By Mike Belote, Esq.
The November Points of Interest column reported on two of the most impactful bills for CMA members enacted by the California Legislature during 2024. Of special note was SB 1146 (Wilk), resolving the usury problem created by the Moon line of cases, and AB 3108 (Jones-Sawyer), dealing with mortgage fraud. Both of these super-important bills that went into effect on January 1, 2025.
But CMA members have rightly asked: “what about the rest of the bills?” After all, every year the legislature introduces around 2,500 new bills, and actually enacts approximately 1,000. Every bill is read for potential impact on CMA members, and this year the association monitored nearly 175 bills.
So, the purpose of this column is to tell a bit of “the rest of the story”. Obviously no one wants to read about the details of 1,000 new laws, but there are certainly a number of other bills of interest to brokers and real estate experts like CMA members. By the way, all of these bills are available to CMA members through the website, including bill texts, committee analyses, votes and more.
Housing
It should come as no surprise that a very large number of the bills monitored by CMA were designed to address California’s housing crisis. On this subject, the action is not only in the legislature: the Newsom administration and state Attorney General Rob Bonta are actively suing cities for not approving their local shares of the housing need. For their part, the legislature has been borderline maniacal about proposing and enacting pretty much any idea which will incentivize the construction of more housing. Examples of bills signed into law this year include the following:
- AB 1820 (Schiavo): Authorizes developers to request an estimate of fees and exactions associated with a proposed project from cities and counties, which must respond on an informational basis within 30 days of the request.
- AB 2117 (Patterson): Delays the expiration of development permits and approvals during the time that legal challenges to those approvals are pending.
- AB 2199 (Berman) Extends from January 1, 2025 until January 1, 2032 current provisions which provide a CEQA exemption of certain residential and mixed-use projects.
- AB 2430 (Alvarez) Limits the ability of local governments to impose “monitoring fees” on certain projects constructed under the Density Bonus Law.
- AB 2533 (Carillo) Limits the ability of local governments to deny permits for ADUs and junior ADUs, and expands the obligation of local governments to explain denials of permits for these units.
- AB 3012 (Grayson) Requires cities and counties which have Internet websites to establish an online fee estimate tool for members of the public, as part of the Planning and Zoning Law. Depending upon the size of the local government. The sites must be operational by early in the 2030s.
- AB 3057 (Wilson) Broadens the ability to construct junior ADUs within single-family residential zones.
- SB 450 (Atkins) Contains a number of provisions broadening the ministerial review of proposed housing developments, limits the bases upon which proposals may be denied, and requires decisions on completed project applications within 60.
- SB 1123 (Caballero) Broadens the size of parcels and expands the number of units which require ministerial review of projects covered by the provisions of the Starter Home Revitalization Act of 2021 and clarifies how ADUs and junior ADUs are counted when constructed in single-family zoning under this law.
- SB 1211 (Skinner) Prohibits local entities from requiring the replacement of off-street parking spaces when the spaces are demolished in connection with the construction or conversion of an ADU.
Landlord-Tenant
Part and parcel of the housing shortage is the problem of high rents and pressures on evictions. Although there were many landlord-tenant bills introduced, several of note which were enacted into law include the following:
- AB 2347 (Kalra) Extends from five days to ten the time period for a defendant to respond to an unlawful detainer complaint, and modifies procedures for demurrers and oppositions to motions filed by UD
- AB 2493 (Pellerin) Limits the ability of landlords to charge application screening fees, and prohibits such fees when landlords know or reasonably should know that no unit is available for rent.
- AB 2801 (Friedman) Limits the use of security deposits for repairs to those amounts necessary to restore premises to the condition at the inception of the tenancy.
- SB 1103 (Menjivar) Imposes a notice period for rent increases on commercial tenancies and prohibits increases from being effective until the notice period has expired.
Other
Other relevant bills enacted during 2024 include the following four measures:
- AB 2004 (Petrie-Norris) Enacts clean-up provisions to the law relating to remote online notarizations, including “papering-out” provisions for recording in counties which do not offer electronic recording.
- AB 2992 (Nguyen) Establishes requirements for the execution of buyer-broker representation agreements, to implement provisions of the NAR antitrust settlement.
- AB 3100 (Low) Establishes a narrow requirement to allow mortgage assumptions in residential 1-4 units where a co-borrower wishes to assume a conventional loan following a divorce, if the co-borrower qualifies.
Mike Belote, Esq. is the Legislative Advocate for the California Mortgage Association. He is the Immediate Past President of California Advocates, a legislative advocacy firm based in Sacramento.
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