Title
Adoption of an Urgency Ordinance Amending Uncodified Ordinance No. 3275 to Provide that any Agreement Between a Landlord and a Tenant Concerning Repayment of "Deferred Rent" Must Limit a Landlord's Remedy for a Tenant's Breach of the Agreement to Money Damages and, as to a Tenant's Failure to Pay the Deferred Rent in the Agreement, Expressly Waive the Landlord's Right to File an Unlawful Detainer Action to Recover Possession of a Tenant's Rental Unit or for Any Unpaid Rent that was the Subject of the Agreement. (Community Development)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the Alameda City Council:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Replacing urgency ordinances adopted on March 17 and April 7, 2020, the City Council on April 21, 2020, adopted an urgency ordinance (Ordinance No. 3275) that provides a comprehensive set of protections for residential and commercial tenants, as well as residential homeowners and commercial property owners, impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ordinance provides tenants with an affirmative defense in an unlawful detainer (eviction) proceeding to terminate a tenancy during the local emergency if the grounds for terminating the tenancy is the failure to pay rent and the failure is due to a "Substantial Loss of Income" (as defined in the Ordinance) relating to or resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Property owners whose properties are foreclosed have similar protection from being evicted following foreclosure.) As to any unpaid rent that accrues between March 1, 2020, and 30 days after the City of Alameda (City) rescinds the local emergency, Ordinance No. 3275 has been amended (assuming the City Council adopts the amendment on September 1), such that a tenant has 395 days (a year and 30 days after the City Council rescinds the local emergency) before the affirmative defense is lost.
Some tenants, however, may find it financially difficult to repay the full amount of the deferred rent, whether within the 13-month period or...
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