Governor Jerry Brown has a warning for landlords who try to profit from the destructive California wildfires.
The Governor's Office on issued an executive order that prohibits landlords from raising rents more than ten percent in fire-ravaged communities, including San Diego.
Those wildfires tore through huge sections of California this year, destroying homes and apartments from San Diego to Los Angeles, and north to Napa and Sonoma.
The flames left thousands without shelter and sent them searching for a home or apartment to rent, while their property is rebuilt.
In response, the governor declared a state of emergency in many of those fire areas.
One aspect of that executive order is a prohibition on rental increases of more than ten percent.
The ten percent limit on rent increases usually lasts just 30 days. But Governor Brown has extended rental price protections for six months, through April, 2018.
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Local Realtor Joe Carta told NBC 7, the vast majority of landlords will not take advantage of a disaster.
Carta hopes the governor's order will stop the “one or two percent” of property owners who would try profit from other’s misfortune by “moving somebody out of (a house or apartment) to re-rent it to somebody who'll pay 50 percent more rent because of the fires. I think that's not right."
Carta said, in the long term, the best solution to California’s housing shortage and high rents is to build more housing stock. “It’s Economics 101,” Carta explained. “The more supply you have, the prices are going to go down. That’s just the way it is. The less supply, the prices are going to go up.”
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra said protections against price gouging on rents in disaster areas also apply to gas, food, and other essential supplies.
Those who violate anti-price gouging laws could spend a year in jail and pay a one thousand dollar fine.
