2025 California Landlord-Tenant Law Updates | Screening Fees, Security Deposits & More!

New landlord-tenant laws take effect in California in 2025, bringing significant changes that landlords, property managers, and realtors need to know. This video is part of a presentation given by Devin Lucas on January 29, 2025, to a group of realtors, covering these critical updates in detail.

🏡 Topics Covered:
✅ New rules on application screening fees and how they impact landlords and tenants
✅ Security deposit changes, including mandatory photo documentation requirements
✅ Tenant credit reporting options and exemptions for small landlords
✅ Expanded lock-change protections for abuse victims
✅ Protections for small commercial tenants and changes to unlawful detainer timelines

📍 Special focus on Orange County, Newport Beach, and Costa Mesa, with expert analysis, examples, and tips for compliance. The video also includes a detailed Q&A session where common questions are answered.

💡 Need expert guidance? Lucas Real Estate specializes in landlord-tenant compliance, property management, and real estate legal consulting. Contact us today for expert advice!

🔗 Read more in our blog: https://lucas-real-estate.com/blog/

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Transcript

0:01

okay Devin Lucas so I am a real estate attorney by background I've been a real estate attorney for a little over 20 years I'm also a real estate broker and

0:06

a realtor so I'm an agent here with Coldwell Banker uh I'm not a Coldwell Banker attorney I'm just an agent so uh

0:12

while I am an attorney I'm not your attorney uh necessarily which brings us back to our very important disclosure which is uh obviously like all legal

0:19

things we're going to do sort of a a quick Deep dive into some of these new laws there's no possible way that we can give you expert legal advice or address

0:26

every question so a lot of the things that we're going to talk about here today uh are just to kind of have the knowledge to be able to share with

0:32

yourselves with your clients to be able to talk about it but obviously if your clients get into some uh tricky

0:37

situations uh or they need legal advice they're going to have to consult their own attorney especially when you get into landlord tenant stuff uh it is

0:43

really really really really dot the eyes across the teas kind of situation and then we've got some cities that have

0:49

local jurisdictions as well that we may or may not get into so uh we're going to talk about some of the 20125 uh updates

0:55

obviously the price gouging which we talked about a little bit in the meeting we're going to get into uh but then we're going to take a deep dive on some

1:00

of these new for 2025 issues uh which are obviously the screening fees that's going to be by far the biggest game

1:07

changer uh that there's been in a long time and I think a lot of people don't realize this it is already effective it's been effective for the last several

1:13

weeks so as of January 1st these new laws take effects uh so we're going to talk about that some other lesser not

1:18

options that we'll kind of get into uh photos and enhanced security deposits I know Debbie mentioned that at the last

1:24

meeting um the photos is one aspect but they actually did Tinker with the law a little bit on what you can and cannot charge for deposits

1:30

and deposit refunds so we'll get into that uh we've got some new laws on credit reporting uh we've got some new

1:35

things on what you cannot charge for uh some changes to the unlawful detainer process which presumably none of you are

1:41

involved in but it's good to know good to be able to tell your uh clients about uh as well as some new rules for

1:46

commercial uh which is kind of interesting because commercial laws have always been different now they're going to start blending with some residential

1:52

protections uh we've got some changes into when you might need to change the locks um and then we were going to see

1:57

if we can sneak in just some updates to the tenant protection act uh Coast Bas rent control those aren't new for 2025

2:03

those were new for 2024 uh we'll see if we can talk on those but those are such a big deal that we might need to do a second Workshop just on that um okay so

2:11

why are we here well we've got clients that are uh uh confused and angry they call you a super agent they expect you

2:17

to have all the answers uh be able to to address every concern uh but when in reality sometimes um you know we've got

2:24

this situation where you might be just as confused and scared uh as they are and not understand what's going on uh

2:31

California is uh a deep deep blue State uh as we all know I like to say that in

2:37

California landlord tenant it is an absolute trap uh all of the landlord tenant laws in case you haven't already

2:43

figured it out they run in favor of the tenant they do not run in favor of the landlord uh with some very limited

2:48

exceptions and these laws like I said are very do the eyes across the te's you really really have to pay attention

2:53

otherwise you're going to get yourself into trouble in California and why is that because obviously we're a very deep boo State we're very consumer friendly

