The California Association of Realtors works continuously to advocate for housing and home ownership. Much is at stake both at the state and local levels and the public is not always aware of the many senate and assembly bills that are proposed throughout the year. It's important to protect both tenants and housing providers but finding the right balance can be a challenge.
Here are two bills currently under review:
SB 1026 would have created an energy-efficiency audit process that would have been required to be performed for each rental unit every time a unit is rented. Specifically, the bill sought to require housing providers to determine the energy efficiency of appliances and heating systems, as well as door, wall, ceiling and floor insulation. Housing providers are not energy-efficiency experts and, as a result, they would have been forced to seek costly professional assistance every time they rented a unit to accurately report the energy efficiency of each aspect of the unit.
AB 2383 would have required housing providers to deliver an extensive written statement to an applicant if the applicant’s criminal history information is used as the basis for possible denial. The written statement would have been required to include substantial amounts of information, including the applicable law providing the basis for each conviction. Most housing providers are not lawyers so they would have no practical way of providing all of this detailed information. It would have been a challenge!
Here is one that passed in August 2022.
AB 2170 “First Look” Program. This bill will prohibit bulk sales of REO parcels by a mortgage servicer that forecloses on 175 or more residential properties annually. This bill will also: (a) Conform to the existing federal guidelines for the federal “First Look” program and provide owner-occupants and public entities with an opportunity to purchase REO properties for 30 days); (b) Require mortgage servicers to provide a written acknowledgment to the potential owner-occupant purchaser and public entities of all offers during that 30 day period; and (c) Require mortgage servicers to respond to “First Look” offers on REO parcels prior to accepting offers from investor purchasers.
Source: California Association of Realtors