Bisno

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Robert Bisno appeals from a judgment declaring valid defendant Santa Monica Rent Control Board’s (Board) “Regulation 3304,” which permits landlords to petition for a rent increase on the ground that a rental unit’s tenant is not occupying it as his or her principal residence. The primary task before us is to determine whether the Board exceeded its authority in adopting Regulation 3304, thus rendering it void. We hold that the Board did not exceed its authority and that Regulation 3304 does not suffer from any other fatal infirmity. We consequently affirm the judgment.

STATUTORY AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

In 1979, the City of Santa Monica adopted the Rent Control Charter Amendment, which added article XVIII, the Rent Control Law (RCL), and created the Board to regulate rentals. The stated purposes of the RCL are to alleviate the hardship caused by a serious housing shortage and to provide tenants with a reasonable degree of protection. The RCL achieves these aims by ensuring that landlords receive no more than a fair, or reasonable, return on their investment, thus avoiding the unreasonable escalation of rents, by controlling the removal of rental…