Applicability
Landlords; Is your rental unit subject to rent control in the City of East Palo Alto?
The following types of units are FULLY exempt from Rent Stabilization:
TRANSIENT OCCUPANCY: Accommodations in motels, hotels, inns, tourist houses, rooming houses, and boarding houses, provided that such accommodations are not occupied by the same tenant for 30 or more continuous days.
CARE FACILITIES: Housing accommodations in any hospital, skilled nursing, health or care facility, convalescent home, or nonprofit home for the aged.
RESIDENT OWNED, NON-PROFIT HOUSING: Dwelling units in a nonprofit cooperative that is owned and occupied, and controlled by a majority of the residents.
UNITS EXEMPTED BY THE STATE AND FEDERAL LAW: Units exempted pursuant to state and federal law.
UNITS (ROOMS) WITHIN A DWELLING UNIT SHARED WITH THE LANDLORD: Units within a dwelling unit, if the dwelling unit is the principal residence of a landlord, and that landlord shares the bathroom or kitchen facilities with the tenant.
The following types of units are PARTIALLY exempt from Rent Stabilization:
The following dwelling units are exempt only from Rent Registration (Section 8), Limitation of Rent Increases (Section 9), Annual General Adjustments of Maximum Allowable Rent (Section 10), Fair Return Rent Adjustments (Section 12), Rent Adjustments for Maintenance and Service Reductions Section 13), Procedures for Rent Adjustment Petitions and Hearings (Section 14), Remedies: Landlord’s Failure to Register (Section 18.A), and Remedies: Landlord’s Demand for or Retention of Excessive Rent (Section 18.B)
SINGLE FAMILY DWELLINGS: Single family dwellings on parcels with only one dwelling unit and other units exempted from rent controls pursuant to the Costa-Hawkins Act.
UNITS CONSTRUCTED AFTER JANUARY 1, 1988: Units which were newly constructed and received a certificate of occupancy on or after January 1, 1988. To qualify as a newly constructed dwelling unit, the dwelling unit must be entirely newly constructed or created from spae that was formerly entirely non-residential. This exemption does not apply to any newly constructed dwelling units that replace covered units withdrawn from the rental market in accordance with the Ellis Act if the notice to withdraw the unit was filed after March 9, 2010.
UNITS IN OWNER OCCUPIED TWO AND THREE-UNIT PROPERTIES: Dwelling units in properties that have either two or three total units in which one of the units is currently occupied as a principal residence of a natural person who is the owner or a parent or child or sibling of the owner who has occupied the unit for a continuous period of one year or more.
NON-PROFIT HOUSING PROJECTS WITH RENT COVENANTS: A rental unit s in a residential property owned by an organization exempt from federal income taxes under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or an entity that is controlled by an organization that is so exempt for the purposes of operating low-income housing tax credit housing developments, that is rented to low-income and subject to a regulatory agreement with a governmental agency that controlled the unit's rent levels. However, the exemption for such rental units from the terms of this Ordinance shall be limited to Section 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, and 18A and B of this Ordinance and shall apply only for so long as the regulatory agreement is in effect. This exemption shall not apply to rental units at properties that are not subject to a regulatory agreement with a governmental agency. This exemption shall not apply to rental units at properties that are rented by a tenant who occupied the unit prior to the properties' sale to such an agency or to the execution of such an agreement.
The following dwelling units are exempt only from Limitation of Rent Increases (Section 9), Annual General Adjustments of Maximum Allowable Rent (Section 10), Fair Return Rent Adjustments (Section 12), Rent Adjustments for Maintenance and Service Reductions Section 13), Procedures for Rent Adjustment Petitions and Hearings (Section 14), Remedies: Landlord’s Failure to Register (Section 18.A), and Remedies: Landlord’s Demand for or Retention of Excessive Rent (Section 18.B)
UNITS WITH VOUCHER ASSISTANCE: Rental units lease to tenants assisted under Section 8 program (42 U.S.C. section 1437f) or similar federally funded rent subsidy program and not exempt under 5(B)(3). Except as may be preempted by state or federal law.
