Most tenants who live in buildings with three or more units do not know they have a legally-protected right to join, form, and participate in tenant associations. A tenant association is a group of tenants who form a group on the same property or who have the same landlord across multiple properties. Together, tenants and their neighbors can support each other in the challenges they face, and can help to educate each other about their rights, collectively bargain for better conditions, and prevent unlawful rent increases, price gouging, and evictions.

To inform as many tenants as possible of their right to organize, we, the Santa Barbara Tenants Union (SBTU), are calling on the Santa Barbara Rental Property Association (SBRPA) to include informational notices on Lease Forms that inform tenants on properties with 3 or more units of their legal right to organize. SBTU members strongly believe that taking this simple step would help fulfill SBRPA’s self-described “obligation to the community” as stated on their website.

Please sign this petition calling on SBPRA to include the following language in Lease Forms given to their member landlords:

TO THE TENANT OF [BUILDING ADDRESS, UNIT NUMBER]

Tenants have a legal right to organize without facing retaliation from landlords.

Tenants within this building have the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of a tenant association. A “Tenant association” is defined as a group of tenants on the same property and/or with the same landlord across multiple properties, who advocate collectively to improve housing conditions. Tenant association activities may include tenants rights workshops, collectively requesting required fixes to the building, collectively bargaining for lower rents, and more. Tenant associations may also engage in political activity in an attempt to strengthen tenants rights on the municipal, county, state, or federal level, such as supporting Rent Stabilization Ordinances.

According to California Civil Code § 1942.5, it is illegal for a landlord to retaliate or threaten to retaliate against you for joining or participating in a tenants association. Retaliation may come in the form of increased rent, decreased services, pressure to “voluntarily” vacate, filing a lawsuit against you, or threatening to do any of these things, due to tenant organizing. California state law presumes retaliation if the landlord acts in these and other ways not listed, within 180 days of the date that a tenant has exercised a legal right. California landlords also cannot disclose or threaten to disclose to any government authority information regarding tenants’ or occupants’ immigration or citizenship status for the purpose of retaliating. Landlords who violate this law might be liable for actual damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees. (Cal. Civ. Code § 1940.35. Tenants can sue for retaliation under Civil Code § 1942.5.

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We would like SBRPA to state publicly why they will or will not choose to inform tenants of their right to organize. SBTU is a rapidly growing organization with dedicated volunteers. We are committed to supporting tenants and informing them of their right to organize through various means, such as public demonstrations, talking to local media, and working with public officials to hold landlords accountable for passing this information along to their tenants.