Just before midnight on August 31, 2020, the California legislature passed (and Gov. Newsom signed) a new bill aimed at combating the social and economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislature passed the “Tenant, Homeowner, and Small Landlord Relief and Stabilization Act of 2020”, also known as AB 3088, after a contentious debate brought the matter up against a midnight deadline on the final night of the legislature’s session. The new law has a handful of moving parts, but the general takeaways are as follows:

1. For rent due between the period of March 1, 2020 through August 31, 2020, residential tenants cannot be evicted if they declare under penalty of perjury that they have experienced a “COVID-19-related financial distress.”
2. “High-income tenants,” defined as those earning 130% of the county’s median income, are required to show proof of COVID-19-related financial distress to qualify for the protection of the statute.
3. For rent due between the period of September 1, 2020 through January 31, 2021, tenants are still required to pay 25% of the outstanding balance on the rent, and such payment would be due by January 31, 2021.
4. All unpaid rent is converted to consumer debt and residential landlords are permitted to collect such debts in Small Claims court, beginning March 1, 2021.
5. The statute preempts existing local ordinances, resolutions, regulations, or administrative actions such that eviction moratoriums previously passed by cities and counties will be grandfathered in, but those cities and counties will not be able to pass extensions.

Nothing in the statute applies to commercial tenancies and so commercial unlawful detainers are expected as the local eviction moratoriums across the state expire.