BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2310
Author: Ridley-Thomas (D) and Dickinson (D)
Amended: 7/1/14 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/24/14
AYES: Jackson, Anderson, Corbett, Lara, Leno, Monning, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 70-1, 4/24/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Unlawful detainer: nuisance: unlawful weapons and
ammunition
SOURCE : Los Angeles City Attorney
DIGEST : This bill reauthorizes a lapsed pilot program
allowing city attorneys or city prosecutors in specified
counties to evict a tenant for unlawful activities relating to
weapons or ammunition on real property.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Provides that a tenant who maintains, commits, or permits a
nuisance upon a premises or uses a premises for an unlawful
purpose is subject to eviction pursuant to an unlawful
detainer action. Under existing law, a person who illegally
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possesses certain firearms or ammunition on the premises, or
who illegally possesses or sells a controlled substance on the
premises, or who uses the premises to further either purpose,
as defined, is deemed to have committed a nuisance upon the
premises and is guilty of unlawful detainer.
2.Provides that anything which is injurious to health,
including, but not limited to, the illegal sale of controlled
substances, or is indecent or offensive to the senses, or an
obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere
with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, or
unlawfully obstructs the free passage or use, in the customary
manner, of any navigable lake, or river, bay, stream, canal,
or basin, or any public park, square, street, or highway, is a
nuisance.
3.Provides that every building or place used by members of a
criminal street gang for the purpose of, among other things,
the commission of any offense involving dangerous or deadly
weapons, and every building or place wherein or upon which
that criminal conduct by gang members takes place, is a
nuisance which shall be enjoined, abated, and prevented, and
for which damages may be recovered, whether it is a public or
private nuisance.
This bill:
1.Reenacts a pilot program authorizing a city prosecutor or city
attorney to file, in the name of the people, an action for
unlawful detainer against a tenant to abate a nuisance caused
by illegal conduct involving unlawful weapons or ammunition on
real property, as provided.
2.Provides that such an unlawful detainer action shall be based
upon an arrest report by a law enforcement agency, reporting
an offense committed on the property and documented by the
observations of a police officer.
3.States that prior to filing an unlawful detainer action, the
city prosecutor or city attorney shall give 30 calendar days'
written notice to the owner, requiring the owner to file an
action for the removal of the person who is creating the
nuisance, and shall include sufficient documentation
establishing the nuisance. This bill also requires the city
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prosecutor or city attorney to provide a specified written
notice to the tenant allegedly creating the nuisance 30
calendar days prior to filing an unlawful detainer action.
4.Provides that an owner shall, within 30 calendar days of the
mailing of the written notice, either provide the city
prosecutor or city attorney with all relevant information
pertaining to the unlawful detainer case, or provide a written
explanation setting forth any safety-related reasons for
noncompliance, and an assignment to the city prosecutor or
city attorney of the right to bring an unlawful detainer
action against the tenant. The assignment shall be on a form
provided by the city prosecutor or city attorney and may
contain a provision for costs of investigation, discovery, and
reasonable attorney's fees, in an amount not to exceed $600.
5.Provides that upon the failure of an owner to file the
unlawful detainer action, or to respond to the city prosecutor
or city attorney as required, or having filed an action, if
the owner fails to prosecute it diligently and in good faith,
the city prosecutor or city attorney may file and prosecute
the action, and join the owner as a defendant in the action.
Provides that if a jury or court finds the defendant tenant
guilty of unlawful detainer, the city prosecutor or city
attorney may be awarded costs, including the costs of
investigation and discovery and reasonable attorney's fees,
assessed against the defendant owner.
6.States that in an unlawful detainer proceeding, a court may
issue a partial eviction ordering the removal of any person,
including, but not limited to, members of the tenant's
household if the court finds that the person has created a
nuisance, as specified. Persons removed pursuant to this
provision may be permanently barred from returning to or
reentering any portion of the premises, and the court may
further order as an express condition of the tenancy that the
remaining tenants shall not give permission or invite the
person who has been removed to return to or reenter any
portion of the premises.
7.Specifies that the authority to bring an action for unlawful
detainer under this program shall only apply to the Counties
of Alameda, Los Angeles, and Sacramento.
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8.Prohibits an unlawful detainer if the harm to the tenant
clearly outweighs the benefit to the community.
9.Requires participating jurisdictions to make a good faith
effort to comply with the reporting requirements in order to
bring unlawful detainer actions pursuant to this bill's
provisions.
10.Requires participating jurisdictions to transmit specified
information to the California Research Bureau regarding their
use of this program. This bill requires the California
Research Bureau to report to the Senate and Assembly
Committees on Judiciary on the use of this program by
participating jurisdictions, as specified.
11.Provides that authority to bring an action for unlawful
detainer under this program shall sunset on January 1, 2019.
Background
In 1988, the Legislature passed and Governor Deukmejian signed
AB 1384 (Havice, Chapter 613, Statutes of 1998) to create a
pilot project within five former Los Angeles Municipal Court
districts to allow city attorneys and district attorneys to seek
the eviction of any person who is in violation of particular
nuisance or controlled substance laws. The pilot project became
effective on January 1, 1999, for a three-year trial period.
Participating cities were required to collect specified data on
their experiences under the pilot program and transmit that data
to Judicial Council. A required Judicial Council report, issued
on January 31, 2001, was unable to provide a full evaluation of
the merits of the pilot program due to insufficient data. (See
Unlawful Detainer Pilot Project Report (Feb. 2001)
(as of Jun. 14, 2014).)
