The California Apartment Association has halted a bill that would have mandated landlords to report notices of rent increases and evictions to a state agency for a new, publicly searchable database.

Introduced by Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, SB 395 aimed to enforce new administrative responsibilities on landlords. Under the legislation, they would have been required to file any notice of termination of tenancy or rent increase with the Secretary of State’s Office within 10 days of notifying the tenant. Non-compliance also could have provided tenants with a potential defense in an eviction lawsuit.

Debra Carlton, the CAA’s executive vice president of state public affairs, expressed the association’s opposition to the bill in a letter, voicing concerns over the potential invasion of tenant privacy and the redundancy of the proposed database. Moreover, CAA criticizes the high costs associated with the bill.

“Similar failed legislation has come with an estimated price tag to the state of over $20 million to create the database, plus $8 million per year to maintain,” Carlton writes in the letter.

Following their opposition, the bill stalled Thursday in the Senate Appropriations Committee, ending its advance for the year.