By Daily Press staff
A ballot measure that offers stronger protection for tenants in disputes with landlords was passed by city voters Tuesday night.
Measure FF, as the proposal was known, will become part of Santa Monica’s City Charter and will affect tenants with apartments under rent control.
The measure was passing 63 percent to 37 percent with 100 percent of the votes counted.
Under FF’s provisions, if a person whose name is on the lease of a rent-controlled unit dies or becomes incapacitated and a family member, spouse or domestic partner stays behind, the landlord will no longer be able to legally raise the rent to the market rate.
Also, if a tenant and a landlord agree to allow a certain number of roommates when a unit is first rented, landlords will not be able to restrict that number later.
Finally, the measure will stop landlords from offering so-called “discount” rents, where the first year’s rate is significantly lower than the second year’s rate. Language in the measure also strengthens protections against wrongful evictions.
Santa Monica Councilman Richard Bloom, a supporter of the measure, said the most important thing about it is that it will allow tenants to stay in their homes if the lease-holder becomes incapacitated or dies.
“It’s been a fundamental underpinning of our ordinances and laws related to tenancies that we want to preserve the existing tenant base as much as possible because that provides for stability for families and for the community,” Bloom said.
However, Rosario Perry, a local attorney known for representing landlords, said the measure will hurt tenants.
He said the measure will make the city’s rent control laws inflexible and unable to change along with state law — should current restrictive rent control laws or laws regarding evictions be re-written.
Perry also claimed that the measure will strip landlords and property managers of their power to protect tenants from the “ill effects of criminals, drug dealers, sex offenders and politicians by reasonably screening potential occupants.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 6, 2002. Read the original PDF.