July 7, 2026 New Landlords in Mountain View: What to Know Workshop

uh webinar, we're going to be focusing towards new landlords or property owners in Mountain View and sort of what you need to know in general and then specifically about uh Mountain View rent stabilized units. Before we get started, I just want to say since we're on Zoom, if I get disconnected or if something happens to the Zoom, I'll just jump right back into the same link and then we'll get started and pick back up. Um, so just in case we have any technical difficulties today, that's what we'll do. All right. Also, as a reminder, I will not be giving any sort of legal advice today. Um, but I will be sort of going over general laws, best practices, an overview of the CSFRA, the Community Stabilization Fair Act, and any other kind of relevant tenant landlord state laws. So again, we're going to focus on properties in Mountain View that are rent stabilized. And so this happened back in 2016 where it was voter approved measure meant to stabilize um comm the community by reducing housing turnover in certain types of rental units. And it does that in three main ways. stabilizing the rent. So, it uh limits rent increases per year, providing eviction protections, and then for landlords, ensuring a fair rate of return on their property through a petition process. So, if you want to know if the property you own or manage is covered, um most of the apartment buildings in Mountain View are actually covered. Um, so that would be properties with three or more units. And so there's two types of coverage. We have fully covered units and partially covered units. Our fully covered units are going to be those um with three or more and that were built before 1995. So they would follow both the rent stabilization and eviction protection requirements under the law. And then the partially covered units, those built between 1995 and 2016, only need to follow that um eviction protections part, but not the rent limits. And that's based on a state law. Okay. So again, we kind of went over what was covered. If you look over to the right side, we have our exemption. So any single family home that is on its own um individual lot would be exempt. Condos um ADUs, companion units that have the proper permitting are exempt. Duplexes are always exempt even if there are multiple duplexes on a lot. Uh hotels, motel, hospitals, and any 100% government subsidized rental properties are also exempt. Right. And then as we go through this, you can just sort of type in the chat or raise your hand if you have any questions. Um, and we'll sort of just take pauses throughout. All right. So, we'll look at landlord rights. So, of course, we have federal, state, and local laws. Uh, I won't be going through all of these in much detail. Um but again you'll get a copy of this PowerPoint and uh you'll have the information. So generally speaking we're going to be breaking this webinar down in sort of chunks of a teny. So we'll look at kind of what we're considering before the teny, what we're considering during the teny. um if and when uh you have to terminate a teny or a tenant wants to leave and then post teny. So that's going to be the flow of the day and to kind of take you through the whole journey. So before you get a tenant in, of course, the most important thing to do is screen your tenants. Um it is a step that should never be overlooked. So you want to screen for creditworthiness. You can screen for rental history, past evictions. Um, you want to make sure they income qualify to pay the rent that you're going to be charging. And then you want to make very sure that you're paying attention to any non non-discrimination um, rights and laws that may be in play. So you can ask for sort of names, the ages, the the ages of the occupants, their contact information, prior addresses, bank accounts, checks, pay stubs, taxes, things to kind of look at their income. But things to avoid would be obviously immigration status, familial status, ethnicity, any kind of medical um questions that might come up. So just avoid anything that kind of can be something that is not based on the tenants choices, right? So these are also good examples of that. So arbitrary things like race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, source of income, ability, age, language. We want to make sure that we're not basing our decisions to rent on those things. And then again, another really important thing is to to have a really well flushed out rental agreement when you first get started. Um, so you want to put more information can be better. Um, just because you want to be able to point to something in the lease if the tenant is doing something that maybe you don't want them to be doing or so that it's very clear to the tenant what the rules are um that they're entering into when they're renting with you, right? So you can have month-to-month type leases, fixedterm leases. Um, you always want to have your information on there and where they pay and to whom they pay their rent. The rent amount, um, which includes anything like utilities, stoages, parking, uh, anything like that. And you can specifically say what like, you know, that includes water, garbage, trash, sewer. So, you want to be specific in what the tenant is responsible for. also have information about security deposits, information if you're allowing subleting or not allowing subleting. Um, that comes up a lot for us, any additional fees that may be included again like parking, pet fees, things like that to be predetermined um in your lease. And then another thing that is good to have as an addendum in your lease is sort of a menu option of optional services that a tenant can opt in and out of. Um, and it's important to have that in your lease as a way to avoid what could be considered an unlawful rent increase in the future. So, what I mean by that is say the tenant has an option to get a second parking spot for $50 a month