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Kristine Ridge, City Manager Sonia Carvahlo, City Attorney City of Santa Ana April 22, 2020 Page 2 of 4 ATTORNEY -CLIENT COMMUNICATION PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL Costa -Hawkins "permits owners of certain types of property to adjust the rent on such property at will, '[n]otwithstanding any other provision of law.' (Civ. Code § 1954.52, subd. (a).)" DeZerega v. Meggs, 83 Cal. App. 4th 28, 40-41 (2000) (emphasis added). Simply put, it permits the landlords of single family homes, rental units for which a certificate of occupancywas issued after February 1,1995, and earlier -constructed rental units which were already exempt by local law to raise rents without local interference at all, see Civ. Code § 1954.52(a), and with respect to all other units it permits landlords to raise rents upon vacancy, see Civ. Code § 1954.53(a). Section 3 of the Executive Order runs contrary to this statute. Assembly Bill 1482, codified at 2019 Cal. Stats. 597, qualifies Costa -Hawkins somewhat. It directly limits rent increases on certain units that would otherwise be totally exempt from regulation under Costa - Hawkins. Civ. Code § 1947.12. However, it does so as a matter of state law; it does not give local governments any greater power to regulate rent increases than they had under Costa -Hawkins itself. In fact, AB 1482 is explicit about this fact. See Civ. Code § 1947.12 (k)(1) & (2). So AB 1482 does not authorize Section 3 of the Executive Order either. Finally, during emergencies Penal Code § 396(e) makes it unlawful for a landlord "to increase the rental price, as defined in paragraph (11) of subdivision 0), advertised, offered, or charged for housing, to an existing or prospective tenant, by more than 10 percent," with certain exceptions. The Executive Order, by contrast, purports to make it illegal for a landlord to increase the rental price by any amount whatsoever. This, it cannot do. While Governor Newsom's Executive Order N-28-20 waived certain provisions of state law to permit local governments to restrict evictions during the emergency, it did not go so far as to waive provisions — like Costa -Hawkins —that give landlords the ability to set their rents. To the contrary, it provided that "Nothing in this order shall relieve a tenant of the obligation to pay rent, nor restrict a landlord's ability to recover rent due." In other words, it made an explicit distinction between the substantive power of a landlord to set initial and substantive rents, and the procedural [CES2221.030] 97