Landlords Are Not Going to Jail
Thomas Fire's Rent Cap Expired with Its Emergency Declaration
For those landlords who read the March 18, 2022, op-ed entitled “Landlords Beware” and suddenly believed that they would be going to jail, think twice before sending in the measurements for your prison jumpsuit.
The piece, which Rachel Sim authored for the Santa Barbara Tenants Union, was premised on the contention that Santa Barbara County and California have been in an “uninterrupted state of emergency” since December 7, 2017, beginning with the Thomas Fire disaster declaration and continuing to this day with the various state and federal COVID-19 disaster declarations. As a result, the writer contends, the criminal price-gouging provisions in California Penal Code Section 396 prevent a landlord from raising rents more than 10 percent from what they were prior to December 7, 2017.
The one thing the piece gets correct is that Penal Code Section 396 in subsection (e) does prohibit “Upon the proclamation of a state of emergency declared by the President of the United States or the Governor, or upon the declaration of a local emergency by an official, board, or other governing body vested with authority to make that declaration in any city, county, or city and county, and for a period of 30 days following that proclamation or declaration, or any period the proclamation or declaration is extended by the applicable authority, it is unlawful for any person, business, or other entity, to increase the rental price, as defined in paragraph (11) of subdivision (j), advertised, offered, or charged for housing, to an existing or prospective tenant, by more than 10 percent.” (Italics added.) Furthermore, subsection (e) extends the protections to any new tenant who is offered the rental after an eviction.
