BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 944
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Date of Hearing: June 21, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Mark Stone, Chair
SB
944 (Committee on Transportation and Housing) - As Amended May
31, 2016
PROPOSED CONSENT
SENATE VOTE: 37-0
SUBJECT: HOUSING OMNIBUS
KEY ISSUE: SHOULD various NON-CONTROVERSIAL CHANGES RELATING TO
housing LAW BE MADE TO THE CALIFORNIA CODES IN THIS OMNIBUS
BILL?
SYNOPSIS
This non-controversial bill is the Senate Transportation and
Housing Committee's housing omnibus bill. The purpose of the
omnibus bill is to increase the efficiency of the legislative
process, conserve legislative resources, and eliminate the need
to unnecessarily hear a number of stand-alone bills that might
otherwise have to be introduced and heard separately through the
legislative process. According to the author, in order to be
included in the bill, each provision must be determined to be
non-controversial by both the majority and minority party
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consultants in both the Senate and Assembly, or else it is
amended out of the bill. This omnibus bill incorporates over
fifteen different proposals submitted by various groups seeking
to make technical, clarifying, or other modest substantive
changes to laws relating to housing, including such groups as
the California Coalition for Rural Housing, the Department of
General Services, the Western Manufactured Housing Communities
Association, as well as ECHO and CAI, advocates for homeowner
associations. This bill was approved unanimously in the Senate
without any "No" votes, and passed the Assembly Housing and
Community Development Committee by a vote of 7-0. The bill has
no known opposition.
SUMMARY: Makes various non-controversial changes to sections of
law relating to housing. Specifically, this bill, among other
things:
1)Increases the time after the date of sale, from 10 days to 30
days, by which management seeking to dispose of a mobile home
must file a notice of disposal with the Department of Housing
and Community Development (HCD) to enforce the lien against
the mobilehome.
2)Corrects an erroneous cross-reference that helps define
"electric vehicle charging station" within a statute
prohibiting commercial lease terms that unreasonably interfere
with the construction of such charging stations.
3)Repeals the Transitional Housing Participant Misconduct Act
from the Health and Safety Code, and relocates the Act into a
new chapter of Title 5 of the Civil Code, relating to hiring
of real property.
4)Defines "tribally designated housing entity" to mean an entity
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as defined in Section 4103 of Title 25 of the U.S. Code, and
specifies that tribally designated housing entities are
housing sponsors eligible for assistance from HCD.
5)Codifies an exemption from the law prohibiting unlicensed
contracting for a nonprofit corporation providing assistance
to an owner-builder, as defined, who is participating in a
mutual self-help housing program, as specified.
6)Replaces or deletes several outdated code references, corrects
drafting errors, and makes other non-controversial technical
and clarifying changes.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires the management of a mobilehome park to file a notice
of disposal with HCD, in the form and manner as prescribed, no
less than ten days after the date of sale in order to enforce
the lien against the mobilehome. (Civil Code Sections 798.56a
(e) and 798.61 (f).)
2)Defines "electric vehicle charging station" or "charging
station" to mean a station that is designed in compliance with
Article 625 of the National Electrical Code, as it reads on
the effective date, and delivers electricity from a source
outside an electric vehicle into one or more electric
vehicles. (Civil Code Section 1952.7 (c).)
3)Pursuant to the Transitional Housing Participant Misconduct
Act, allows transitional housing operators to remove
problematic residents by obtaining a temporary restraining
order or other injunctive relief to prevent recurrence of acts
of violence or substantial disruption. (Chapter 4.7
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(commencing with Section 50580) of Part 2 of Division 31 of
the Health and Safety Code.)
4)Defines the term "housing sponsor" for the purpose of housing
assistance by HCD to mean any individual, joint venture,
partnership, trust, corporation, etc., as specified, but omits
federally recognized "tribally designated housing entities"
from the definition under state law. (Health & Safety Code
Section 50074.)
5)Makes it a misdemeanor to engage in the business of or act in
the capacity of a contractor without a license, but also
provides certain exemptions from that licensure requirement
for certain owner-builders, as specified. (Business &
Professions Code Section 7044.)
FISCAL EFFECT: As currently in print this bill is keyed fiscal.
COMMENTS: SB 944 is this year's Housing Omnibus bill carried by
the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee. The bill makes
various changes to different sections of the Codes relating to
housing. Among other things, the bill makes a number of
technical and minor substantive changes to the Civil Code,
including cleanup to legislation previously approved by the
Assembly Judiciary Committee.
According to the author, the proponent of an item submits
proposed language and provides background materials to the
Committee for the item to be described to legislative staff and
stakeholders. Senate Transportation and Housing staff provides
a summary of the items and the proposed statutory changes to all
majority and minority consultants in both the Senate and
Assembly, as well as all known or presumed interested parties.
