Proposition 33 will give local governments control over rent caps and other tenant ”protections.” Currently cities cannot limit rents on single-family homes, apartments built after 1995 and on new tenants. Prop. 33 would change that, essentially ending the state’s “limits on limits.” Voters rejected two similar ballot measures in 2018 and 2020. These folks mean well, rents are expensive… but maintaining, repairing, insuring and paying taxes on California real estate has gone up more than 20% over the last 24 months. A 5% or 10% cap on rents may lead to losses for landlords. The shortage of housing is the enemy, not the landlord.

Rent control advocates beware… Baby-boomers (senior citizens) own millions of single-family homes and condos as rentals in California. If rent control legislation pushes just 10% of them into selling, it could quickly remove 300,000 rentals from the California rental market. We all know what happens when the supply of rentals goes down? Rents go up. Rent control will only make matters worse. If the government wants to fix the problem they need to make it EASY and cost effective for private developers to construct residential housing. In short, they need to get out of the way… We can only hope.

A 2019 State law caps how much “some” landlords can increase rent, starting each Aug. 1: Either by 5% plus inflation, or by 10% (whichever is lower). So you’re probably wondering, who’s exempt?

• Units constructed in the last 15 years are exempt (on a rolling basis, i.e., a unit constructed on January 1, 2008 is not covered as of January, 1 2023, but is covered on and after January 1, 2023).
• Units are exempt if they are restricted to be affordable for low- or moderate-income residents.
• A single family home or a condo is exempt unless it’s owned by a real estate investment trust (REIT), a corporation, or an LLC where one of the members is a corporation. The owner must inform the renter in writing that the tenancy is not subject to the rent cap and just cause limitations.
• Duplexes and other two-unit properties are exempt if one unit is occupied by the owner.

Based upon these exceptions, many tens of thousands of rental homes and condos in California are except, Google is less than helpful on this topic.