AB 815 (Havice, Chapter 431, Statutes of 2001) was enacted in
2001 to add additional cities to the pilot program and to extend
the program for three additional years. The bill also modified
the program to expressly allow courts to order "partial
evictions" to allow other tenants to maintain possession of
premises if the target of an unlawful detainer eviction had
permanently vacated the premises. A required Judicial Council
report, issued on April 22, 2004, could not fully evaluate the
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program again due to insufficient data, but observed:
The ultimate evidence of the programs' success is the
creation of a safer environment and improved quality of
life for lawabiding tenants through the removal of
offending tenants from the community. . . . Beyond
anecdotal evidence provided by the pilot programs, however,
no data are available to assess the impacts of the programs
on safety and quality of life in this regard. (Unlawful
Detainer Pilot Program Report (Apr. 2004)
(as of Jun. 14, 2014).)
In 2004, AB 2523 (Frommer, Chapter 304, Statutes of 2004)
further extended the unlawful detainer pilot program to January
1, 2010, and augmented the reporting requirements for
participating jurisdictions. The bill also required two
additional Judicial Council reports to the Senate and Assembly
Committees on Judiciary summarizing the collected information
and evaluating the merits of the pilot program. A 2007 Judicial
Council report again could not fully evaluate the program,
noting "[e]valuation of the merits of the pilot program is
necessarily limited by the data received from the participating
pilot cities." (Unlawful Detainer Pilot Program Report (Apr.
2007) (as of Jun. 14,
2014).)
In 2007, AB 1013 (Krekorian, Chapter 456, Statutes of 2007) was
enacted to create a similar pilot program to allow city
attorneys and prosecutors to seek the eviction of tenants who
violated specified weapons and ammunitions offenses while in
rental property. This program, which was to sunset on January
1, 2010, was extended four years along with the nuisance and
controlled substance pilot program by AB 530 (Krekorian, Chapter
244, Statutes of 2009). AB 530 added the City of Sacramento to
the controlled substances pilot program, and exempted the City
of Los Angeles from the sunset date of the controlled substances
program, thereby extending the program indefinitely for that
city. AB 530 made additional changes to the eviction notice and
reporting requirements of both pilot programs. A 2009 Judicial
Council report again could not fully evaluate the merits of the
program, noting the failure of participating jurisdictions to
consistently report required data. (Unlawful Detainer Pilot
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Program Report (Apr. 2009) (as of
Jun. 14, 2014).)
As part of the changes to the pilot programs' reporting
requirements, AB 530 directed participating jurisdictions to
report specific information to the California Research Bureau
(CRB) for analysis. The most recent report from CRB noted,
nonetheless, that "[c]urrent reporting requirements and
practices make it difficult to assess the overall merits of the
[unlawful detainer] pilot programs." (Lindsey,
City-Attorney-Sponsored Unlawful Detainer in California Part I:
Mandated Information 2013 Report to the Legislature (April 2013)
(as of June 14,
2014).)
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/6/14)
Los Angeles City Attorney (source)
Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles
Cities of Oakland and Sacramento
Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
Police Officers Research Association of California
Santa Barbara Rental Property Association
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/6/14)
Apartment Association, Southern California Cities
East Bay Rental Housing Association
Nor Cal Rental Property Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author writes:
This bill would reenact recently sunsetted provisions of Civil
Code Section 3485 authorizing a city prosecutor or city attorney
in specified cities to file an action for unlawful detainer to
abate a nuisance caused by illegal conduct involving unlawful
weapons or ammunition. The California Research Bureau has
issued two reports on the unlawful detainer pilot program
(including drug based unlawful detainers as detailed in Civil
Code Section 3486) and found that a potential benefit is that
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evicting a nuisance tenant from a community may decrease the
number of times residents call city police to the area and the
costs associated with answering those calls.
Part of the need for the bill is that property owners are
frequently unaware that their tenants have committed crimes on
the premises. Before sunsetting in 2014, Section 3485 of the
Civil Code provided for notification by the city attorney to the
property owner advising of a weapon or ammunition related crime
committed on the premises and required the property owner to
evict the tenant. The tenant is also notified, thereby
decreasing the chances of retaliation against the property
owner. AB 2310 would reinstate the authority and use of partial
evictions as a valuable tool to make communities safer.
Criminals should not be allowed to paralyze neighborhoods and
communities.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : A coalition of apartment
associations opposes this bill because, among other things, the
bill requires landlords to pay the assignment fee even if the
public prosecutor takes no action. The coalition states:
This bill unfairly requires landlords to either pay for an
attorney to evict a tenant the city wants evicted, or pay the
city attorney or city prosecutor $600 to evict the tenant. If a
landlord chooses to pay the city, the bill does not require the
city to actually take action against the targeted tenant.
Moreover, the bill provides no assurances or mechanisms for
landlords to recoup those funds in the event the city chooses
not to evict or fails to take action against the tenant.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 70-1, 4/24/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Grove,
Hagman, Hall, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer,
Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina,
Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nestande, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel
Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NOES: Donnelly
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NO VOTE RECORDED: Ammiano, Chesbro, Gray, Harkey, Mansoor,
Nazarian, Olsen, Patterson, Vacancy
AL:e 8/6/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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