3:00

consumer focused whatever your political views are it's kind of irrelevant it's just a fact that California is very very

3:06

very much geared towards the tenant protections and you need to know that and your landlords need to know that especially when we talk about some

3:12

compliance with these new laws uh so what we're going to do here today is hopefully make it so that you understand these new laws that you feel comfortable

3:18

uh confident talking about them you can kind of Point your clients in the right direction but as we said if they ultimately need uh some advice they

3:24

might need to contact uh an attorney so uh one of the first ones we have uh I

3:29

did want to get into some of these new for 2025 issues uh one of which is the screening fee which is going to be a

3:35

huge huge huge game changer so if you thought the HUD thing was confusing get ready um then we're going to talk about

3:42

some of these other things tenant credit reporting uh photos security deposits some of those other things talked about earlier okay so fees so um buried within

3:51

the fee revision is several other things obviously the way you can do tenant screening fees uh is the first one that

3:58

we'll talk about in a second but just some of these other uh easier ones to get out of the way uh mandatory credit

4:03

reporting disclosure so you have to give them the credit report so no longer it used to be that if the tenant asked for

4:09

it you had to give it uh now you you have to give it so if you take someone's credit and we'll talk about yes this

4:15

does apply if you use rent scree or Zillow or something like that that we'll get into um but if you get someone's credit report you have to give it to

4:22

them you just have to period uh within 7 Days of receiving the report um whether they request it or not uh receipt you

4:29

got to give them a receipt that should be pretty easy got to give my receipt um reusable SC screening reports so so

4:36

we'll talk about this nothing really changes in here except how it might be applied so I think it's like Zillow

4:41

rents free some of those it's like you know if someone applies it's good for 30 days or something like that um so you as

4:46

a landlord you have to take that I guess that is the change now I think it said you used to be able to take now you have

4:51

to take it and you cannot charge an extra fee for that so if someone already has their Zillow screening report um you

4:59

have to accept that so so that's it and we'll talk about how that applies uh for the fee process you cannot charge for

5:05

that you cannot charge them a viewing fee or a processing fee or something like that because if you're truly getting the the report for free even if

5:12

you're paying staff or you've got a property management company or something like that that's doing it you cannot charge a fee to view that free report

5:19

that you're getting um no screening fees without available units this is potentially a big change I don't think

5:25

this applies to very many mpaw people but it's going to apply to bigger uh landlords property management companies you can still have a wait list but you

5:33

cannot charge an application fee unless you actually have a unit available so no

5:39

longer can you say oh yeah fill out an application pay the fee we'll keep your document on file when one opens up no

5:46

you cannot do that that will be a violation from now on so you have to have a unit actually available before

5:51

you can charge them so that's sort of a uh a potential big change so the these are the two ways that you can charge a

5:57

screening fee B is the default you can charge a screening fee all day long as

6:02

long as you refund every single one that you collect kind of makes it a little futile

6:09

to even charge it um but unless you have this sequential application process that

6:15

we'll get into you can still charge a fee but you have to return it so someone

6:20

uh you you decide not to implement this procedure we'll talk about in a second someone applies they've got a 400 credit score uh their last landlord says how

6:27

they had to EV victim and they were running meth lab in the property uh and you decide you don't want to rent to

6:32

them you're giving them their deposit money back right or or their their screening fee back in this case even

6:38

though you rejected them for maybe credit or what you perceive as legitimate reasons uh you're giving them

6:43

the money back the only way to be able to keep a deposit or sorry not a deposit

6:48

the only be way to be able to keep a screening fee and not have to refund it is if you implement a very strict

6:56

sequential protocol that's going to require a written criteria and it's going to require you

7:02

to take them in order so let's talk about this uh in a little more detail so like I said yes you can charge the fee

7:09

so first of all you have to have a written screening criteria provided to the applicant in writing along with the

7:16

application how many of your landlords have a written screening criteria zero right I see one hand

7:24

excellent do that so we'll talk about that because California has kind of wanted you to have this for a while this

7:30

might motivate you uh that are doing Property Management that are doing leases or certainly uh that are working

7:35

with landlords to implement one so the state basically wants you if you want to be able to accept deposits and not have

