In the conquest of tenant advocates, Concord is the latest domino to fall 

Concord’s soon-to-be regulatory regime at a glance:

  • After inevitably being approved in a second reading on March 5, the new ordinance will go into effect on April 4.

  • Roughly half of the rental housing stock in the city will be covered by the ordinance.

  • The ordinance will apply to buildings with two or more units built before February 1, 1995.

  • Rent increases will be capped at 3% annually or 60% of CPI, whichever is lower.

  • Rent caps will also apply retroactively to the amount of rent charged one year before the ordinance goes into effect.

  • OMI/RMI evictions can be effectuated with a 25% ownership stake and individuals must live in the unit for at least 24 months.

  • When a tenant is displaced through an OMI/RMI, they are entitled to up to three months’ rent plus up to $3,000.

It has been like running blindfolded through a cactus patch.

That was the quote of Concord Mayor Edi Birsan after a nearly decades-long and raucous back-and-forth debate on rent control and additional tenant protections. There is a sense of finality in the city after Councilmembers voted 4-1 to approve this ordinance on the first reading.

We cannot profess surprise that many components of Concord’s ordinance mirror those of other locales in the Bay Area. This has become a game of following the follower. When one municipality strengthens tenant protections, neighboring cities take notice and then they follow suit.

Our industry partners were a bit surprised, however, that there was such a vocal push for rent and eviction controls in Concord, a city that has many vacancies. While the bulk of rental units are not considered “affordable housing” by any means, the rents have been relatively stabilized. This is part of the insidious creep of rent control from urban centers into suburbia, as we discussed here.

 

Our client intake form for Concord owners will get longer. We’ll need to glean more information. 

The law will apply differently to various types of housing. Single-family homes and condos, for example, will be subject to just cause eviction protections but not rent regulations. Multifamily buildings built after February 1, 1995, will likewise be subject to just cause protections but not local rent control, although they may be subject to the statewide rules of AB-1482.

Concord property owners will be in for a great deal of confusion, but Bornstein Law can help sort through it all.