or they have an option to add a pet for $100 a month. Um, but they don't have those needs right when they move in, but maybe they have those needs a year from now and they want to opt into that. So, if you have it as a as a menu item in in an addendum to your lease, you can add that in without it being considered a rent increase. But again, you want to be very clear about it, what the services and how much it's going to cost. So, it should be very specific and clear. Um, yeah. So, that's just kind of a tip there. All right. And then even if it's in the lease, if it's against the law, it's still against the law. Right? So tenants cannot wave any of their rights that they have just by signing the document. Right? I think maybe I have a question. Okay. Question. Sorry if it took me a second there. question is, can a landlord demand more than is written into the lease such as driver's license, insurance, registration to park in the garage without the addendum? Um um maybe be a little bit more specific about the question, but the if if it's in the say like a parking spot is in the addendum and they want to know that it's you so they need ident identification. Um I guess they can ask for insurance. Some people may, some people may not. There's not specific rules around what they're asking for for including a parking spot. That's the CS ever is silent on that. Um, but I would imagine they would want to know like the license plate of the car, the make and the model, things like that just to be sure that it's yours. But if I'm missing something in that question, feel free to ask uh again. Okay. So, that's sort of what you are looking at before you're getting a tenant. So, now you've decided on your tenant. You've screened them, they've signed the lease, everything looks good. Now they are going to start renting. So the CSF is very specific about what is rent. Um, so when a tenant first moves in, we call that the base rent. So that's the starting rent. So the initial rent when they move in, again, like I said, kind of includes all the things that are going to be paid for. parking, pet fees, utilities, storage, housing services, and then on top of that, once a year, you can have your rent increases. So that's your what we call an AGA. It's an annual general adjustment. Then not limited to once a year, but there is an option for landlords to petition to have an increase if they're not making that return on investment. And then some landlords will withhold rent increases for a couple of years. This was very common during COVID. And then once things kind of started getting back to normal, um they banked those increases. So you can include multiple years in one increase. And we'll talk a little bit more about that later. And then what's not included in the definition of rent is your security deposit. That's kind of its own thing. So you charge it just upfront at the beginning and it cannot be increased through the teny. So security deposit can be used at the end to sort of you know if there's unpaid rent or damage to the property or cleaning services that need to be done, you're going to deduct that through the security deposit. And this for fully covered units only. Um we are in still in the process of the one-time utility adjustment petition. So a lot of larger apartments were using something called rubs um to pay or to charge tenants for utilities. So it's a ratio utility billing system and under the CSF that is not allowed um because it's not submetered it's not tenants exact usage and if it's fluctuating monthtomonth whereas if it's going over what the allowed is max for rent that that would be considered an unlawful rent increase. So, this rental housing committee came up with this one-time utility adjustment petition process where landlords can kind of catch up and roll utilities and rent into one. So, for any teny starting after March 1st, 2024, you should not be using reps um at all. Uh and then for tenants that existed before March 1st, 2024, you if you are using rubs, you can continue to use um that system until you are completed with the process, which does take some time. Um so with that, the existing tenants um utility charges for any vacant or newly rented units starting on that March 1st, 2024 date may not be allocated back to those existing rental units that are using Rubs currently, right? And then separately, utility charges that are paid directly by the tenant to the provider. um most common is PG& or that are submetered individually are exempt from this process so you don't have to worry about it. Um there are some workshops coming up specifically about this if you have more questions on that. So this is just a slide about what base rent is. there was a roll back period um if a teny started before October 19th 2025 um then you would roll back your rent but that's so long ago if you are in that position and you didn't roll back your rents please reach out to us and we can kind of walk you through that but um for most people there's probably been some turnover since that date okay so new laws relatively new laws laws in effect um AB 2219 where landlords are required to accept third party payments for rent. So as long as an acknowledgement is signed um from the third party saying that they are not on the lease, they are not living in the unit, the landlord must accept that um rent payment. So, you may see that in Mountain View with the community services agency who provides rental assistance for tenants. Sometimes they'll reach out to landlords asking for um an acknowledgement that the landlord's going to accept that payment u that they're going to be providing on behalf of the tenant. So, you must accept that payment. And then AB2747 is a rental reporting law where landlords uh have to offer tenants the option to report on-time rent payments to credit bureaus and you can recover that cost up to 10% and that's not going to be uh considered a rent increase. So, some people have been interested