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
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10761039/cal-apartment-assn-v-city-of-pasadena/ ↗

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“reasonable period” to cure the nonpayment of rent that extends
the timeline enshrined in Code of Civil Procedure section 1161,
subdivision (2). The requirement is not substantive merely
because the ordinance is worded to provide that landlords may
not take action to terminate a tenancy unless the tenant has
failed to pay the outstanding rent after receiving a Written
Notice to Cease. (§ 1806(a)(1).) The ordinance also provides that
a landlord’s failure to serve the tenant with a Written Notice to
Cease and allow for the cure period to run constitutes a complete
affirmative defense in an unlawful detainer action. (§§ 1806(l),
1817(d); Pasadena Rental Housing Board Regulations, ch. 4,
art. I, § (B)(4)(a).) That is the epitome of a “procedural barrier[]
between the landlord and the judicial proceeding.” (Birkenfeld,
supra, 17 Cal.3d at p. 151; cf. San Francisco Apartment Assn. v.
City and County of San Francisco (2018) 20 Cal.App.5th 510, 512,
518 [ordinance providing a defense to certain evictions if a child
or educator resided in the unit and “the effective date of the
notice of termination of tenancy falls during the school year” was
not procedural despite its impact on timing of eviction because “it
does not require landlords to provide written notice or to do any
other affirmative act”]; but see Rental Housing Assn. of Northern
Alameda County v. City of Oakland (2009) 171 Cal.App.4th 741,
762-763 [ordinance requiring landlord, before serving statutory
notice to terminate tenancy, to provide warning notices to tenant
to cease violation of term of tenancy (not including nonpayment
of rent) and giving opportunity to cure violation was not
preempted by unlawful detainer statutes; notice requirements
regulated substantive grounds for eviction because if tenant
ceased offending conduct once notified by the landlord, there was
no good cause to evict].)

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