Happy New Year Everyone! Ringing in the New Year also means the start of newly enacted California laws that may affect your real estate practice. Here are some highlights for 2022: 

• New Mold Booklet For Leases: Effective January 1, 2022, residential landlords must provide their prospective tenants with a new Mold Booklet before entering into a rental or lease agreement. The Mold Booklet is called “Information on Dampness and Mold for Renters in California.” It was prepared by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The Mold Booklet is available in the “California E-Pubs” library in zipForms. C.A.R.’s Residential Lease Agreement (LR) was revised in December 2021 to include a pre-checked checkbox for attaching CDPH’s Mold Booklet (see paragraph 38A of the LR).

• High Fire Severity Zones to Be Expanded: Commencing January 1, 2022, California’s State Fire Marshal must designate new high fire hazard severity zones in local responsibility areas. As background, sellers of one-to-four residential unit properties in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone must generally comply with fire hardening and defensible space requirements (unless TDS exempt). Before this new law came into effect, such high fire zones were only designated in state responsibility areas, not local responsibility areas. With this new law and the designation of new high fire zones in local responsibility areas, there will be more transactions that fall within the scope of the Fire Hardening and Defensible Space requirements (C.A.R. Form FHDS). To be safe, sellers should make sure that their NHD providers are informing them as to whether their property is in a high fire hazard zone in either a state or local responsibility area.

• Licensees Can Use Former Surname: Starting January 1, 2022, individual real estate licensees who legally change their surnames may nevertheless continue using their former surname to conduct real estate business, as long as both names are filed with the California Department of Real Estate (DRE). In the past, salespersons who establish themselves professionally using one surname would no longer be able to use that surname anymore if they legally change their name, e.g. through marriage. Under the new law, a salesperson may submit the proper DRE filing to continue using that former surname professionally.

Other new 2022 laws include, but are not limited to, Prop 19 clean-up legislation, and various laws facilitating housing development and construction. There are also a few new laws that do not take effect until July 1, 2022 that I’ll report on when the time comes.

The new 2022 laws that may affect your real estate practice are available at C.A.R.’s New Laws webpage (password-protected for C.A.R. members only). The full text of each new law is available at the California Legislature website.

Copyright© 2022 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP). All rights reserved. Any unauthorized reproduction or use of this material is strictly prohibited. This information is believed to be accurate as of January 3, 2022. It is not intended as a substitute for legal advice in individual situations, and is not intended to nor does it create a standard of care for real estate professionals. Written by Stella Ling, Esq.