The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an urgency ordinance that continues an eviction moratorium for residential tenants and small businesses in the County through September 30, 2020.
The urgency ordinance also continues a moratorium on certain residential rent increases through September 30, 2020.
The new ordinance temporarily prohibits evictions of residential tenants in Contra Costa County impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The eviction moratorium also applies to tenants who are small businesses or non-profit organizations. A small business is an independently owned and operated business that is not dominant in its field of operation, has its principal office in California, has 100 or fewer employees, and has average annual gross receipts of $15 million or less over the previous three years.
“The emergency is not over with the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic impact our residents face has not subsided,” said Supervisor Candace Andersen, Board Chair. “We sincerely hope passage of this new ordinance to extend the eviction protection and rent freeze will continue to protect renters and small businesses, even as landlords and renters work together to have tenants pay what they can over a longer period of time.”
This law applies to properties in all 19 cities in the County and in all unincorporated areas. To the extent that a city has adopted a law on the same subject matter, then the city’s provisions would apply in that city.
Protections granted to residential renters and small businesses include:
- Prohibition on Evictions Due to Unpaid Rent – A property owner cannot evict a residential tenant or small business tenant for failure to pay rent if a tenant demonstrates loss of income or out-of-pocket medical expenses related to COVID-19. This prohibition lasts through September 30, 2020.
- Ban on No-Fault Evictions – A property owner cannot evict a residential tenant or small business tenant for any “no-fault” reason except to protect the health and safety of the owner or another tenant, to allow the owner or their immediate family to move into the residential unit or to remove the unit from the rental market. This ban lasts through September 30, 2020.
- Grace Period to Pay Back Rent – Residential tenants or small business tenants who demonstrate loss of income or out-of-pocket medical expenses related to COVID-19 have until January 31, 2021 to pay past due rent. This does not relieve a tenant of their obligation to pay rent.
- No Late Fees – A property owner may not charge or collect late fees for unpaid rent from a residential tenant or small business tenant who demonstrates loss of income or out-of-pocket medical expenses related to COVID-19. This ban on late fees extends until January 31, 2021.
- Moratorium on Residential Rent Increases – A property owner may not increase rent on a residential property through September 30, 2020. State law prevents this freeze from applying to commercial tenancies and to certain residential properties, including residences built within the last 15 years and single family homes.
I love it. Keep it coming. You have done more for conservatives then a million door knockers could imagine. My hard core Bay Area lefty neighbors will all be supporting Trump 2020. I have tried to reason with them for years. A couple months of this and everyone sees how destructive leftists policy’s are. Democrats will never hold power here again. Sincerely thank you.
A lot of what used to be apartment complexes have been turned into individually owned condos for this same reason. Apartment owners do not want to rent out apartments in counties where there’s no opportunity for making profit. This has also led to shortage of affordable and low-income housing. Once this order or pandemic is over, apartment owners will either raise rent to recoup their losses or sell their properties and turn them into condos that will lead to there being more homeless people caused by housing shortage and higher prices. The future is bleaker.
So the County will be paying the mortgage on rental homes, right?
What is being done for the property owners?
There is nothing being done for property owners which is outrageous. Property owners are not large companies. They are individual mom n pop individuals trying to provide housing to their community. The mortgage has not been forgiven. Property tax is not forgiven, they did not even give an extra day.
Property owners are mom and pop individuals and some are large company. My ex husband owns a rental house in Benicia, other than the house he and his wife lives in, in Foster City, he does not own any other property. He could probably go for awhile without getting rent, he is a pretty fair and compassionate guy, and he is still working and have other assets, I think morally he would have a hard time putting someone on the street right now, but of course it cannot go on for ever. I have sympathy for everyone caught in his morass, the renter who don’t have the money to pay rent or all the rent, and the owner who still has to pay all the expenses. The house my ex owns has no mortgage, he sold a house in Marin and bought this, so he did not have to pay capital gains taxes. I realize not everyone is in that position. It really is a difficult dilemma.
well that’s 1000s of votes for the dems, nothing like buying votes. it is the way of the dems after all.
Do the renters have to pay all of their utilities, or they exempt from paying them also? What happens, after the ordinance is over in Sept, and these renters just decide to move out, after getting 6 months of free rent. My guess is that this ordinance will be extended again after Sept. A friend wanted me to ask.
To be fair, this should be means tested. Meaning if someone could pay the rent before the corona virus and they got the extra unemployment, they should be able to pay the rent with the unemployment, it is not fair to the owners to leave them high and dry if the renter can afford to keep paying the rent. As for moving out after 6 months of free rent, not sure that holds water, housing market in this area is pretty tight and if we start to see foreclosures then the rental market will be even tighter, but so far this has not hit those who owns houses.
Owning residential investment property for income purposes in the Bay Area is a losing proposition. Look for divesting sales to ramp up while property values remain high and selling cycles are short. In other words, apartments will become condos and detached rental homes will become owner occupied again. The shortage of rental opportunities will compound. So where will the renters go?
Perhaps this is why our Governor is so keen on the Central Valley……..
Do some research, apartments can’t just become condos, there is a process for these to convert as well as a lot of legal fees and most of all it takes time. These factors compounded with the expense of the asset make it impractical to convert apartments to condos.
Apartments and condos are not built to the same standards, at least in the City of Concord. In 1980 the apartments at Concord Blvd @ Kirker Pass were in the process of conversion to condos. The owner had negotiated a variance from the City that involved increasing the size of patios/balconies, and adding outdoor storage closets. In turn, the owner promised to offer a certain number of units as low cost housing. I think I remember a sign reading $19,000.