7:40

to give them re screening fees and not have to give them back they want you to have a written screening criteria now

7:47

this is sort of a trap in and of itself right because there's a lot of things in California that you are not allowed to

7:53

screen based on we all know obviously you can't screen on Race religion uh ethnic uh sexual or ation you know kind

8:00

of some of the Common Sense ones but California over the years has really evolved that uh criminal checks for

8:07

example you basically cannot have a blanket prohibition against arrest or uh

8:12

criminal history you have to really really drill down on maybe uh no

8:18

criminal violations pertaining to housing right or no uh you know criminal

8:24

violations pertaining to um you know I I don't even know because it's really

8:30

really really a bit of a problem when you start talking about what you're going to put in criteria the things that we know that you can screen for you can

8:37

do credit score you can do income uh both the amount of the income as well as the source you cannot discriminate on

8:44

the source right if someone's a Section 8 tenant if they're an exotic dancer uh

8:49

or performing some other service that they're getting paid for you cannot discriminate against the source of

8:54

income but you can set a legitimate requirement okay I want the tenant to have two time times the income or three

9:00

times the income what about four or five times Well now someone might argue you're being discriminatory because if

9:07

I'm saying you got to have five times the rent and therefore Now by de facto

9:13

uh impact of that uh or desperate impact or desparate impact um you are all of a

9:19

sudden creating something that's being discriminatory that's a problem so a lot of landlords are kind of sticking to maybe a two or three times the rent uh

9:26

maybe a certain credit score uh maybe uh some sort of verification of employment

9:32

maybe a verification of Prior tency um you know there's a few lwh hanging fruit that you can put into a screening

9:38

criteria but the rest of them are going to start to get into a gray area and I think for that reason a lot of landlords

9:44

haven't wanted to put together a written screening criteria um but if they want to adhere to this new law they're going

9:50

to have to do that so that's step number one you've got to have the written screening criteria step number two is

9:55

that you've got to take completed applications in the order in which they were received this is where it's going

10:02

to get tricky um the first applicant who meets the landlord's established criteria has

10:07

to be approved so if you go forward with this process this is the limited

10:13

exception where you can essentially not have to return a screening fee right so applicant number one pays the $30 $40

10:19

screening fee whatever it is you've got a nice well-written established criteria that says you got to have a 700 credit

10:26

score uh and two times the monthly rent right number one I take your fee I take

10:31

your application you've only got a 600 credit score okay boom I can reject you I do not have to give you your

10:37

application feed back I take Now application number two I run their credit I do all that stuff again 400

10:44

credit score rejection not going to take you do not have to give the money back

10:49

applicant number three I take your applicant you've got an 800 credit score uh and you've got the rent and whatever

10:56

else my criteria established I have to take you I have to because that's the

11:11

law so the question was about the moving time so maybe the screening criteria and

11:16

I think that would be a fair thing is must be able to move in within 30 days or something like that so I think you'd

11:21

have to deal with that within the screening criteria but let me finish this and explain how it's not going to

11:26

work to take multiple applicants so the only way this works is a sequential order right you have to accept them and

11:32

reject them one by one you have to accept the first one that comes in so this is the only way to do it in any

11:39

other instance um like if you're taking 10 applications at a time and you want

11:45

to see maybe one's got better credit maybe one's got uh more disposable income maybe one can move in tomorrow

11:52

and one can't move in until you know two months from now if you want to do that fine you can take 10 applications at

11:58

once but you're funding nine application fees in that instance because you did

12:03

not meet this established criteria of having to take them one by one so a lot of landlords that just say hey everyone

12:10

submit we're going to look at all applications you're going to end up writing a lot of refund checks if you

12:16

kind of stick to that status quo the only way to do it where you don't have to refund the money is going to be this

12:22

one by one uh application process uh question Yeah question oh sorry the

12:39

back hold that question for one second because we will get to rents spree and Zillow and all that stuff question about

12:45

oh sorry in the front Okay so if you take multiple applications but don't

12:51

have them submit like to R spr get say five applications you look at all five

12:58

Your Land excuse me property owner looks at all five and decides well I like this

13:03

one best and then that one next and then that one next so then you contact number

