This session’s key tenant protections bill, HB 2004B, passed out of the Senate Committee on Human Services on May 31 with additional amendments to the version that passed out of the House. The bill is awaiting a vote in the Senate. In its current form, it provides important protections against no-cause evictions. The section of the bill repealing the ban on rent stabilization has been removed. Below is a summary of the bill in its current form.
Rent increases
A landlord can only increase the rent once a year.
Limits on no-cause evictions
Landlords may evict a tenant in a month-to-month tenancy for no cause during the first 9 months of occupancy with 30 days’ notice. After nine months, landlords can only use a for cause eviction, either because the tenant has done something wrong, or because they use one of the landlord causes below.
A landlord may not issue a no-cause eviction within 60 days of a tenant’s request for repairs that is necessary to correct an uninhabitable condition or code violation.
After the first nine months of occupancy, a landlord can only evict a tenant for cause. There are two kinds of causes:
- Tenant fault causes. There are no changes to the existing tenant fault causes in statute. These include things like not paying the rent or violating the lease.
- Landlord causes. A landlord can evict with 90 days’ notice if:
- The landlord or a family member intends to live in the unit, or the landlord has sold the unit to someone who intends to live in it.
- The landlord is undertaking repairs or renovations and the unit will be uninhabitable. The landlord must offer the tenant a chance to move back in when the work is completed.
- The landlord has listed the property for sale. (If the landlord notifies the tenant of the listing within 14 days, the landlord may evict the tenant with 30 days’ notice.)
- The landlord intends to change the use of the unit to a non-residential use or to demolish it.
Relocation assistance
Landlords with five or more units must pay the tenant one month’s rent as relocation expenses when evicting a tenant for a landlord cause. Landlords never pay relocation assistance when evicting the tenant for a tenant fault reason.
Exceptions
If the landlord lives on the same property as the tenant, and there are two or fewer units on the property (i.e., a duplex, an ADU, or a roommate), the landlord can continue to use no-cause evictions at any time during the tenancy.
Changes to fixed term tenancies
The current version of HB 2004B also makes changes to fixed term tenancies (often referred to as a “fixed term lease”). A fixed term tenancy must be for at least six months, unless the tenant requests a shorter lease period. Ninety days before the end of the lease, the landlord has to give notice to the tenant on whether they intend to renew, or roll the lease over to a month to month, or to ask the tenant to leave. In this case, the landlord can ask the tenant to leave without a cause as long as they give 90 days notice.