New California Real Estate Laws for 2024

There is always a lot going on in real estate and federal and state laws are ever changing. Today, I’ll highlight 2 new laws that will impact California in 2024. One affects single family residential sellers and the other affects landlords.

Assembly Bill 968:

Although all sellers are required to disclose improvements, repairs and issues affecting their property during a sale, this bill gets more specific with a seller of a single-family residential property who accepts an offer for the sale of the single-family residential property within 18 months from the date that title was transferred. The seller must disclose the following when the work is performed by a contractor with whom the seller entered into a contract:

·        Room additions

·        Structural modifications

·        Other alterations

·        Repairs

A seller must also include the name of each contractor with whom the seller entered into a contract.

They must provide a copy of any permit for work performed.

If the seller was not provided with a copy of the permits, they should give the buyer contact information so they can obtain details from a third party.

The bill will go into effect after July 1, 2024.

Assembly Bill 12

The new bill states that a landlord may only collect one month’s rent in addition to the first month’s rent. There is an exception for “small landlords”.

Small landlords can collect 2 months’ rent as security deposit plus the first months’ rent except if the tenant is a service member. A small landlord is a “natural person” who owns no more than two residential rental properties that together include no more than four units. A trust or LLC can qualify under this definition as long as every member of the LLC or trust is a “natural person”.

Existing security deposits in excess of one month’s rent that are obtained prior to July 1, 2024 can be retained. The bill will go into effect on July 1, 2024.

These are just two of the many laws that will go into effect in 2024. Thank goodness we have both the Monterey County Association of Realtors and the California Association of Realtors working on all of these California property rights.

Source: C.A.R. Real Estate Magazine Winter 2024 & Legiscan.com