13:10

one and you have them fill out rree if rree comes back okay and the property

13:18

owner says I'll take that one you're okay you're not violating anything well you're you're not

13:24

violating anything so the question was you know can I basically take a bunch of applications without processing the fees

13:30

right or charging them a fee yeah you can do that but the second anyone pays a fee you have not adhered to this uh

13:37

criteria and you're going to be refunding any rejected fees in that case but if you only take one

13:44

fee if you take one fee and you accept that applicant then you're okay no problem had five all but if you take

13:51

that fee and then you run their credit and their credit comes back as 400 and you reject them you're you're refunding

13:58

them the in that case yeah so it's best to collect all the documents first

14:04

before running their credit well that's one approach I I don't want to say what's best I think everyone's going to

14:09

figure out what they want to do but that's certainly one way to circumvent having to write a bunch of refund checks

14:15

right you know if you want to take the applications without necessarily doing the credit and background check first

14:21

and then do those one by one it's certainly going to limit the number of refund checks you're going to write but

14:26

you know someone might look good in their application and say oh I've got great credit or whatever and then you actually pay or

14:33

have them pay the screening and it turns out that their credits not as great or there's something in the background

14:39

check you don't like you're going to be issuing them a refund check in that case does does the um all the applicants get

14:46

the criteria when they're yeah again for for for that to work the the only way to

14:52

not have to issue refund checks is you have to have a written criteria provided to them so they have to physically get

14:59

it not even good enough to have it on the website or within the Zillow listing or whatever you've got to have some sort

15:04

of PDF that you're giving them right along with the application wait so you so that's that was my question so your

15:10

your rental criteria they have to meet these particular criteria you have to

15:16

send that to them along with the application correct so if they are doing aee or a Zillow

15:24

application let's talk about rents spree one more question if it's not rent spree because then we're going to get into that

15:29

um so that rule that you have to take the first qualified that's just for

15:34

refunding application fees right if you you could choose any applicant regardless if you're refunding the

15:40

application fees am I understand correct yeah yeah so so so in that way you know nothing's sh you can still do whatever

15:46

you want you still say hey I want I want to take 10 applications I want to run 10 credits uh we've had landlords that are

15:53

crazy they want to interview people they want a phone Zoom we've had a landlord that wants to go to a tenant's current

16:00

house and see how they live you know as long as it's not discriminatory in violating other laws

16:05

you can still do that but you're going to be refunding every single applicant that you don't accept in that

16:13

situation um okay so how does this apply to rents spree Zillow things like that

16:18

well I don't charge a fee I make them do the $ 39.99 rents spree application um

16:23

well uh it's going to be a bit of a gray area so the law is very clear that we talked about in a second ago you know

16:29

you can use these for usable screening reports so I I think it's this is my commentary

16:35

right I think it's going to boil down to this if you're forcing them to pay a third party you're you're out of luck

16:41

you're going to refund that right so if I say like yeah you apply for my rental

16:47

and by the way you got to go on rent spree and pay this application fee I never accepted the I've never accepted a

16:53

rental fee in my life right we use rent spree as well you're you're 100% subject to this you're out of luck you caused

16:59

them to pay that fee it was part of your criteria um you're you're refunding the

17:06

money but in the situation where they already have that you could be in luck

17:13

so you have a tenant who comes to you they've already done the Zillow they already applied somewhere else maybe and

17:20

got rejected or maybe they just did it to be proactive and they truly come to you and say hey Mr and Mrs landlord I

17:26

have a Zillow credits thing already done I'm going to send you the link to that

17:32

and you look at the link and you decide oh no your credit's no good I'm going to reject you in that case you don't have to refund the money because you didn't

17:39

force them to incur anything you didn't make them actually pay for the screening fee so in that particular case I think

17:47

you're going to be fine now are people going to blur the envelope on that and say well you must have a prepaid uh

17:54

Zillow account or a prepaid rent spree in order to apply I think the second you

17:59

do that you're you're toast and you're going to be writing those refund checks and there's probably going to be tenants out there that are then sending the same

18:06

refund demand to eight different landlords and you might not ever know about it and they're going to get eight different refund checks back but if you

18:13

have a policy or you're mandating that they go and get it and they're getting it for you you're you're you're out of

