SOUTHLAND : Landlords Lose, but Court Rejects Part of Santa Monica’s Rent Law
The state Supreme Court ruled today that rent boards can decide when rents are excessive as long as landlords have the chance to block any rent withholding in court.
The decision in a case from Santa Monica also struck down a former provision of the city’s rent control law allowing the rent board to award triple damages for deliberate rent overcharges. Although the court struck down part of the city’s rent law, it fell far short of the ruling sought by landlords.
Landlords had argued that a rent board’s power to decide claims of excessive rents and authorize rent withholding by tenants was an unconstitutional exercise of judicial authority, which belongs exclusively to the courts.
With today’s ruling, “tenants are going to again be able to get a quicker remedy and go before an agency which understands the complexities of the rent control law far better than the courts ever can,” said Joel Levy, a lawyer for the Santa Monica rent board.
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