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specified information, it also is prohibited from evicting the tenant based on unpaid rent
accruing during the period of noncompliance.
This disparate treatment of owner and successor owner/manager for the same dereliction
of their statutory duty indicates the prohibition is meant to specifically target successor owners
and their managers to address a danger posed by the change in ownership. There is a greater
likelihood a tenant would not be aware of relevant information concerning a successor
owner/manager rather than an owner with which he enters into a lease agreement. Therefore,
the prohibition against evictions encourages and incentivizes a successor owner/manager to
disclose such information.
Our interpretation is informed and bolstered by the legislative history and analysis of
Assembly Bill No. 1953, which added subdivision (c) to section 1962 in 2012.
The key issue before the Assembly Committee on Judiciary was whether tenants should
“be protected from eviction by a successor owner of the rental property for nonpayment of rent
that could have otherwise been paid and received if that owner had complied with existing law
requiring prompt notice of where to pay rent.” (Assem. Com. on Judiciary, analysis on
Assem. Bill No. 1953 (2011-2012 Reg. Sess.) May 1, 2012 [proposed amendment] p. 1.)
The bill’s author explained the need for additional law: “Purchasers or rental properties,
especially foreclosed homes, are increasingly allowing months to go by without notifying
tenants where to pay rent. When a new owner fails to timely inform the tenant to whom rent
should be paid, but then months later serve [sic] a three-day notice demanding all of the
accumulated rent, many low-income tenants no longer have the money to pay and keep their
homes. Good tenants end up losing their housing because their landlord failed to comply with
the law, unnecessarily creating nonpayment situations. This bill will help prevent unnecessary
evictions after ownership changes.” (Assem. Com. on Judiciary, analysis of Assem. Bill
No. 1953 (2011-2012 Reg. Sess.) May 1, 2012 [proposed amendment], p. 4.)
Tenants Together, a sponsor of the bill, noted that “some tenants have received three day
pay-or-quit notices from their landlord for failure to pay rent when such failure occurred only
because the tenant had not been properly notified by the new owner of the property where to