18:21

luck it's just as if you were charging the fee yourself so it seems to me it would be wiser to maybe have them

18:29

and submit the car's application to rent do that preliminary screening if they

18:35

look good then ask them to apply I think that's one of many solutions yeah and

18:41

that's someone that doesn't want to go through the bring roll doesn't want to have the application uh I think that's what a lot of people are going to start

18:46

doing is saying okay hold off don't don't bother doing a credit check yet let's just look at your application

18:52

maybe I'll check your references maybe I'll check your job uh you know you can do all those things uh without getting

18:57

the credit check so so that's absolutely one way to go about it so run their own

19:02

well again you're you're now forcing them to pay a fee you're going to be

19:08

refunding that fee if you reject them so if you accept application R Credit if you think okay

19:17

the application looks good everything looks good you say okay you can run your own credit sure and if you reject that

19:24

applicant you're writing them a refund check yeah so that would definitely be a way to should ctail it maybe now I'm

19:29

only writing a handful not good then you can reject it you can reject them but you can also write them a refund check

19:37

but if your policy is that can you say that you know I I can only accept CR the

19:43

score of the only way the only way the only

19:49

way that you're not writing refund checks to rejected applicants is if you follow this procedure written criteria

19:58

give to the tenant applications considered one by one you accept the first one that meets it it's the only

20:05

way you're not writing refund checks everyone else that you reject you're going to write a refund check to so yeah

20:11

what is the answer I I mean yeah um as a couple people mentioned maybe that's the answer right maybe let's not pay for the

20:18

screening reports yet let's do a little due diligence first before we embark on that but ultimately if you get two or

20:24

three people that you want to check their credit because you're having trouble deciding between two or three people and you get three credit reports

20:31

you accept one you're writing two refund checks what if you give them the

20:41

option and sure if you reject them you're

20:46

writing them a refund check we got the theme

20:55

right oh seven days seven days yeah or or or 30 from the um uh accepted

21:03

application that's a good question I had in here um seven days seven days of tenant

21:10

selection or 30 days from the submission whichever comes first so if you reject them you got to get it back to them

21:16

within 30 days uh if you're just kind of sitting on it then you or I'm sorry you got to get it back to them within seven

21:21

days in that instance but if you're just sitting on them then You' got to get it back to them within 30 days uh whichever

21:26

comes first um any other questions about screening fees I

21:31

just question I've got a cent credit app prior to and wants to do

21:39

a zoom or a FaceTime prior to Leasing and I'm wondering if that is appropriate

21:46

well we have clients that do that and there's no rule that says you can't do it but if you're doing it to be discriminatory you're in trouble right

21:53

if you're doing it because oh I really want to see what race they are uh or if they're of a certain you know religion

21:59

or something then you're you're going to be in a lot of trouble I have

22:06

question9 agenda created by an attorney they want sign in addition to the

22:14

that yeah so a whole another conversation I mean uh we've got landlords who do that they want their own addendum they want their own house

22:21

rules um we'll get into one of the new laws about what you can deduct in security deposits uh which we really

22:26

need to move on to um it you can have all the addendum and all the house rules you want but if it doesn't meet with

22:34

California law you're you're out of luck and you're not going to be able to magically keep the deposit or something just because it was in your agenda um so

22:41

just finalized on this if you want to follow that procedure you got to come up with a written criteria you got to provide it you got to do the sequential

22:47

order um obviously maintain records track your fee collection because that 7day or 30-day you know refund is um is

22:55

pretty important and um you know good luck uh I'll I'll do some more questions

23:01

after I want to talk about just a couple more things commentary obviously look this you know I I won't get on the soap

23:07

box here we don't have time but um you know California nice deep blue State consumer friendly California's been

23:13

pushing this for a long time you do have these horror stories about tenants that apply to 10 15 places they're paying $40

23:20

an application each time just to get rejected you can see where it it it has been abused by some landlords and really

23:27

has put some tenants in a bad spot and like college applications right um you know so you can kind of see the sympathy

23:34

and the argument to shift the burden but this is typical kind of California it's now pushing this bur onto the landlord

23:40

they really want you to have that blind criteria they really want you to just accept applicants as they come they

