Ellis Act (original) (raw)

The Ellis Act (California Government Code Chapter 12.75) is a 1985 California state law that allows landlords to evict residential tenants to "go out of the rental business" in spite of desires by local governments to compel them to continue providing rental housing. The legislature passed the Ellis Act in response to the California Supreme Court's decision in Nash v. City of Santa Monica (1984) 37 Cal. 3d 97 that held that municipalities could prevent landlords from evicting their tenants to "go out of business" in order to withdraw their property from the rental market.