El Cerrito Municipal Code Ch. 10.100 Rent Registry

A. Findings. The city council finds and declares as follows:

1. The city has a substantial government interest in regulating the relationship between landlords and tenants in order to increase certainty, stability, and fairness within the rental market.

2. The ordinance codified in this chapter is being adopted pursuant to the city's police power authority to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.

B. Purpose. The purpose of this chapter is to adopt regulations for landlords to report residential rents and other information to the city on an annual basis. This registration process will allow the city to collect, monitor and analyze actual rents in El Cerrito and the characteristics of rental units. This data will be prepared in an annual report to the city council. This chapter supports the city's housing goals and protects public health, safety, and welfare for the residents of El Cerrito. This chapter and its implementation are intended to protect the privacy of individual tenants and the proprietary information of landlords, the public release of which could result in a competitive disadvantage.

(Ord. No. 2019-03, § 2, 5-21-2019)

"Business license" means the license required of landlords pursuant to El Cerrito Municipal Code Chapter 4.32, Business License Tax.

"City" means the city of El Cerrito.

"Community development director" means the director of the community development department of the city of El Cerrito or his or her designee. A designated representative may include city staff and/or a party or organization contracted by the city to provide the necessary services to implement the procedures contained in this chapter.

"Department" shall mean the community development department of the city of El Cerrito.

"Landlord" means an owner, lessor, or sublessor who receives or is entitled to receive rent for the use and occupancy of any rental unit or portion thereof, and includes any legal entity or other individuals, employees, agents, contractors, and subcontractors that comprise or represent the landlord.

"Rent" means a fixed periodic compensation paid by a tenant at fixed intervals to a landlord for the possession and use of a rental unit as defined by the rental agreement between the landlord and tenant. Rent excludes pass through costs and ancillary costs paid separately to the landlord for parking, storage, utilities, water, garbage, or any other fee or charge associated with a rental unit.

"Rent registry information" means the information required to be submitted to the city by a landlord pursuant to this chapter.

"Rental unit" means a habitable structure offered for rent and used as a place of permanent or customary and usual abode of a tenant. Rental units include a single-family residence, a building, a group of buildings or a portion of a building used and/or designed as dwellings. A rental unit shall not include:

A. A room or any other portion of a dwelling that is occupied by the landlord or a member of the landlord's immediate family.

B. Housing accommodations in hotels, motels, group housing, supportive housing, transitional housing, general residential care and bed and breakfasts as those terms are defined in the El Cerrito Municipal Code Chapter 19 and, by reference, in the San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan.

C. An on-site manager's living unit.

D. Any rental unit where the tenancy is an express condition of, or express consideration for, employment by a landlord.

E. Any rental units for which rents are controlled or regulated by any government unit, agency, or authority, or whose rent is subsidized by any government unit, agency or authority. This exception shall not apply to any rental unit for which rents are controlled pursuant to a rent stabilization ordinance, in the event that the city council adopt such an ordinance.

F. Any rental units acquired by the city or any other governmental unit, agency or authority, and are intended to be used for public purposes.

"Tenant" means any renter, tenant, subtenant, lessee, or sublessee of a rental unit, or any group of renters, tenants, subtenants, lessees, sublessees of a rental unit, or any other person entitled to the use or occupancy of such rental unit, or any successor of any of the foregoing.

(Ord. No. 2019-03, § 2, 5-21-2019)

A. Initial Registration. A landlord must register every rental unit that is subject to the provisions of this chapter within thirty days of receipt of notice from the city that registration is required. Registration must be completed using forms provided by the city. The forms provided by the city may include a secure internet website with an interface for submitting the information required by this chapter. Registration is complete only when all required information has been provided to the city and all outstanding fees and penalties, if applicable, have been paid. Upon completion of the initial registration of a rental unit, the city shall issue a registration statement, which shall include the renewal date for the registration of the applicable rental units.

B. Registration Renewal. Unless a registration statement provides otherwise, registration of rental units shall expire on June 30 of the year following issuance of a registration statement. Registration of rental units shall be renewed annually by June 30 or the date stated on the registration statement. Registration statements shall expire annually on June 30 or the date on the registration statement, unless renewed prior to the expiration date.

C. At minimum, the following information below shall be provided as part of initial and renewal registration of a rental unit. Failure to provide the information required or providing false information shall be a violation of the municipal code, chargeable as a misdemeanor or infraction.