23:46

really don't want you to be digging into you know all of these Nicky reasons to reject people um and they want you as

23:53

the landlord to pay for that all right let's talk about some of these other things and then we can do some Q&A at the end um some of these are pretty easy

23:59

so credit reporting so if you're a tenant and you want positive credit reporting that's now required so there

24:08

is an exception actually a pretty broad one landlords that own 15 or fewer units do not have to adhere to this you can

24:15

still voluntarily do it excuse me but you do not have to but if you own 15 or

24:20

more units if you're a giant apartment complex if you're the Irvine Company uh or something like that you have to Now

24:26

by law uh report the positive tenant uh payment history which kind of makes

24:32

sense because it's letting tenants build up you know good positive rental history for all the payments that they've been made uh you can charge them a fee up to

24:38

$10 per month if it's an actual fee you can't just charge a processing fee or an admin fee but if you're using some

24:44

thirdparty company or if the credit reporting company charges you for that you can pass that along um but if it's

24:50

free to the credit reporting you cannot um the tenants can opt out of that and

24:55

even smaller landlords can opt into it right if you want to offer that as a as a service uh Hey tenant even though I

25:02

don't have to report your positive credit I will maybe a tenant likes that and maybe it's a benefit you can give to

25:07

the tenant so that's a new thing um required for for bigger landlords uh

25:13

okay let's talk about this so some enhanced security deposit requirements so this is assembly Bill uh 2801 uh it's really kind of tightening

25:21

the rules on security deposits what you can keep for a refund and it's requiring more documentation which is photography

25:29

now we've always done we managed a few properties including our own we've always taken for and after photos um I

25:35

my background is litigation attorney uh I think the last case I ever tried before a jury was a landlord tenant

25:40

dispute and I got to tell you nothing is as good in court as a before and after photo right that move in move out form

25:48

uh staying on carpet you know whatever that's fine it's not as good as a photo

25:53

photos are great look here was the perfect carpet before they moved in here is the trash car after they move out so

26:00

the law is now mandating that we do this um it actually comes effect of a certain date I don't even know April something

26:06

like that just do it now so if you're leasing a property take photos take a bunch of photos of what the property

26:12

looks like before and after we've always even told tenants to do this right so both landlords and tenants you should

26:17

all be taking your own photos but it is now legally required that the landlord do it they got to take those photos they

26:23

got to keep them right um so you got to have before and after photos but it's

26:29

also now required with a deduction so if I'm going to deduct $500 for that dirty

26:35

carpet or whatever it is I have to not only send that typical letter within 21 days that hopefully we're all familiar

26:41

with but now I've actually got to send a before and after photo so Mr Mrs tenant

26:47

uh you know here's what the carpet looked like before you moved in here's what it looked like after you moved in therefore I'm charging you $500 and by

26:54

the way pre-existing law already said you got to send them a receipt for that so here's the $500 receipt for the cleaning fee so you've got to have the

27:01

photos the before and you've got to do before and after photos period even if you're not deducting it's required now

27:07

but if you're going to take a deduction has to have a photo if you do a deduction with no photo you're not

27:12

getting that deduction you are going to lose in court uh they're going to come after you can you use listing photos you

27:19

can use listing photos but I would it would behoove you to take some more probably detailed photos usually don't

27:25

have you know close-ups of the toilet or something like that on listing photo um but yeah there's no rule that says how

27:30

many you have to have there's no rule that says the resolution or you know anything like that um but I think it

27:37

would be prudent to take a lot of photos and take photos don't take videos the rule is very clear about photo we've had landlords in the past they like oh I

27:42

want to take a video take a videos don't play well in court no judge wants to watch a video they want to see the

27:48

photos right photos and then you can put that easily in a letter before and after photo um so a couple more things if you

27:55

peel back the onion on this uh they've actually added so this is now we're talking about what we can deduct for a

28:01

security deposit they've actually added the words reasonably necessary they've peppered it into all of the language

28:07

about deductions do that actually change what you can deduct for not really but

28:13

what they're doing here is they're they're setting you up for failure right what was reasonably necessary it's it's

28:18

it's putting a new question into the equation right what's reasonably necessary to bring the unit back uh to

28:24

the uh Inception of the tendency less ordinary wear and tear ordinary wear and has always been in this um they added a