in that and are doing that. And then there's also this ban on junk fees. Um, so no extra type fees for things like personal checks. Um or if a service sorry if a service member has paid additional fees for poor rental history but then maintain 6 months ontime payment the fees must be refunded. Oh that's nice. So let me take a pause here. I think maybe I have a question. All right, I think that's again about parking. If you want to just stay a little bit towards the end, I'll dive into that with you. But we'll just keep rolling on. We actually have a pretty packed um presentation today. So, I'm trying to get through all the information cuz it's very good information. Um so, we'll talk next about rent increases. So, you have the tenant in, you set your base rent, you have all the rules and the lease, and now it's time to increase the rent. So, a landlord may give a rent increase under these circumstances. So it has been 12 months uh since the last rent increase or since the uh initial term of teny. All the annual housing fees are paid which happen yearly. Property is registered with the city which is required yearly. The owner is otherwise in compliance with the CSF array. So mainly what we're talking about there is that you don't have any code violations on your property. So everything is safe and is healthy. And then you must properly notice your tenant, which is 30-day notice required by state law. So, if you're looking to increase the rent, the current rent increase for the upcoming year is uh oops, sorry, I messed those numbers up, but it's a 2.5% rent increase. Um, and then next year's will come out in September of 2026. Um, so the 2025 one, this should say 2025 2026 and that should say 2026 to 2027. That is my mistake. I'll fix that before I send that out to you. All right. So, uh, as I was saying previously with bank rent increases, if you do not give your rent increases from previous years, you can hold them and um, put them all sort of bundled together, but you are limited up to 10% for any given year. So, if you have more than 10% saved, you have to split that up. So you can give up to 10% one year and then save the rest of them for the next year and give them then. Um, additionally, if you are a new owner, you do not get to keep the banked rent increases from the previous owner. Um, those go away and they stay with the previous owner and you are starting fresh. Um, so that's something important to know. Also, there is a form that the city has provided and you can download it on our website that includes the required language in the bank direct increase. So, you don't have to use it, but if you're making your own form, make sure that you include the required language. So, again, there's one rent increase per 12 months. You must give 30-day notices. Um, if you're giving a bank direct increase, you must also give a copy to the city within seven days and you can submit that online through your registration portal. All right. And we will double check to make sure it has that required language in it. So when can you raise your rent back to market rate? So the CSFRA includes vacancy deont control. So that means anytime you have turnover and a new tenency starts, you can start it at market rate. Um but you must be mindful cuz sometimes there are roommate swap situations. If you're swapping roommates around, it's going to be when all the original tenants vacate. So, if you start with two people on the lease and one moves out, we still have one original tenant there. Um, so we can't uh go back to market yet until maybe there was another swap and the all the original tenants are gone. So then you can go back to market and who's able to stay in the units? obviously the people who you agreed to when they first signed the lease. But under the CSF array, you are allowed to do, like I was mentioning just previously, a one forone roommate swap. There is a form that the tenant must inform you that they are doing the swap um and kind of let you know if that person's going to be paying rent, how much rent. Um, and in those cases, you would be able to do um, credit checks and things like that to make sure that they would be able to afford that rent. Um, they can also have a eligible family member. So, that would be an immediate family member, parent, um, sibling, child, um, yeah, to come in to their unit. And they again they have to give you that form indicating who's coming in and you know if they're if they're paying any rent. Um so the tenant has to give you that form within 10 days of um the tenant moving in. And then again the subleting is very important to have on your lease because if you do not want subleting you want that very explicitly stated on the lease. Um, so that's sort of who can be in the unit and then let me see here. I think maybe I have a question, right? I'll save that for the end. All right. So, compliance with the CSFA is something that's very important for our landlords. So, if you are a new owner specifically, um it's good to kind of understand what it means to be in compliance with the CSFA because this limits your ability to increase your rent if you're out of compliance. So, we do have specific regulations on compliance and enforcement. So, if you want to take a deeper dive into that is chapter 12 of our regulations. Um, but as I was mentioning, property owners who fail to comply substantially with the law cannot raise their rents or file any petition to get an upward adjustment in their rent. So any kind of rent increase would not be allowed. All right. So the requirements to be in substantial compliance is again the roll rent roll back which should have happened back in 20 um if you had any tenants from 2015 um if you have not increased your rents in accordance with the law. Right? So maybe you've done more than one rent increase in 12 months. Maybe um you did a rent increase over the allowed percent. those would not be considered lawful and you would need to correct