1. The name, address, and phone number of the landlord;

2. The address of each rental unit for rent or lease;

3. The number of bedrooms and bathrooms in each rental unit, including square footage, for rent or lease;

4. The current amount and date of the monthly rent received for each rental unit, identifying whether the monthly rent includes specified utilities (water/sewer, refuse/recycle, natural gas, electricity, etc.);

5. The previous amount and date of monthly rent for the reporting period that covers the last twenty-four months;

6. The occupancy status of each rental unit (e.g., vacant or occupied) and reason for vacancy, if applicable;

7. Tenant history (e.g., new tenant or existing tenant, date of move-in and move-out);

8. Whether or not the tenant receives a housing voucher or rental subsidy (e.g., Section 8, VASH);

9. History of capital improvements, including major maintenance costs, completed in the last twenty-four months;

10. The business license number applicable to each rental unit;

11. Any other information deemed necessary by the community development director to implement the provisions of this chapter.

D. Termination of Exemption. When a rental unit that was exempt from this chapter becomes governed by this chapter for the first time, the landlord must register the rental unit with the city within thirty days after the city provides notice that the exemption has ended.

E. Registration Amendment. A landlord shall notify the city if there is a change to the registration information for any rental unit. A landlord shall contact the city within thirty days of a change in a rental unit's ownership or management, or a change in the owner's or manager's contact information.

F. Copy of Registration to Tenant. If requested by the city, a landlord shall provide the tenant(s) a true and correct copy of the completed registration form that pertains to their rental unit. The landlord may redact any information that does not pertain to that unit except the name and address of the landlord.

G. Administrative Regulations. The community development director may promulgate administrative regulations to implement the provisions of this chapter.

H. Collecting and Keeping Confidential Rent Registry Information.

1. The city council recognizes that the rent registry information, if publicly disclosed, could reveal the rent that a tenant pays for a rental unit or proprietary information of a landlord that could create a competitive disadvantage for every landlord required to comply with this chapter. The city council also recognizes that the Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.) generally requires that the city make available to the public information in its possession that relates to the conduct of the public's business. The Public Records Act contains a number of exceptions intended to protect the privacy of individuals and the proprietary information of businesses that is in the city's possession only because of a legal requirement to provide it to the city in connection with a regulatory program. The city council declares that the rent registry information shall be received in confidence, and that the public interest in nondisclosure of the rent registry information clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this section identifies limited rent registry information that shall be made available to the public.

2. The city anticipates that rent registry information will be kept in a database. The database containing rent registry information shall be created and maintained such that it can generate reports containing only the following, individually or in combination: (a) the number of rental units per building expressed as a range of the number of rental units per building; (b) the number and type of rooms in a rental unit, with the rental units grouped by number of bedrooms and not listed individually; (c) the size of rental units, expressed in square feet; (d) the rent for rental units, classified only by size of rental units in square feet and number and type of rooms; (e) average rent for rental units by size of rental units in square feet or number of rooms for any period of time covered by the rent registry information; or (f) the average length of occupancy or vacancy of rental units, classified only by size of rental units in square feet or number and type of rooms. The rent registry information listed in this paragraph shall be the only rent registry information released in response to a request made under the Public Records Act. The city will not disclose rent registry information for rental units in a manner that identifies the building in which they are located or the rent for any individual rental unit. Rent registry information shall not include identifying information regarding an individual tenant.

3. The community development director may generate additional reports from the rent registry information database for the purposes of this chapter. Such reports shall be released to the public only if kept in the normal course of city business and only after redacting any rent registry information that would improperly intrude into personal privacy of tenants or reveal landlord proprietary information that could result in a competitive disadvantage.

4. The community development director, in consultation with the city attorney, may authorize the release of other rent registry information that would otherwise be confidential if they determine that the release is legally required or the public interest in disclosure would clearly outweigh the public interest in nondisclosure.

(Ord. No. 2019-03, § 2, 5-21-2019)

A. Annual Review. The community development director shall annually prepare a report to the council assessing the effectiveness of the program established under this chapter and may recommend changes.

B. Fees. For the sole purpose of reimbursing the city for reasonable regulatory costs of performing investigations, inspections, and audits necessary for the implementation and the administrative enforcement and adjudication of this chapter, the landlord of each rental unit subject to the provision of this chapter shall pay a fee in an amount to be set by the city for each rental unit. The amount of the fee shall be included in the city's master fee schedule and may be adjusted annually for inflation each July 1 using an appropriate index, as determined by city council.

C. Business License. All landlords shall possess a business license, as required by El Cerrito Municipal Code Section 4.32.260, for any rental unit subject to the provisions of this chapter. Submission of rent registry information shall be a prerequisite to a complete application for a business license required by Section 4.32.260.

(Ord. No. 2019-03, § 2, 5-21-2019)

In addition to any other remedy allowed by law, any person who violates this chapter is subject to administrative penalties pursuant to El Cerrito Municipal Code Chapter 1.14, Administrative Penalties.

(Ord. No. 2019-03, § 2, 5-21-2019)