28:30

nice big bold heading to this whole deposit law which is civil code uh

28:36

1950.5 um this was always kind of the Common Sense approach to this but they've literally put it in the law now

28:42

it's the intent of the legislature in enacting this measure to ensure that landlords do not subsidize improvements

28:47

of their rental properties with former tenants deposits because that was always the accusation right oh you're

28:54

repainting uh on my dime right you're doing new car on my dime you're

28:59

essentially getting a a remodel with my security deposit that's always the the

29:05

accusation that gets made so they've made very clear that that's what they want to avoid they've added the reasonably necessary language then

29:11

they've come up with a really big one about carpet cleaning now this is sort of always been the law but they've

29:16

really put it now into Che the law in writing so how many landlords out there

29:22

have said like oh I'm going to have a a preset carpet cleaning fee or I mandate

29:27

a Prof carpet cleaning at the move out of tency uh super common thing we've

29:32

seen it a lot of leases never really been legal but now it's definitely not legal so the law has been said that you

29:39

under no circumstances can mandate professional carpet cleaning or other services unless it's reasonably

29:46

necessary to return the premise to the condition it was in at the exceptions tendency exclusive of ordinary wear and

29:52

tear so nothing's really changed here but they're really calling out the landlords that really insist on that

29:58

professional carpet cleaning so I as the tenant just want to clean my own carpet maybe I'm going to even go rent one of

30:04

those shampooers you know I don't want to pay a carpet cleaning fee I'm going to go do that on my own the law is

30:10

really doubling down now and saying you have to let tenants do that unless you can prove with photos that it was

30:17

absolutely reasonably necessary less wear and tear you are not going to be able to charge for any sort of

30:23

professional cleaning services this applies to carpet cleaning and just regular cleaning any

30:31

questions oh yeah own they have to have the when they out

30:39

well so a residential lease after sale is just a lease right so so if they take it on you know the day of close of

30:44

escrow they've got to return it to the same condition less ordinary wear and tear at the end so they can't require

30:50

the seller to clean the car correct correct correct

30:59

onm

31:04

Ral no oh short-term rental you can absolutely do whatever you want it's the wild west with shortterm yeah under 30

31:11

days you can do that Airbnb has cleaning fees you can charge a preset cleaning fee you can absolutely do that days less

31:18

than 30 days so the house and windows are coving

31:28

can landlord requ that

31:34

bean and windows no they can require it look the exact same less ordinary

31:40

wearing haar but they cannot mandate that it be professionally cleans so if the tenant just wants to get there with

31:47

some Windex and do their own window cleaning you you have to let them so how come airine company no matter how clean

31:55

you give them the property they still charge can do this but not well they can't do it and and they've been taken

32:01

to court uh I I I know Arnell Property Management they actually had a department of uh uh justice uh criminal

32:08

complaints against them many many years ago and had to end up settling with the doj because they had a pretty clear

32:13

practice of just you know charging every tenant a cleaning fees no matter what and that's that's 100% not allowed two

32:20

three years you cannot Char well again you get into that ordinary wear and tear so you know if if someone's been you

32:27

know living there for three four five years with a family there's going to be an expectation that that carpet's been

32:34

you know used so no you cannot just charge them for new carpet um because

32:39

that's not fair and especially you cannot charge um yeah it it's again

32:46

there's no black and white here reasonably necessary ordinary wear and tear those are two you know very vague

32:53

things that are going to get you know argued over um in court and that's why you want to have your photos last

32:58

question on that if it is already in a lease from say previous years like they rented it four years ago and it was

33:05

written to the lease at that time does it still apply when they move out or it can't apply no cannot apply

33:12

yeah um okay just a couple more quick ones we'll get through this and then I'll stay for some Q&A um basically a

33:18

new rule says that you cannot charge uh for accepting checks you cannot charge any sort of check processing fee or

33:24

anything like that you cannot charge for notices um I don't even know that landlords do this I guess some have in

33:30

their leases hey if I have to serve a three-day notice on you I'm going to charge you for that you can no longer do that so if you have to serve a three-day

33:37

notice on a tenant uh you're eating that fee you cannot pass that fee along to a tenant um same thing with check if it