those roll back any excess payment before you can um issue a new rent increase and our staff can help with that. So, additionally, you must be sure that you have paid or that all fees have been paid um for your annual rental housing fees. So, even if you're a new owner, you are still responsible for the fees from past owners if they did not pay them. So, you can double check with us if you're thinking about buying a property to kind of see if the uh property is in compliance. Uh along with that is the annual property registration. You want to make sure you do that every year uh on time before February 1st, right? Even then again, um, maintaining a habitable premise is very important. So, you must be sure that there are no code violations on your property in order to legally increase your rent. All right. So, about the rental housing fee, we just had I guess it's been 6 months now. It's already July, but in January, um, the rental housing fee for 2026 was due. It was $130 a unit. Um, so if you're not sure if that was paid or if you need help paying that, please let us know. If you are not sure if your property is registered or you don't have access to the portal, which looks like this on the screen, um, again, please let us know. So, this is where you're going to be managing your property, updating your contact information, submitting your termination notices, your bank direct increase notices, any other sort of required information that we need, you can do that through the portal, one-stop shop. All right. So, sort of the remedies here um are again as I've been mentioning, if you're not in compliance, you can't increase your rent. If you're not in compliance, there will be a first non-compliance letter sent out to the landlord. And then if it is not resolved, a second non-compliance letter goes out to the landlord, but a copy of that notice also go out goes out to the tenants um informing them that the property is out of compliance. And if they've received rent increases, they may be unlawful. Additionally, there are late fees for both failure to pay the annual rental housing fee and failure to register your property. And I can tell you that those go up per month and they add up quickly. So, um, if you are not sure if you're in compliance or need help with that, definitely come to us. All right. So, kind of rolling through compliance, um, rent increases, and some of the consequences of being out of compliance, which is you can't increase your rent. Petitions is one of those ways um where you would be able to increase the rent above the allowed uh annual general adjustment. again only if you are in compliance with the property. Um so we have a landlord petition. It's it's um fair rate of return petition. So if you're not maintaining your net operating income year-over-year or you're and you're not getting a fair return on your investment, you can file a petition with the city. Um the petition process is detailed and staff will be able to kind of walk you through and make sure you're um a good candidate for that petition um and then help you kind of provide all the documentation as well. There's another rent increase petition. It's called joint petitions. This is when both a tenant and a landlord are interested in doing something or getting a service that would increase the rent. Now, this would be something that would be initiated by the tenant. So, new or additional housing service, again, like a pet is a really common one that we see. people want to get a pet. Um, and they didn't have it in the lease addendum, so now they have to do it this way, which is a little bit more involved. Um, but it's something that people can do. We've also seen for improvements or modifications. people want new carpet or they want a different countertop or something like that in their apartment and the landlord agrees because maybe it's been a little while and they're saying, "Okay, I'm happy to pay, you know, extra whatever it is um to get the improvement." And then if somebody's coming in who is not one of those allowed um either family member or swapping roommate, there can be an option to say, "Hey, I want to add this roommate in and we'll pay this amount." So those are just things to keep in mind. There are options if you want to increase the rent because some some dynamic is changing. Um but again it would be a combination between the tenant and the landlord. And then there's also tenant petitions for downward adjustment of the rent. So this would be a rent decrease either permanently or temporarily. So unlawful collection of rent. Again, that would be if you have charged over the allowed amount or you gave more than one rent increase a year, then this again would be something you would need to correct. If you did not correct it, the tenant has the option to file a petition with the city to go to a hearing to request that rent be corrected. Right. Um, also if you give a banked rent increase, a tenant can file a hardship petition for just the banked portion. So, not the allowed portion for the year, but maybe you went back 2024 and 2023 and that would create some type of hardship on the tenant. They can file a petition for that. And so, um, maybe a hearing officer would say, well, they can afford a portion of that. So, maybe not the whole thing, but a portion of it. Or maybe they say they can't afford it this year. Um, so maybe in 12 months, you can do the bank increase at that time. So, those are just some examples. Uh, additionally, if you have any kind of issue on the property where there is a habitability issue or some type of housing decrease has happened, removal of a pool, removal of a gym, um, removal of washing washers and dryers, something like that, some kind of service is reduced. Uh, the tenant can petition for a downward adjustment of their rent as well. So sometimes landlords what they'll do is preemptively decrease the rent. You know, they'll say, "Okay, I'm taking the pool away." Um, and