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Mountain View workshop outlines landlord habitability duties and tenant remedies under CSFRA
Summary
City staff and a fire-department inspector told landlords at a Feb. 10 workshop that maintaining habitability is required to lawfully raise rent under the Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act, and described common safety violations, inspection practices and tenant remedies including petitions and repair-and-deduct.
Andrea Kennedy, a Rent Stabilization Division staffer, and Jim Olsen, a multifamily housing inspector with the Mountain View Fire Department, told landlords at a Feb. 10 online workshop that landlords must keep rental properties habitable to lawfully raise rents under the Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act (CSFRA).
Kennedy said habitability covers basic safety and habitability components — working plumbing and hot water, heating, secure windows and doors, and freedom from vermin — and pointed landlords to state law, including Civil Code section 1941.1, and local code standards for specific obligations. "You must maintain your property to a habitable standard in order to be able to increase your rent," she said.
Olsen described routine multifamily inspections and frequent violations the city sees. The inspection program covers roughly 16,000 units in more than 700 buildings, he said, with a sampling schedule of about every five years depending on building size.…
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