33:43

cost you more to process a check you're completely out of luck um unlawful retainer answers this won't necessarily

33:50

impact anything you do but it's important to know um this is really evolved it used to be that tenants had

33:55

five days calendar day to respond to an unlawful detainer which is an eviction

34:01

so if you serve someone classically you'd serve them on like a Wednesday they'd have Thursday Friday Saturday

34:06

Sunday Monday to respond to that lawsuit um that got abused so long ago the legislature changed it to five business

34:13

days um but now it's changed it to 10 business days 10 business days is a lot

34:18

that's like two weeks so if you serve someone with an eviction now they've got 10 whole business days to respond to

34:24

that eviction so you know this unlawful detainer eviction process is supposed to be nice and fast it's supposed to

34:30

expedite the process you know here we have just one more thing that's uh that's going to slow it down I'm sorry on the

34:40

pr return charge oh no no you you yeah no

34:48

that's totally different yeah if if someone bounces a check you can still definitely charge um for the the the

34:54

bounce check fee um and and you can serve them a 3-day notice and something but you cannot charge to serve the

35:01

notice um but what this the check it's it's designed for hey yeah I'll take checks but I'm going to charge you an

35:07

extra $10 a month to accept a check can't do that same thing with cash by the way I actually had a big dispute one time where a landlord wanted to mandate

35:14

electronic payment and the Tenant wanted to pay you know by check or cash or something you have to take uh any form

35:22

of payment they want um and you can't charge extra for that also a little regarding depit

35:30

it uh questions about pet deposits let's get through these real quick because that's not new but I'll answer that um

35:35

okay commercial tenants this may impact some of you uh commercial has always been its own ball game residential has

35:42

always had its own laws commercial has always had its own laws this is now a lot of the residential protections are

35:49

now going to apply to small commercial tencies and the specific ones they've carved out at first are a um

35:56

microenterprise which they kind of to find someone of five or fewer employees um with some other criteria a restaurant

36:03

with fewer than 10 employees or a nonprofit organization with fewer than 20 that's probably a lot of you know

36:09

small businesses right so that could be a lot of dental offices um you know even a lot of

36:15

restaurants that have less than 10 employees they're now going to have a an enormous amount of new protections now

36:21

that they never had previously so if any of your clients own commercial properties um you know you're probably

36:27

not going to be dealing with the evictions or something anyway but just know that the laws are changed so they're going to have all those same

36:32

protections when it comes to rental increases renewals notices uh just a whole lot of things um

36:39

uh is going to apply to commercial Tendencies uh one of our last ones last one um you have to change the locks if

36:47

someone's a a victim of domestic abuse um this used to be kind of in there but

36:52

it wasn't quite as clear um you as the landlord have to within 24 hours change the locks so if someone comes to you

36:58

says hey I got a restraining order against my boyfriend uh I want the locks change you have to do it within 24 hours if you don't do it within 24 hours they

37:05

can do it and then you have to reimburse them um this this allows for wider documentation a little bit of a gray

37:11

area um forms from third parties obviously if you have a police report or something like that that's going to count what if just my friend says oh her

37:18

boyfriend is bullying her I want you to change the locks you know you probably going to need to be safe um and do that

37:25

um obviously if you've got a physician or a doctor note or something you know don't want to get too much into the

37:30

weeds to this obviously if someone comes to you with a concern about domestic violence or being a victim of abuse uh

37:36

you need to take that seriously you need to change the walks uh otherwise they're going to be able to do it for

37:41

you sorry change who's pay the landlord

37:48

landlord has to pay for it just if the GU on the lease no it's

37:54

actually becomes much more complicated if the person's on the lease so uh this this applies period so if someone says

38:00

they've got a restraining order or something like that you have to change the locks now if they've got a restraining order against a co- tenant

38:06

you probably need to talk to an attorney or something at that point because now you're risking changing the locks on a

38:12

tenant which you're not supposed to do so it gets into a much dicer area where it's both of the tenants um in that case

38:20

you know again you're you're going to be caught between a rock and a hard place you're probably going to want to airor on the side of caution but um that's

38:27

something I would need to look into or I'd probably defer uh on that one okay

38:32

we've cover a lot thank you very much thank you