it would be maybe, I don't know, $50 a month to maybe get a gym membership of a pool. Um, so we'll that makes sense logically. We'll go ahead and decrease your rent $50 per month. Um, again, that might work for some tenants. for some tenants it might not and they could still say I don't think that number is quite right and file a petition but I think it um it has worked in the past definitely something to consider there okay good question so a fair return what is a fair return so we're talking for rental apartments on a whole. So, it's not unit by unit. We're looking at entire properties when we're looking at a fair return. So, we look back to our beginning year uh when the CSF started in 2016 and we're saying sort of, you know, before rent control went into effect, what was the property owner being able to make um on their property on their investment? Like what kind of profit were they making, right? um they should be able to maintain that with increases in CPI, right? So they should keep up with the CPI increases and make that same amount of return on their investment. So they should still be able to make that same level of profit on their property. So what we do is compare the base year um when the CSF rate started to the current year um and then we make those adjustments in CPI and we say okay were they able to maintain that level of profit. Uh if the answer is no then the landlord may be able to increase their rent above what is allowed for that current year. If the answer is yes, they have been able to maintain then they would not be you they would not be um able to increase the rent above that. The CPI we have that information um available if you're interested in like a chart of what CPI is year-over-year. I can hand that out at the end. I can email it out. Um, so just let me know. All righty. Thank you for the questions. So any habitability concerns? Let's look at what the laws are. So there's state law and then there's local code. Um the state law is kind of defining uh standards of habitability that landlords must meet and then the local code goes into more detail and provides clarity about those standards. So there are certain responsibilities in a unit that are a tenants responsibilities and certain responsibilities that are a landlord's responsibility. So tenants must take care of their unit and the common areas and they must notify a landlord if a problem arises so that a landlord has um the ability to correct or repair the issue before it gets out of hand. So if a if a tenant has guests or pets or children that also damaged something in their rental unit, then the tenant would be responsible to pay for that. Now one important thing to note about that is the landlord is responsible to provide the unit in a habitable condition. So, let's say somebody's kid did damage a window, broke a window out. Um, and the tenant, you know, doesn't know how to repair the window. So, it's the landlord's responsibility to repair the window because they need to provide the unit in such condition. However, they may charge that back to the tenant if that makes sense. So, I mean main habitability issues that come up or things to be kind of concerned about is working plumbing and gas. Um, working and in good condition, roof, exterior walls, um, obviously windows that there are no vermin or um, excess garbage on the premises that doors must be locking and in working condition. any sort of a window that people would have access to, especially ground floor, right, must be or or on um a railway, a walkway. Those have to be locking in good condition. Um heating and electricity must work. Let me see if I have a I think I have a hand. Also, thank you for bearing with me while I navigate all the um PowerPoint and the the tools by myself. Okay. Uh Carrie, I think you can unmute. Are you able to? Hello. Oh, maybe she does not have a question. Okay, I'll go ahead and just mute you again. Lower your hand if you did have a question. Just uh please let me know. You can raise your hand again. Okay, so there's quite a few questions here in the chat about the CPI and our rent increases. Um, and I will be happy as part of this packet that goes out tomorrow to include the memo and the chart for the CPI that we use for the rent increases so that everybody can see that. Let me just make a note of that. Okay, perfect. All right, so I'll just email that out to everybody along with the PowerPoint and the recording. Okay, so another question. How about excessive noise from ventilation from the laundry room? That's a tricky question. Um, again, that would be something that would be case by case. So, if it is something that is actually very excessive, something like it's broken and it needs to be fixed because it's rattling all over the place. Um, obviously that would need to be fixed by the landlord or maybe there's some insulating that needs to be done. Um, again, they can take a look at that. If there is a disagreement or an inability to kind of correct it, I would say the best next thing to do is come to our office to talk about u the petition option for a habitability issue. And now at that point, you would be able to document what the excessive noise is, what you think the issue is, how long it's been going on. Um, you would need to document when you told your landlord about it. Um, and how long it's been since it has not been repaired or fixed. Um, people can submit, you know, obviously emails, text messages, videos with sound of the issue and it would go in front of a hearing officer where both the tenant and the landlord can um, present their own evidence and kind of tell their story of what's happening. and the hearing officer who is a third uh party administrator will write a decision and determine if in fact a rent decrease is warranted. So that would be the process when we're having a habitability question or um sort of disagreement. Okay, I think I have a hand. Elena, is it not allowing people to unmute or is it I'm not sure.

