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DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

Cal. Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025)

Citation
Cal. Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025)
Parent Document
Cal. Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025)
Jurisdiction
California (state)
Effective Date
2025-12-18

Other Sections in This Document (114)

Full Text

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scheme because they were permissible regulations of bases or
grounds for eviction within the meaning of Civil Code section
1954.53, subdivision (e). Both cases are distinguishable because
the ordinances at issue targeted “bad faith, pretextual” conduct
by landlords to get around local eviction regulations. (SFAA III,
at p. 295; see Mak, at pp. 63, 69 [regulation at issue imposed a
sanction for landlord’s “subterfuge” and “transparent attempt to
circumvent the provisions of local rent control provisions”].)
       The San Francisco ordinance at issue in SFAA III made it
unlawful for a landlord to seek to recover possession of a rental
unit that was exempt from rent control “by means of a rental
increase that is imposed in bad faith to coerce the tenant to
vacate the unit in circumvention of the city’s eviction laws.”
(SFAA III, supra, 74 Cal.App.5th at pp. 290-291.) Landlord
interest groups sued, arguing the regulation was preempted by
the Costa-Hawkins Act because it regulated the rent a landlord
could charge on exempt properties. (Id. at p. 291.) The court
disagreed, holding the ordinance was a “reasonable exercise of
the city’s authority to regulate the grounds for eviction” in that it
prevented landlords “from designating as rent an artificial sky-
high amount that the landlord does not intend to collect but
intends to cause the tenant to vacate the unit voluntarily or by
eviction for nonpayment of the unrealistic figure.” (Id. at pp. 291-
292.) In particular, the ordinance required a finding that the
landlord intended to coerce the tenant to move. (Id. at p. 292.)
The court found the regulation’s targeting of bad faith, pretextual
rent increases to avoid local eviction regulations fit within the
reservation of local authority to regulate the grounds for eviction
under Civil Code section 1954.53, subdivision (e). (SFAA III, at
p. 294.)