Rent Board Overhauls Regulation

By Jorge Casuso

Jan. 13 -- Hoping to hurdle a legal challenge, the Rent Control Board last week overhauled a new regulation that a judge found gave landlords too much power to set rents.

The change to the regulation -- which allows landlords to raise rents to market rates if they can prove the tenants are not using their apartments as a primary residence -- gives the rent board the authority to determine the new rental rate based on the rent of comparable units.

The change, approved last Wednesday, comes less than one month after a trial court held that Santa Monica’s Rent Control law required that the board, and not landlords, set the rental rates and that the regulation did not require landlords to set the rent at “fair and equitable levels.”

On November 19, the court enjoined the board from enforcing the regulation.

Under the change, a hearings officer and the board will set the new rent based on the median rents of comparable units vacated on the property during the previous three years. If there are no such units on the property, the new rent will be based on the median rents of comparable units in the area.

The provision allows landlords and tenants to challenge the new rates if the amenities or condition of the unit is substantially different from that of the comparable units. Either party can set a hearing and must provide the board with reasons in writing for that adjustment.

Allan Abshez, the attorney representing prominent developer Robert Bisno, who mounted the legal challenge after his landlord used the regulation to raise the rent on his beachfront rent-controlled apartment, has said the change would not "salvage" the regulation.

Instead, Abshez advocates putting the regulation before the voters because he contends it amends the rent control charter.

More than 100 cases have been filed with the board since the regulation went into effect on March 15.