AB 863 (Kalra D) Residential rental properties: language requirements.

Current Text: Amended: 4/30/2025
Last Amend: 4/30/2025
Status: 6/4/2025-In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.
Location: 6/4/2025-S. RLS.
Summary: Would require landlords to provide notices to terminate leases and complaints in unlawful
detainer actions in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean, as well as in English, if the lease
was originally negotiated in one of those non-English languages or if the landlord was previously
notified by the tenant or anyone acting on the tenant’s behalf that Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog,
Vietnamese, or Korean is the tenant’s primary language. The bill would require a plaintiff who is
required to provide notices in a required language to include both versions of the documents with an
unlawful detainer complaint. The bill provides that a failure to do so, the existence of material
differences between the documents, and a failure to serve a copy of the complaint or notice in a
required language, are all affirmative defenses to specified actions. The bill would also require that
summonses in those civil cases be in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean, as well as in
English, if the lease was originally negotiated in one of those languages or if the landlord was
previously notified by the tenant or anyone acting on the tenant’s behalf that Spanish, Chinese,
Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean is the tenant’s primary language, and if a copy of the summons in that
language is available on the California Courts website. The bill also provides that, if a landlord fails to
provide a summons in a required language in addition to providing an English version of the summons,
that failure is an affirmative defense in specified actions.