According to the author, if an item encounters any opposition
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and the proponent cannot work out a solution with the
opposition, the item is excluded from the bill, thus ensuring
that all proposals included in this omnibus bill are
non-controversial and have no opposition from legislative
members, agencies, and other stakeholders.
This year, the bill proposes to make the following changes
(relevant sections of the bill in parentheses):
Mobile home disposal: Minor program changes and follow-up to AB
999 (Sections 2, 3, and 20). AB 999 (Daly, Chapter 376,
Statutes of 2015) was approved by this Committee and was
chaptered into law last year with no controversy. However, in
the implementation of the new mandate, the Department of Housing
and Community Development (HCD) and interested parties are
finding that the 10-day period given in the statute (Civil Code
Section 798.56 (e)) is not enough time for management to make a
decision on whether to dispose of an abandoned mobilehome. As a
result, this new program is not being used. Additionally, HCD
realized after AB 999 was passed that it needed regulations to
create the forms required by the new law. This bill changes the
time in which management must file a notice of disposal with HCD
from 10 days to 30 days after the date of sale. This bill also
gives HCD authority to draft guidelines for new procedures and
forms until final regulations may be formally adopted.
[Proposed by Western Manufactured Housing Communities
Association]
Definition of "electric vehicle charging station": Correct code
reference (Section 5). AB 2565 (Muratsuchi, Chapter 529,
Statutes of 2014) was approved by this Committee and was
chaptered into law. Among other things, AB 2565 made a term in
a lease of a commercial or residential property, executed,
renewed, or extended on or after January 1, 2015, void and
unenforceable if it prohibits or unreasonably restricts the
installation of an electric vehicle charging station in a
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parking space. However, AB 2565 included an inconsistent
definition of "electric vehicle charging station" and "charging
station." Civil Code Section 1947.6 (c) references the
definition in the California Electrical Code, while Civil Code
Section 1952.7 (c)(1) references the definition in the National
Electrical Code. The California Electrical Code is based on the
model National Electrical Code, but contains amendments made by
state agencies with statutory authority. These amendments were
not originally included in the national model code. This bill
corrects the discrepancy by changing the definition in Section
1952.7 of the Civil Code to refer to the California Electrical
Code. [Proposed by the Department of General Services]
Transitional Housing Misconduct Act: Relocation to Civil Code
(Sections 4 and 25). The Transitional Housing Misconduct Act is
a special law that allows transitional housing operators to
remove problematic residents with a simple injunction action,
rather than going through the entire landlord-tenant eviction
law. It also allows for interim options, with court
enforcement, rather than only eviction. Unfortunately, because
it is located in the middle of HCD's finance program laws, it is
difficult to find and often isn't even understood by courts and
housing providers. This bill moves this law to a new chapter of
the Civil Code (commencing with section 1954.10), adjacent to
existing statutes on rental of real property and landlord-tenant
law, where the courts and housing providers are more likely to
look for such provisions. [Proposed by Senate Transportation
and Housing Committee]
Adopts by reference a needed definition of "tribally designated
housing entities" (Sections 23 and 24). State Health and Safety
Code Section 50074 describes the types of housing sponsors that
are eligible to participate in housing programs administered by
HCD. The federal Native American Housing Assistance Self
Determination Act of 1996 (NAHASDA) establishes a specific
category of housing sponsor, the "tribally designated housing
entity," that is neither enumerated in Section 50074 nor defined
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in existing language. As such, tribes have never participated
in HCD's programs. This bill defines "tribally designated
housing entity" by reference to federal code and specifies that
tribally designated housing entities are housing sponsors
eligible for assistance from HCD.
This proposal was submitted by the Northern Circle Indian
Housing Authority, and the Committee has received letters from
several nonprofit affordable housing advocates serving rural
Native American communities in support of this proposal. Among
them, the United Native Housing Development Corporation (UNHDC)
writes:
Legislation like SB 944 will eliminate regulatory
barriers which will allow direly needed affordable
housing services be extended to disadvantaged
communities that have historically been underserved.
UNHDC actively supports sustainable practice in its
land and community development endeavors. SB 944 will
provide access to critical resources to continue our
efforts in this regard.
Mutual Self-Help Housing: Codifies longstanding exception to
licensed contracting rule for certain nonprofits. (Section 1).
