Petaluma City Council Expands 'Just Cause' Eviction Protections

PETALUMA, CA — The Petaluma City Council voted 4-2 on Monday in favor of amending tenant protections to tighten criteria for "just cause" evictions in a move that is being championed by tenants' rights groups and opposed by many property owners.

Councilmembers Dave King and Mike Healy opposed the vote, with Healy saying that there was not enough outreach to property owners and other stakeholders besides renters.

Nevertheless, Petaluma is now the first city in Sonoma County to adopt an ordinance that protects renters from being "unfairly" evicted, whether it be "arbitrarily, retaliatorily, or discriminatorily," according to the City of Petaluma.

Renters who overstay their leases, don't pay their rent, use their units illegally or otherwise become a "nuisance" can still get their marching orders.

The new ordinance also tweaks the Ellis Act, which states that landlords can evict tenants if they intend to sell the property. Renters in Petaluma must now be given 120 days notice if the owner plans to sell. A selling landlord also cannot put the property on the market less than a year after giving notice if tenant(s) are 62 or older, disabled, or if it is during the school year and the family has school-age children or includes an educator.

The new ordinance also protects tenants from shady landlords who evict people because they are selling and then turn around and re-rent the unit at a higher rate. Now, after a landlord informs a tenant he or she is selling the property yet do not do so, they are barred from renting a unit there again for five years. If the owner boots a tenant but then decides not to sell, they can rent the unit again but it has to be at the same rate and they have to give the evicted tenant first dibs.

The city presented the council with some stark statistics. 81 percent of renters in Petaluma with incomes below 80 percent of the median are paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing costs. This is a sharp increase over the data from the city's previous housing element, when approximately 63 percent of renters were paying more than 30 percent of their income. There's also a vacancy rate of 1.9 percent, with median rent at $2,527 per month as of July 2022, which Petaluma claims is the highest median rate in the county.

The city argued that adopting the just cause ordinance would promote stability, especially in areas where rents are rising.

Property owners spoke at the meeting and said that they felt left out of the decision, that there was no "due process" in reaching the decision, and that they felt "excluded and locked out of city hall." Others felt that the ordinance was more suited to protect tenants who live under large property management companies that own multiple units, not people who own property and might just rent one unit.

Some property owners submitted letters to the council.

"If you support the crazy changes you have before you and proposed for Petaluma, you will hurt a small time, local homeowner like me and you will be responsible for unintended consequences that may hurt families like my tenants," wrote Colleen Mahoney.

Property owner Arthur R. Cooper said that the new ordinance "has got it in for Mom and Pop landlords with only one property to rent."

"The thing I cannot figure out is what extreme abuses by Mom and Pop landlords have committed that deserve this kind of reaction," he said.

The new tenant protections will go into effect in October.

By Katy St. Clair, Bay City News Foundation. Copyright © 2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.