News: Posts by Mike Nemeth

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The Assembly Judiciary Committee this week approved a bill that would create a voluntary tax credit program to help landlords recoup rent that’s gone unpaid during the COVID-19 crisis. The bill, SB 1410 by Sens. Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, and Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, passed the Judiciary Committee on a 7-3 vote with one abstention. The legislation now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. To qualify for the credits, a rental owner would need to sign an agreement, pledging to defer rent that’s gone unpaid due to the coronavirus and not to evict the tenant for nonpayment. The tenant also would need… Read More

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A judge last week ruled that a local rent control initiative belongs on the Burbank city ballot, even though the city’s clerk disqualified the measure just two months ago. In June, Burbank City Clerk Zizette Mullins rejected the petition because it lacked some legally required wording. Price-control advocates, who had submitted the required number of signatures to qualify the measure, responded with a legal challenge. On Friday, L.A. Superior Court Judge Mary H. Strobel ruled in their favor.

Tagged: Los Angeles

California’s Judicial Council will vote by noon Thursday whether to allow the courts to resume processing unlawful detainer cases effective Sept. 1. Last month, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye suggested the courts could decide to resume hearing eviction cases effective Aug. 14. Today, however, she asked her colleagues on the Judicial Council to consider pushing back the date by a couple of weeks, which would coincide with the end of the Legislative session. The Judicial Council’s rules were put in place in early April, bringing to a halt nearly all eviction actions in the state. The action came in response to… Read More

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Several of California’s large metro newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News. the L.A. Daily News, and the Orange County Register, took a stand last week against Proposition 21, the radical rent control measure on the Nov. 3 statewide ballot. Financed by Michael Weinstein and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the proposition threatens to bring back the extreme forms of rent control that proliferated in the 1970s. On Thursday, Aug. 6, the Southern California News Group, which includes the Orange County Register, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Los Angeles Daily News and several other papers, urged readers to vote no on the measure.… Read More

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The Los Angeles Housing Department wants to nearly double an annual inspection fee for apartments in the city. The Housing Department seeks permission from the City Council to raise the code enforcement fee from $43.32 to $81.59 per unit per year. Housing officials say they need the fee increase to pay for Systematic Code Enforcement Program through 2023.

Tagged: Los Angeles

Two of California’s leading senior citizen organizations announced this week their opposition to Proposition 21, the extreme rent control measure on November’s statewide ballot.  The Congress of California Seniors and the California Seniors Advocates League say Proposition 21 would make it more difficult for seniors to find affordable housing. The proposition would cause this by slowing the construction of new projects and reducing the number of properties on the market to rent. They also pointed to a report from California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office that said Proposition 21would lower property values. “Prop 21 provides no protections for seniors and would hurt… Read More

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The California Apartment Association this week issued a letter explaining its continuing opposition to a “free rent” bill to be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee later this month. AB 1436 by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, would make rental property owners defer rent payments for tenants who are either unable — or unwilling — to pay for housing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Assemlyman David Chiu The rent-deferral period would last until April 1, 2021 or until 90 days after the state’s COVID-19 state of emergency is lifted – whichever comes first. “The bill does not provide for – nor… Read More

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The ballot arguments in favor of Proposition 21 — the extreme rent control measure on November’s statewide ballot — contain “false and misleading statements,” according to a lawsuit filed this week. The suit, filed Thursday in Sacramento Superior Court, seeks to strike and revise three statements made by the Yes on 21 campaign. The plaintiff is Los Angeles owner Malcolm Bennett; the defendants are Secretary of State Alex Padilla and the signers of the ballot and rebuttal arguments. The suit notes that state law expressly requires that statements made in such arguments not be false or misleading. The Yes on… Read More

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Threats to the rental housing industry continue to mount in California. As the COVID-19 pandemic lingers, state lawmakers have yet to provide financial relief to either tenants or property owners. Without such assistance, rent is sure to go unpaid for months on end, triggering a wave of foreclosures and the disappearance of much-needed rental homes. Meanwhile, with record turnout expected in November’s election, candidates unfriendly to the rental housing and apartment business could dominate the state Legislature unchecked, while taking control of city councils and county boards across California, resulting in even more policies that threaten your investments and housing… Read More

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A newly released survey highlights the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on California’s “mom and pop” landlords. The report comes from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals and UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation. “The results of the survey are sobering,” Ben Metcalf, managing director of the Terner Center, writes in this web post. “The majority of survey respondents — more than 80% of whom own or manage buildings with fewer than 20 units — reported a decline in their rental income compared to the first quarter of the year. We should all be worried that one… Read More

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