A San Diego City Council committee on Thursday advanced a proposal to limit the fees that landlords charge in addition to monthly rent.
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera has proposed the Residential Rental Price Gouging, Fee Exploitation and Cost Transparency Ordinance. It would require landlords to disclose the total cost of rent and add-on fees whenever they list a property on the rental market.
The proposal would also regulate or ban a host of fees that landlords have begun charging in recent years. Fees for services that maintain a property's habitability would be banned, including pest control fees and fees for trash valet — when a person is hired to carry trash from a property's doorstep to the dumpster.
Pet fees would also be banned, although landlords would be allowed to charge a pet security deposit. Late fees would be capped at 2% of the monthly rent and could be charged only if the rent is overdue by seven days. All add-on fees would be capped at 5% of monthly rent, except for fees already regulated by local, state or federal law.
Several renters spoke at the committee hearing sharing stories of exorbitant fees that were not disclosed when they signed their lease and that they had not budgeted for.
"(Landlords) know how hard it is for renters to find homes, and they use that knowledge to squeeze as much out of their tenants as possible, knowing that the stress, the hassle and the uncertainty of having to find a new place leaves them in a position where they just say, 'Okay, we'll pay another fee, even though we can't afford to,'" Elo-Rivera said.
Representatives of the landlord and homebuilding industries spoke in opposition to the ordinance in its current form, saying it would make it harder for them to do business.
"The goal of the ordinance appears simple: Undermine the ability of owners to recover legitimate operations expenses," said Melanie Woods, vice president of local public affairs for the California Apartment Association. "And the message is clear: San Diego is becoming a high-risk place to be a housing provider."
Councilmember Henry Foster III voted with Elo-Rivera to begin drafting the ordinance to present to another council committee in the future, after which it would go before the full City Council. Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, the committee's third member, was absent from the meeting.
Foster said he supports the intent of the ordinance but suggested it might change before its next hearing.
"This is the beginning of a conversation," Foster said. "I do think there is work to do on the ordinance."
County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe was scheduled to present a similar ordinance to the County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, the City Council passed an ordinance aimed at transparency around fees for utilities such as water, wastewater and trash collection. The ordinance prohibits landlords from charging administrative fees for utilities or otherwise inflating a renter's actual utility bills.