Ten local non-profit community development organizations operate
mutual self-help homeownership programs in rural California
(programs that assist groups of low-income families who work
together to build their own homes). Local governments and
others are sometimes unclear about the role that the non-profit
plays in the program. It is possible to interpret the current
code definition of a contractor to include the work done by the
self-help program operators. However the State Contractor's
License Board has also said that by acting in a specific manner,
the programs would be considered exempt. Rather than leaving
the matter subject to interpretation, the proposed amendment to
the California Business and Professions Code would clarify that
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non-profits that specifically operate this mutual self-help
program are not acting as contractors. According to the author,
this proposal will codify a practice that has been in place for
the past 50 years and ensure that the program can continue to
assist rural families. [Proposed by the California Coalition
for Rural Housing]
State notice law protections: Clarifies reference to correct a
drafting oversight (Section 12). The state notice law
(Government Code Section 65863.10) applies to a variety of
publicly supported affordable multifamily housing types. SB
1328 (2004) extended state notice protections to tenants of many
types of affordable housing not previously covered. Among them
were properties with expiring rent restrictions that were
financed under tax-exempt mortgage revenue bond programs in
Internal Revenue Code Section 142 (d) and Government Code
Section 65863.10 (a)(3)(F). Prior to 1986, however, the
mortgage revenue bond authority in Internal Revenue Code Section
142 (d) was lodged in a different code section. Consequently,
the specific reference to Section 142 potentially denies basic
state notice protections to tenants in properties that were
financed with mortgage revenue bonds prior to 1986. Last year,
voucher tenants of a 1985 bond-financed property in Walnut Creek
were left unprotected by the state notice law because of this
oversight. This bill clarifies that these protections apply to
properties financed by the program in Internal Revenue Code
Section 142 as well as corresponding sections in the prior code.
[Proposed by Housing Advocates]
Mobilehome Park Rehabilitation and Resident Ownership Program:
Clarifies legislative intent (Section 26). AB 225 (Chau and
Nestande, Chapter 493, Statutes of 2014) gave HCD greater
flexibility to administer the Mobilehome Park Rehabilitation and
Resident Ownership Program. The bill allowed recipients of
program funds (e.g., resident organizations, local public
entities, nonprofit sponsors) to make loans to lower-income
mobilehome owners to assist them in repairing their mobilehomes.
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The bill was intended to allow HCD to operate this program in a
manner similar to the CalHOME program, such as by providing
loans to residents to replace their mobilehomes. This bill
further clarifies the intent of that legislation. [Proposed by
Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee]
Common interest developments: Resolves conflicts between code
sections relating to declarations (Section 6). There are
conflicts between Civil Code Sections 4270 and 4225, 4230 and
4235 relating to amending declarations. Section 4270 already
makes an exception for an alternate amendment process described
in Section 4275. This bill resolves the conflicts by adding
exceptions for the alternate processes in Sections 4225, 4230,
and 4235 to the existing exception in Section 4270. [Proposed
by Educational Community for Homeowners (ECHO)]
Common interest developments: Renumber a Civil Code section
(Section 7). The California Law Revision Commission (CLRC)
revised the numbering in the Davis-Stirling Act with the intent
to avoid decimals. Accordingly, the CLRC left ample room
between existing whole-numbered sections. Despite this, Civil
Code Section 4750 concerns personal agriculture, while Civil
Code Section 4750.10 addresses clotheslines. Since clotheslines
are not particularly related to personal agriculture, this bill
replaces the statute number containing a decimal with a whole
number. [Proposed by Educational Community for Homeowners
(ECHO)]
Common interest developments: Annual budget reports (Section 8).
Last year, the legislature passed and the Governor signed AB
596, which requires a homeowners association (HOA) in a common
interest development (CID) to disclose to the owners if the CID
is an approved condominium project pursuant to Federal Housing
Administration (FHA) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
guidelines. Section 5300 (b)(10), which applies only to
condominium projects, specifies the following wording that must
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be contained in the disclosure statement: "This common interest
development [is/is not (circle one)] a condominium project."
This bill eliminates the "is/is not a condominium" question from
Section 5300 (b)(10), since the section only applies to condos.
[Proposed by Community Associations Institute-California
Legislative Action Committee (CAI-CLAC)]
Common interest developments: Corrects a Civil Code section
reference (Section 9). Civil Code Section 5570 (b)(2) defines
the term "major component" to have the same meaning as specified
in Civil Code Section 55530. There is no Civil Code Section
55530. The reference is intended to be to Civil Code Section
5550, which does define the term. This bill corrects an
inaccurate Civil Code section reference from Section 55530 to
5550. [Proposed by Community Associations Institute-California
Legislative Action Committee (CAI-CLAC)]
Housing discrimination: Updates federal law citation (Section
10). In 1996, an amendment to Civil Code Section 798.76 was
made to reflect amendments to a federal law referenced therein,
the Federal Fair Housing Act. A corresponding change was not
made in Government Code Section 12955.9, which cites the same
federal law. This bill corrects the name of the federal law to
reflect amendments thereto. [Proposed by Western Manufactured
Housing Communities Association]
Eliminates conflicting methodology for HCD determination of
regional housing need (Section 11). The second and third
sentences of Section 65584.01 (b) reference two different
criteria that can result in conflicting calculations for whether
HCD must accept the population forecast of a council of
government (COG) in place of the population forecast of
Department of Finance (DOF). Both criteria apply whether the
COG forecast is within a range of 3% of DOF's determination.
