The California Apartment Association has updated its compliance materials for San Diego’s just cause for eviction ordinance in response to recent amendments passed by the City Council.

The city’s “just cause” eviction ordinance took effect in June 2023, imposing fresh just cause-for-eviction limits for most city residents, replacing the city’s former “Tenants’ Right to Know” ordinance which had been in place since 2004.

The City Council voted to amend the ordinance to be consistent with changes made to the state just cause eviction law, AB 1482, that go into effect on April 1. The amendments – both to AB 1482 and, now San Diego – change the law in three key ways:

(1) Adding requirements for landlords who wish to terminate a tenancy based on owner move-in, by limiting who may use this basis for eviction and imposing timelines for when the owner or their qualifying relative must move in and how long they must stay living in the unit.

(2) Tightening requirements for evictions to facilitate a substantial remodel or demolition.

(3) Imposing new penalties for violation of the laws’ requirements.

The amendments to the San Diego ordinance are effective as of March 28, 2024, just a few days before the state law changes they are modeled on become operative.

CAA’s Industry Insight that discusses the just cause ordinance has been updated to explain each of these recent changes in detail. CAA has also updated its forms concerning owner move-in evictions to account for the amendments, including:

These updated materials are just part of the multiple offerings the association provides to help members comply with San Diego’s eviction ordinance. Available to members on CAA’s website are Industry Insights papers on the ordinance’s just cause and buyout provisions, as well as forms to comply with the ordinance’s mandatory notice provisions, mandatory exemption forms, an optional exemption form for units built in the previous 15 years, and eviction notices for many of the just cause reasons allowed by the ordinance.