Hi, thank you. Um, I was always wondering how to uh be objective about uh wear normal wear and tear

because um I have experience living in other places for example Florida it's very um assumption they assume that wear and tear is normal. In California, I always see landlords uh going after every little thing and charge arm and a leg and it's just a different of culture and maybe different of law that I would like to understand better maybe with your help.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Great question. Um yeah, and again that's a tricky one and that's because in in California the law is not super specific about what normal wear and tear means. Um so it is a little bit up to interpretation about you know what landlords might consider normal wear and tear. Um, generally speaking from experience, again, this is not legal advice or anything like that. Um, but you know, some holes in the wall from hanging pictures on the wall generally has been okay. You know, a lot of people in California use like those plastic blinds. If blinds are broken, obviously um they would charge to replace those. Um, I've seen especially with carpet cuz that's a a tricky one and in in California carpet doesn't have like an expiration date. As long as it's clean and safe, then the carpet is okay. Um, so a little bit dirty, they may charge the tenant to do like a a professional carpet cleaning. Um, but for the most part, you Yeah, it's kind of up a little bit to interpretation. It should look close to when the tenant got it, I think, is what most landlords um that I've talked to, that's sort of what they're looking for. Um, and then in Mountain View specifically, we do have a mediation program and and a lot of people do go to mediation with their landlords over um disputes about security deposits and cleaning. Um, so I don't know if that's super helpful, but that's sort of what I've seen over the last 10 years or so that I've been working here. So, you know, small wear and tear, but nothing major. Let me see if I missed anything. One second. Okay. Okay. All right. Yeah. So, here we are. Landlords providing a habitable condition. So, some of these are recommendations, some of these are law. Um, perform a thorough walkthrough inspection. So, starting last year, this became law that at the beginning and the end of the teny, a walkthrough needs to be done and it needs to be done with pictures. So, um, that was always a good idea. Now, you must do it. Um, so that should hopefully help any kind of security deposit disputes because you have photo evidence or video evidence. Um, some landlords decide to require renters insurance in their lease. Again, you need to do that right when the tenant is first entering the lease because that's not something you can add mid lease or yeah, mid teny. Um again I just mentioned uh the mediation program that we have in Mountain View is great for tenant landlord um disputes. So keeps the relationship lets people kind of create solutions that work for both parties. So we always highly recommend mediation for tenant landlord issues. All right. And then speaking of habitability, um often times there will be something in a tenants's unit that you need to fix. So you need to enter the unit. So as a landlord, you do have a right to enter the unit. However, it must be done lawfully. So it's only necessary for like the repairs or services. So, if you have an annual fire alarm inspection, that would be allowed and that would be necessary because, you know, especially in California, we want to make sure our fire alarms are working. Um, you must give 24-hour written notice. So, that's a state law. Um, and then must be clear about the state, the sorry, the date, the time, and the purpose of the entry. And then that's applicable unless it's an emergency. So, fire, flood, earthquake, that type of thing. And you want to make sure it's during normal business hours. So, you're not entering anybody's unit at midnight, but maybe, you know, like right when they get off work. If they're there at 7:00 and they want to be there for the inspection, they can be. Um, but it's not required. All right. So, um, let me see if we're going. Okay, this is a perfect transition. So, um, if the tenant is refusing to let you in the unit, um, or they've, you know, done something like change the lock so you can't get in the unit, that is not allowed. So, under the CSF, we have what we call just cause evictions, which are nine specific reasons that a landlord is allowed to terminate a teny. Um, if it is outside of these nine reasons, it is not a an allowed reason to terminate a teny. So, I like to break these up into two categories. One is tenant cause. The other is landlord and under the tenant, the most common one of course is failure to pay rent. Next is breach of lease, nuisance, criminal activity, and that failure to give access. And then you'll notice reasons two through five have the asterisk next to it. And that's because you're required to give a notice to cease before you give the actual termination notice. If you do not give that notice to cease, the tenant um can use that as a defense against any sort of unlawful detainer that may come in the future. So, um, if you want to, I think we have a form on our website for notices to cease, but the main takeaways is that it should be very specific in what happened and what the tenant needs to correct and how long they have to correct it. Um, it also should give the phone number of the city in case the tenant needs support. Um, so that's it all included on the template that we have. So, you can use that might be a little bit easier. Um, then we move over to these more landlordcaused reasons a tenant might need to leave their unit. So, if there are repairs that may cause a vacancy, um, the tenant can give a termination notice if that repair is going to take over 30 days if there is an owner moving situation. So, the owner, their parent, their