Subcommittee approves ledger‑disclosure substitute to give tenants access to utility billing records in nonpayment actions
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Summary
SB 294's substitute would require landlords to provide an accounting ledger with pay‑or‑quit notices in nonpayment actions, improving tenants' ability to verify utility and rent accounting; advocates said many ledgers contain errors and that immediate access helped stop evictions in practice.
The Senate housing subcommittee recommended reporting SB 294 as substituted, a bill targeting transparency in ratio utility billing systems (RUBS) and landlord accounting in nonpayment actions.
Sponsor Senator Ayre said the substitute moves ledger‑transparency language into a code section that makes failure to include an accurate ledger with a pay‑or‑quit notice a bar to enforcing an unlawful detainer action for nonpayment of rent. The substitute limits that remedy to nonpayment cases where the ledger is relevant.
Witnesses from neighborhood services and housing advocacy groups described frequent trouble obtaining landlord ledgers without outside intervention; the Neighborhood Resource Center reported stopping more than 100 evictions last year, saying in 75 of 100 reviewed cases the landlord ledger contained errors. “The tenant should be able to get that information themselves without having to get a third party involved,” a witness said.
Apartment and building association representatives said they appreciated collaboration with the sponsor and did not oppose the substitute language. The committee voted 5–1 to recommend reporting SB 294 with the substitute.
If enacted, the change would give tenants earlier access to the accounting information used to support eviction claims and could reduce contested filings by surfacing errors before court dates.