Thousand Oaks Council Limits Rent-Control Law
Under pressure from apartment owners, the Thousand Oaks City Council has abandoned a proposal to extend rent control to all of the city’s more than 3,600 apartments.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to modify and extend for two years its existing rent-control law, which covers 22% of the apartment units in the Ventura County city.
Not even mentioned was the controversial measure, which received tentative approval last September, that would have limited rent increases to 7% for all apartments. That measure prompted a landlord to start eviction proceedings against more than 500 tenants in protest, and council members quickly shelved it.
At that time, council members said they would reconsider the rent-control law in six months.
The action taken Tuesday endorsed rent controls proposed by the city’s landlords.
The revised ordinance continues to provide rent control to tenants in the approximately 800 apartment units covered by the existing 7-year-old rent-control law. It limits rent increases to 7% only for tenants who have lived in the same apartment since May, 1981.
Under the new ordinance, landlords can get those units removed from rent control if they sign long-term leases--covering at least three years--with current tenants. Those leases must continue to limit rent increases to 7% for persons under 65 and 3% for persons over 65, but there will be no limit on increases after the leases lapse.
According to a city report, the provisions were suggested to the council after they were approved by landlords representing about 80% of the apartment units in Thousand Oaks.
Council members said they opted for the less strict measure because of a reevaluation of the vacancy rate for apartments in the city.
Last year’s controversial proposal, they said, stemmed from a June, 1986, study finding a 1.4% vacancy rate, suggesting that there was a great demand for apartments and landlords could easily impose high rent increases. But a new study found that more than two times as many apartments are vacant than previously estimated, they said.
