Rent and Eviction Bill SB 939 Goes to Committee Tomorrow

GlobeSt.com (May 21, 2020) Senate Bill 939 is a COVID-19 commercial rent moratorium eviction bill sponsored by California state senator Scott Wiener. The bill is set for committee hearing tomorrow. At this hearing, testimony will be received in support of or opposition to the bill and the committee can vote on the legislation at that time. Because SB-939 is an urgency statute, it would go into immediate effect once passed by the legislature and approved by the governor. But, in getting into the meat of the bill, many are crying overreach. ICSC goes further, saying that if enacted, SB 939 would upend existing real estate leases throughout the state. Tony Natsis, chair of Allen Matkins’ global real estate group and partner of the firm, shares concerns about how this legislation may adversely affect the commercial real estate industry, and agrees that the eviction protections are too broad. “Section 1, eviction protections, applies to ‘a tenant of commercial real property, including a business or nonprofit organization,’” he says. “Note that this section does not carve out a commercial tenant of any particular size and appears to apply to all ‘tenants of commercial property,’ as distinguished from a ‘commercial tenant,’ which is defined in section 2 and more limited in scope. Although many recent ordinances have excepted large, multinational corporations from their scope, this proposed amendment contains no such exceptions.” Read More (subscription required)