spouse, their child is going to move into one of the units. Um, that could be one reason to issue a notice. If you're withdrawing all of the units from the rental market or if you're demolishing maybe one or two units from the property, um, those are allowed. However, all of the reasons under the landlord cause uh will trigger tenant relocation assistance for those tenants that income qualify. Now, if you get as far as giving a notice to cease if applicable, giving a termination notice, and then the tenant still doesn't move out, the only way to get the tenant out of the unit is to go through the formal eviction process. Um, and there's just like kind of a little flowchart here, but you'll give the tenant the notice. You give a copy to the city as is required. You serve the court paperwork. Um, the tenant has uh the option to provide an answer to the court. If they do not file an answer, it goes straight to a judgment. If they do file an answer, you will get scheduled a court date and then it will be heard and a judgment will happen. And if the judgment is in the favor of the eviction, then a sheriff's notice will be placed on the tenants's door. And if necessary, the sheriff is the one who will do the escorting and the locking out. Not the landlord, it will be the sheriff. Um, anything else is not allowed. So, any kind of constructive eviction would be totally against the law. Um so changing locks, cutting off utilities, harassment, um preventing uh tenants from entering the unit or making the property fall into such disrepair that the tenant wants to move out. Right? So you don't want to do any of that. Go through the formal channels. Um I don't have a lot of time left. I'm trying to get through this, but there is always the story that pops in my head that was in the MV voice a couple years ago when a landlord hired someone to block a tenant out of their unit. It made the news, so don't do that. And it was a CSF covered property. Okay. So, noticing So, specifically talking about termination noticing and and notices to cease. So depending on the type of termination notice you're going to give it will be three days for three days to to not pay rent or quit 30 days 60 days or in the cases where you may be withdrawing the units from the market 120 days or a year but those are very specific. So most cases it's 3 days 30 or 60 days. Um so on the notice again you want to have your very specific reason. I mean, list out the exact reason out of those nine reasons. Make it super clear. Notify the ten the tenant if they have the right of relocation assistance. And then you have to give a copy to the city within 3 days of serving that to your tenant. Um, for those other ones that we talked about earlier, give that notice to cease with the proper information and then the city will get involved if you are having um a a termination notice with a tenant where tenant relocation assistance is triggered. It's sort of a collaborative process that we we will work through together. All right. Okay. Okay, so this is kind of new. So just recently earlier this year, the rental housing committee passed anti- retaliation and anti- um harassment regulations. And so it's just really to further clarify what the state law already says, but it gives a lot of examples um and a process where tenants can file something with the city, but the city um holds that information. And they don't necessarily, you know, file any lawsuits or or any fines or penalties to landlords, but it's just more of an option for tenants to record that type of um behavior if it's happening and to give landlords, you know, a better definition of what that type of behavior is. Okay. So here are the examples. So tenants would be protected from retaliation. So if they requested repairs, um if they're reporting any kind of unsafe condition, filing a petition on their behalf to decrease the rent for some other reason. if they are joining organizations requesting reasonable accommodations um or if they have to call law enforcement in any kind of emergencies like especially domestic violence type emergencies or any other type of emergencies um they would be protected against retaliation um if those things came up. Um, and then bad faith. So, ill types of interactions or what could be seen as a harassment would be threats of eviction without one of those just cause reasons. Coercion for a tenant to vacate the use the unit. Verbal or written threats. uh failure to provide any kind of housing service or eliminating any of those housing services. Um removing any of the tenants property from inside their unit or outside their unit um or their storage units, anything like that. Unnecessary late night repairs, refusing to accept rent that is lawfully being given. And then any other sort of discrimination against the tenant, you know, for race, sexual orientation, um, heritage, language, uh, anything like that, just to name a few. Um, just be super careful of, which I know, you know, I know most people are. So if you want to sort of read more about that, there are new regulations out and those are up on our website. There is also a separate page on our website related just to uh more information about anti-harassment and uh anti- retaliation. All right, give me one moment to take a sip of water. Oh, thank you. Okay. So, kind of going through everything we just went through. If the tenant was terminated, um, that's one option. However, there is also this other thing that I like to talk about and make landlords aware of, which are tenant buyout agreements. Um, and they sometimes are a good option, especially I've seen new owners be very interested in them, um, when they're coming in to a new property that has existing tenants. So, there might be some sort of incentive to offer the current tenants to have them voluntarily leave. So the buyout agreement is an agreement between the landlord and the tenant that the tenant gets pro usually a payment of some sort and