Navigating California’s Landlord-Tenant Landscape: Constructive Evictions, Harassment and Relocation Ordinances

California’s landlord-tenant framework continues to evolve, creating a high-stakes environment for both landlords and tenants. For attorneys representing either side, understanding the current landscape is critical to evaluating claims, defenses, and litigation risk.

This briefing highlights three areas that frequently surface in disputes and trial testimony: constructive eviction, tenant harassment ordinances, and relocation laws.

Constructive Eviction: Legal Standards and Liability

Constructive eviction does not require service of a notice. It arises when a landlord, through action or inaction, substantially interferes with a tenant’s implied warranty of habitability or right to quiet enjoyment—forcing the tenant to vacate.

The Warranty of Habitability is a landlord’s obligation to maintain units in compliance with health and building codes. This obligation ensures that each unit maintains specific conditions such as functional plumbing, electricity, roofing, weatherproofing, and heating.

Common Fact Patterns

• Repeated failures to repair critical systems (roof leaks, heating failures, infestations).
• Intentional cutoffs of utilities, such as water or electricity.
• Failure to abate nuisances (e.g., ignoring a dangerous tenant whose behavior drives others out).

Litigation Exposure

A court finding of constructive eviction can expose landlords to wrongful eviction liability, actual damages (moving expenses, loss of rent-controlled status, economic damages), emotional distress, and potentially findings of bad faith conduct.

For tenant-side counsel, proving constructive eviction requires demonstrating substantial interference with habitability or quiet enjoyment. For defense, careful documentation of repairs, responses, and tenant conduct is critical.

Tenant Harassment Ordinances: Expanding Protections

Unlike constructive eviction (often tied to inaction), harassment claims involve deliberate, bad-faith conduct by landlords intended to drive tenants out.

California law, along with numerous local ordinances, restricts landlord behavior, with state law setting the floor, and local ordinances often going further.

Examples of Prohibited Conduct

• Abuse of access: Entries without proper notice or repeated intrusions.
• Utility interference: Cutting essential services, such as parking, water, or garbage collection.
• Rent refusal: Declining lawful rent payments.
• Threats or intimidation: Including immigration-related threats.
• Retaliation: Adverse actions after tenants assert rights or report violations.

Litigation Impact

A single incident may give rise to liability. Statutes often authorize automatic one-way attorney’s fees in favor of tenants, treble damages, and in some jurisdictions punitive damages for willful or repeated violations.

Attorneys must weigh evidentiary burdens carefully: tenant counsel should build a fact pattern of bad-faith intent, while defense counsel must focus on lawful justifications and compliance with notice requirements.

Relocation Ordinances and SB 567: Tightened Compliance

“No-fault” evictions—relocation for owner move-ins, substantial remodels, or Ellis Act withdrawals—have been heavily regulated, with SB 567 (effective April 1, 2024) imposing new restrictions and penalties.

Key Provisions

• Owner Move-ins: Occupancy must begin within 90 days and continue as a primary residence for 12 consecutive months.
• Substantial Remodels: Redefined to exclude cosmetic upgrades; requires work necessitating vacancy for at least 30 consecutive days.
• Enhanced Penalties: Courts may now award treble damages, moving expenses, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages for willful violations.

Implications

Tenant counsel can leverage SB 567 to challenge pretextual evictions. Landlord defense counsel must be meticulous in documenting legitimate intent, compliance with timelines, and scope of renovations.

How Edrington & Associates Supports Counsel

For attorneys litigating landlord-tenant disputes, the risks of missteps are substantial. Claims often involve overlapping issues—constructive eviction, harassment, and relocation—each carrying exposure to treble damages and tenant’s attorney’s fees.

Edrington & Associates provides expert witness services to help clarify the factual and regulatory landscape at trial. With decades of experience in property management, compliance, and litigation support, we assist counsel in:

• Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of constructive eviction or harassment claims.
• Analyzing relocation compliance under SB 567 and local ordinances.
• Offering expert testimony that contextualizes landlord and tenant conduct for the trier of fact.

Next Steps for Counsel

If your case involves allegations of wrongful eviction, habitability breaches, tenant harassment, or relocation ordinance violations, early alignment with a qualified real estate expert can make or break your strategy.

At Edrington & Associates, we deliver expert testimony, consulting, and fact‐development support rooted in decades of real-world landlord-tenant practice. 

Here’s how we add value to your case:

1. Early Case Assessment & Strategy
   • • We review facts, pleadings, and local ordinances to flag strengths, weaknesses, and exposure.
     • We identify crucial fact discovery paths (e.g. repair logs, municipal code violations, relocation eligibility).
2. Expert Reports & Opinions
   • • We produce defensible, comprehensible reports suitable for disclosure (and cross-examination).
     • Our opinions cover standard of care, implied warranty of habitability, rent differentials, economic damages analysis, and eviction legitimacy.
3. On-site Inspections & Code Analysis
   • • Certified building inspectors and code experts review properties to assess conditions, violations, or alterations.
     • We analyze compliance with local building, health, and tenant protection ordinances (e.g. SB 567, local harassment/relocation laws).
4. Deposition & Trial Preparation
   • • We maximize testimony effectiveness.
     • We support motion practice, Daubert challenges, and fight to maintain admissibility.
5. Live Testimony & Cross-Examination Resilience
6. 1. • Our experts are battle tested: they have testified in depositions, trials, and served as court referees on both plaintiff and defendant sides.
      • We translate technical and real estate concepts into persuasive narrative for judges and jurors.

Ready to Move Your Case Forward With Expert Witness Testimony?

Edrington & Associates real estate expert witness testimony can give your case the advantage, but time is of the essence. Here’s what to do next:

• Schedule a case consult—we’ll walk you through how our involvement might shift your risk profile, assist in your budget projections, and map the expert timeline
• Provide us your case materials early—the more lead time we have, the more insight we can bring.
• Engage us before the summary judgment stage if possible—our early input can shore up weak spots and prevent surprises.

At Edrington & Associates, we don’t just supply credentials — we bring actionable insight, credibility, and experience to your most challenging landlord-tenant disputes. Contact us today to discuss your case and see how we can help you prevail at trial.