the landlord’s property rights by
permitting him to recover possession once the consensual basis for the tenant’s
occupancy is at an end. In contrast the charter amendment’s elimination of particular
grounds for eviction is a limitation upon the landlord’s property rights under the police
power, giving rise to a substantive ground of defense in unlawful detainer proceedings.
The mere fact that a city’s exercise of the police power creates such a defense does not
bring it into conflict with the state’s statutory scheme. . . . [T]he statutory remedies for
recovery of possession and of unpaid rent [citations] do not preclude a defense based on
municipal rent control legislation enacted pursuant to the police power imposing rent
ceilings and limiting the grounds for eviction for the purpose of enforcing those rent
ceilings.” (Id. at p. 149.)
In contrast, another provision of the local law challenged in Birkenfeld required
landlords to obtain a certificate of eviction from the rent control board before
commencing unlawful detainer proceedings. (Birkenfeld, supra, 17 Cal.3d at p. 150.) To
obtain such a certificate, the landlord bore the burden of proving the existence of
permissible grounds for eviction, proper notice to the tenant, and that there were “ ‘no
outstanding Code violations on the premises’ other than those ‘substantially caused by
the present tenants.’ ” (Ibid.) Moreover, the board was required to notify the tenant of
the landlord’s certificate application, the tenant was entitled to a hearing, and both parties