then they say on of my own valition I'm choosing to vacate the unit. So the there's no termination notice needed. There's no UD court needed. Um nothing like that. It's just sort of easy peasy. So, um, how the process works is obviously first get in talks with your tenant. Um, and if they're agreeable to the idea, there is a disclosure form that the tenant signs um, before you guys really start getting down to the nitty-gritty of negotiating um, prices, vacate dates, things like that. Um, and this form tells the tenant their rights and it also gives them an example of what is required under tenant relocation assistance. Um, not that that's the number you have to use, but it's just sort of like a good maybe starting spot or some spot for them to kind of acknowledge as what they might be getting if it were like an owner move in or if you were withdrawing the units from the market. Um, so that information is on that disclosure form. And then you're going to want to make sure that you have an agreement. So, a contract that spells out specifically how much, when the payments are going to happen, when the tenant needs to move out, um, and all those good details. So, once you have all that, a copy of the disclosure form and the agreement amounts and details is submitted to the city. Again, you can do that through the portal. And as a final step, the tenant has a a built-in 10 days after signing the agreement to resend it. Um, in case they they misunderstood something or they changed their mind, they have 10 days to do that. Um, so that's a process that you can use as an option. Um, if a tenant wants to move out. Okay. So now from all different scenarios, our tenant is out of the unit, whether that was a termination notice, a UD eviction, or a tenant buyout agreement. So we're just wrapping up now with what happens afterwards. So security deposits, which we kind of already touched on a little bit, but they can be used for unpaid rent, damage to the property, or cleaning. I know. Um, like I was saying, carpet's a big one. Um, applian deep cleaning of appliances can be a big one. Blinds is always a big one. I think it's cuz they're so difficult to clean. Um, but anyways, you want to do that inspection uh at least within 14 days um before the tenant moves out for a pre-insspection if they're willing to do that. Some tenants don't want to do that and that's fine. Um, but then they move out. You need the final inspection. Make sure you have your checklist. Make sure you have your pictures. And then, um, return the deposit within 21 days after the tenant moves out. And if there was any items, and maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's over $150 or $200, then you do need to have the receipt attached to that. Um, oh, you know what I'll also include? I'll also include the landlord tenant handbook. It's such a good resource and it has all of this. I'll include that in the email or you can just Google California Tenant Landlord Handbook and it's a great resource. All right, so that's that. I don't see any other kind of questions there. So, I'll just go ahead and wrap up. So, anybody who wants to kind of take off can do that. Um, again, mediation is a great resource. All you have to do is reach out to our program and we can connect you directly with the mediators. Um, great for tenant landlord, but also if you have two tenants going at it, it's great for neighbor to neighbor uh conflict as well. For landlords, you can if you need a lawyer, which is um never a bad idea, especially if you're uh dealing with termination notices or the court system, you can look that up at Santa Clara County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service. Or if you want to sort of try to do some things yourself, you can take a trip to the Superior Court Self-Help Center. And that's in San Jose. Uh if you have questions directly about Mountain View program or um a property you have here, we have a landlord help center that we hold every Thursday from 1 to 300 p.m. and that's virtual and online. So you can come to our office at 298 Equal Avenue. We are next to the senior center. You actually just park in the senior center and walk up um to our looks like a house but it's converted into an office or join us online mountainview.gov/housinghelp clinics. And then if your tenants need help with anything, you can always refer your tenants to come to us, especially if they're having trouble paying their rent. Um, at our housing help center for tenants, we have a representative from CSA, uh, who can help them apply for rent relief. Um, so that could be a good resource for them. That's every first and third Thursday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. both online and in person. All right. And so, some upcoming workshops for landlords. Um because September is coming up and it is the next time to increase the rent. We have how to lawfully increase your rent. So we'll be going over the allowed rent increases, the forms, and uh the noticing requirements. Then we have next month next month in September, uh how to comply with tenant eviction protections in Mountain View. So, if you find yourself in a situation um where you're considering terminating a tenant or you just want to kind of know in more detail than we went into today what the steps are for that, we'll be focusing on that on that day. And these are all online. So, you register through the same link and mountainview.govrsp webinars, rentstabilization program webinars. If you want to just reach out to us for a very specific question, um you can contact us at our phone number, email or stop by our office Monday through Friday 9 to5. Uh we have plenty of information on our website. And then also we on top of the landlord housing help center, we also have Tuesday office hours online only from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. So that happened earlier today. Okay. So then I'll stay around. Let me leave this up. Couldn't stop.