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with rent control ordinances are generally prohibited from enforcing vacancy control (controlling the rent charged at the beginning of the tenancy). However, an exception exists which allows a city to control the rent charged at the beginning of the tenancy where the landlord terminated the preceding tenancy with a 30 or 60 day notice (i.e. without cause or for a "no fault" reason). No such exception exists where the previous tenant was evicted based on something he or she did or failed to do (i.e. where the tenant was at fault). This means that if the hypothetical greedy landlord really did want to evict a tenant in order to raise the rent, they would have to be able to show that the tenant failed to pay rent, breached the lease, was a nuisance, or was otherwise at fault — all of which are permissible grounds for eviction under just cause eviction ordinances. C. Tenants Have Additional Protections Under Existing Law Just cause eviction policies are often promoted as necessary to protect the most vulnerable people in our society — low income, elderly, and disabled tenants. However, existing law already provides many protections for such individuals in the eviction process. Some of these protections apply to all tenants. For example, landlords are held to a very strict standard in eviction cases. The smallest error, such as an inverted number in an address on a termination notice can cause a landlord to lose an eviction case even though the tenant may not have been mislead by the mistake. In addition, the unlawful detainer process itself contains several built-in protections for tenants. To begin with, when a landlord files an unlawful detainer action against a tenant, the court is required to send a "Notice of Filing of Unlawful Detainer" to the tenant. This notice contains, among other things, the name and telephone number of a legal services organization that provides legal services (typically free of charge) to low-income persons in the county. The Judicial Council, the policymaking body for the California court system, has created a "check the box" form that tenants who represent themselves in unlawful detainer actions can use to respond to an unlawful detainer action. The form includes "check the box" options for tenants to deny the landlord's allegations, and it also lists the ten most common affirmative defenses in unlawful detainer actions. Other protections specifically target vulnerable populations. For example, landlords' duties to reasonably accommodate disabled tenants may include giving a disabled tenant additional time, beyond the 30 or 60 days provided for in the law to move out. Section 8 tenants have a statutory right to 90 days' notice when their lease is not being renewed or their tenancy is otherwise being terminated through no fault of their own. Tenants in other subsidized housing are already provided protection from no -cause evictions under the rules of the subsidy programs. In addition to these protections, the law gives judges who preside over unlawful detainer cases two powerful tools to assist tenants who have hardships. First, judges have discretion to stay the execution of an unlawful detainer judgment — which has the effect of delaying the lock -out — by up to 40 days afterjudgment is entered. Second, in cases of serious hardship, the judge has the discretion to grant a "motion for relief from forfeiture." The effect of this ruling is to restore the tenancy, thereby sparing the tenant from eviction. Because this remedy is limited to cases of hardship, it provides a valuable "safety valve" for the truly vulnerable without allowing intransigent tenants to avoid eviction despite their bad behavior. IV Just Cause Eviction Policies Are Bad for Tenants A. Good Tenants Must Live with Bad Neighbors Just cause policies are not just expensive and harmful for landlords, they actually harm tenants. Paradoxically, the people just cause policies are meant to help — honest, rule abiding tenants — are harmed most. The reason is simple. By making it more difficult to remove bad tenants, good tenants are stuck living with their bad -tenant neighbors during the often long and arduous eviction process, if the bad California Apartment Association www.caanet.org Revised 0612017— O 2017 —All Rights Reserved l� Page 6