The 1st criterion compares COG and DOF "total" population. The
2nd criterion compares change and difference in population
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"growth" between COG and DOF total population. For example,
SCAG, during the current 5th 2013-2023 housing cycle, only met
the 1st criterion, which the Department allowed and prefers. In
late 2015, HCD discussed criteria conflict and redundancy with
local government and housing advocate members of the Housing
Element Advisory Group, and that group agreed that the 2nd
criterion is redundant. Removing the term "growth" used twice
in 3rd sentence would resolve this issue. [Proposed by Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee]
Referencing International Codes (Section 13). Subdivision (a)
of California Health and Safety Code Section 17913 refers to
"the uniform codes" as the model codes in California. However,
there are other model codes related to residential construction
in California (International Codes published by the
International Code Council) that need to be referenced. The
amendment to subdivision (a) updates the reference to the codes
currently adopted in California. [Proposed by Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee]
Removes outdated building code requirements (Section 14 and 15).
California Health and Safety Code Section 17921.3 contains
requirements for water closets and urinals. This section, by
its terms, would remain operative only until January 1, 2014, or
until the date on which the California Building Standards
Commission included standards in the California Building
Standards Code that conform to this section, whichever date is
later. Mandatory provisions for water efficient plumbing
fixtures and plumbing fittings were adopted in the 2013
California Green Building Code (CALGreen) and in the 2013
California Plumbing Code. This proposal repeals Section 17921.3
because there is no need for it to remain operative and to
continue to be printed in the code. [Proposed by Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee]
Building Standards Commission submittals to the Office of
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Administrative Law (OAL) (Section 11, 20, and 22). Government
Code Section 11356 exempts building standard regulations
(including the Initial Statement of Reasons) from OAL review and
approval. When the California Building Standards Commission
(CBSC) approves an Initial Statement of Reasons and a Notice of
Proposed Action (Notice), only the Notice is published by OAL in
the California Regulatory Notice Register pursuant to Government
Code Section 11344.1. However, Health and Safety Code Section
18935 (a) requires CBSC to submit both the Initial Statement of
Reasons and the Notice to OAL. This bill eliminates an
unnecessary requirement in order to achieve consistency with
existing law. [Proposed by Department of General Services]
Removes outdated provisions (Section 15). California Health and
Safety Code Section 17921.9 contains provisions for CPVC plastic
piping and safe work practices. This section became inoperative
on January 1, 1998, by its own terms. This proposal removes
Section 17921.9 because there is no need for it to remain in the
code. [Proposed by Senate Transportation and Housing Committee]
Replaces outdated code references (Section 16). California
Health and Safety Code Section 17922 contains provisions related
to the California Building Standards and other rules and
regulations adopted by HCD, and refers to "the uniform model
codes". However, some of these uniform model codes are no
longer adopted in California. The amendments to subdivisions
(a) and (b) update the language and refer to the model codes
currently adopted in California. [Proposed by Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee]
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Deletes a citation to an outdated building code reference
(Section 17). California Health and Safety Code Section 17922.3
contains provisions governing moved residential structures. The
language in this section refers to the 1991 Uniform Building
Code (UBC), Section 104, for the requirements for existing
buildings, including moved buildings. The UBC is no longer a
model code in California; the requirements for existing
buildings in California are currently in the California Existing
Building Code (2015 IEBC is the model code). This proposal
deletes that citation because there is no need for a reference
to code not adopted in California. [Senate Transportation and
Housing Committee]
Deletes a citation to an outdated building code reference
(Section 18). California Health and Safety Code Section 17958.1
authorizes cities and counties to permit efficiency units, and
refers to the "Uniform Building Code" for the meaning of the
term "efficiency unit." However, the Uniform Building Code is
no longer a model code in California; the definition of
"efficiency unit" and the section containing the requirements
for efficiency units are located in the California Building Code
(the International Building Code is the model code). This
proposal deletes that citation because there is no need for a
reference to code not adopted in California. [Proposed by
Senate Transportation and Housing Committee]
Corrects a spelling error (Section 19). California Health and
Safety Code Section 17959.1 (a) requires cities or counties to
administratively approve applications to install solar energy
systems. The modifications to subdivision (a) corrects a
spelling error. [Proposed by Senate Transportation and Housing
Committee]
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California Coalition for Rural Housing
Mammoth Lakes Housing
Peoples' Self Help Housing
Redwood Valley Little River Band of Pomo Indians
United Native Housing Development Corporation
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916)
319-2334
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