The California Apartment Association, with the assistance of rental housing providers across the state, stopped legislation that could have imposed emergency rent restrictions during wars and other U.S. military actions.
A grassroots campaign generated thousands of messages to lawmakers urging a no vote, and SB 493 was shelved for the year.
The result marks an important advocacy victory for rental housing providers and reinforces months of work by CAA and its broad business coalition.
What SB 493 would have done
SB 493, by Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, would have added war to the events for which the president or governor could declare a state of emergency under California’s price-gouging law, Penal Code Section 396.
That law generally bars rental housing providers and other businesses from increasing prices by more than 10% after a covered emergency declaration. Military action alone would not have activated the limits. They also would have applied only to goods or services for which the attorney general issued a written opinion finding a sufficient connection between the war and price increases.
The bill defined war broadly, without requiring a formal declaration from Congress. It covered a congressionally declared war, active U.S. military operations against a foreign state whether or not war had been formally declared, and U.S. assistance to armed action undertaken by the United Nations.
CAA raises concerns over broad scope
CAA organized that coalition and urged Assembly members to reject the bill. In an Aug. 14 floor alert, CAA and its coalition partners warned that the broad definition of war could create compliance uncertainty and expose businesses to potential criminal liability when price increases reflected legitimate operating costs.
Becker presented the measure as a response to price spikes caused by military conflicts that disrupt global oil markets. The bill’s language, however, was not limited to oil or gasoline and could have reached rental housing and the many other goods and services covered by Penal Code Section 396.
CAA Executive Vice President of State Public Affairs Debra Carlton raised that concern when the bill appeared before the Assembly Public Safety Committee in June. She warned lawmakers that the proposal could reach far beyond oil prices and urged them to narrowly limit any war-related emergency provision to the problem the bill was intended to address.
Rental housing providers mobilize
As the measure moved toward an Assembly vote, CAA asked rental housing providers to contact lawmakers and urge them to vote no. The grassroots response strengthened that opposition at a critical point in the legislative session.
SB 493 will not advance in 2026, leaving existing price-gouging law unchanged on this issue.
