Bill Requires Landlords To Issue Additional Disclosures In Flood Zones
By DANIEL BORNSTEIN, ESQ.
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Assembly Bill 646 was signed by Governor Brown on October 5 and mandates rental housing providers to disclose specified information pertaining to the risk of flooding. San Jose's severe flooding displaced 14,000 residents and inflicted significant damage, which was the impetus for the legislation.
“A month after the floods in San Jose, I walked up and down the streets and saw victims trying to get their lives together,” said Assemblyman and former San Jose City Councilman Ash Kalra, who spearheaded the Bill. “That’s when I learned the tenants had no idea they lived in flood zones and started working on this bill. Renters deserve to have the same information landlords have", he said in this article that chronicled the devastation and its human toll.
Specifically, every lease or rental agreement for residential property entered into on or after July 1, 2018, must contain disclosures informing the tenant that their unit is located in a special flood hazard area or an area prone to flooding, if the owner has actual knowledge of the fact. The landlord must also provide generalized information regarding flood and renter's insurance (including that the owner's insurance does not protect the tenant's personal possessions), that the tenant may glean information about hazards by visiting the website of the Office of Emergency Services, among some other required loose ends. You can read the full Bill text here and of course, like all new rules and regulations that have yet to be tested, it's strongly advisable to consult with an attorney.
An interesting compromise brokered by the California Apartment Association, California Association of REALTORS and other groups, is that the disclosures are required only when the owner has actual knowledge that the rental property is situated in a flood prone area. Oftentimes, a landlord has no such knowledge and under the initial bill introduced, they would have to invest considerable time and money reviewing flood maps or purchasing a hazard disclosure report each and every time a property was leased. We applaud this amendment and will update our lease forms in response to the newly minted legislation.
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