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Pro-housing bills backed by the California Apartment Association made healthy strides this week in the Legislature.
On Wednesday alone, four housing bills — either sponsored or co-sponsored by CAA — advanced from their respective committees.
The following proposals advanced from the Assembly Local Government Committee to the Appropriations Committee:
AB 2299 (Bloom) would mandate that local governments allow for the construction of second units on residential lots if those units meet specific standards and are located within one-half mile of public transportation. Sponsored by CAA.
AB 2501 (Bloom) would make it faster, easier and more economical for developers to obtain… Read More
Tagged: Legislation
Under a bill opposed by CAA, all property owners who regularly rent out a single-family home would have to register the property annually with California’s Department of Business Oversight, a costly and ineffective mandate that would compromise privacy rights of both landlords and tenants.
“This is extremely overreaching at a great cost to the State of California with no clear benefits except to collect and make public the data,” CAA says in its opposition letter to the legislation.
The bill, AB 2282 by Assemblyman Ian Calderon, D-Whittier, is intended to dissuade large-scale buy-to-rent investors from purchasing homes and turning them… Read More
Tagged: Legislation
Before listing properties on home-sharing websites, hosts should make sure they have adequate insurance coverage — just in case something goes awry during a short-term rental.
Under legislation by Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, companies such as Airbnb, HomeAway and Flipkey would need to post a disclosure about insurance coverage on their websites.
Senate Bill 1092 would require disclosures about the need for the property owner or tenant to review his or her insurance plan to confirm coverage in the event of injury or damage during the rental period.
If the hosting platform provides primary insurance coverage for the rental period,… Read More
According to one lawmaker, a law already requiring property owners to have low-flow plumbing fixtures installed by 2019 doesn’t go far enough.
Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, has proposed legislation to require plumbing fixtures conserve more water than mandated by an existing Jan. 1, 2019 deadline, and he’s adding more fixtures to the list.
The current law demands water-conserving fixtures for residential, multi-family, and commercial properties. Fixtures that don’t comply must be replaced.
Hertzberg’s SB 1173, however, changes the definitions of noncompliant plumbing fixtures.
The bill calls for the replacement of the following:
Toilets that use more than 1.28 gallons… Read More
Tagged: LegislationNews
If you plan to place a single-family home on the rental market, you may want to do it before the end of this year.
Under a bill by Assemblyman Ian Calderon, areas throughout California would limit the number of single-family homes used mainly as rental properties. The bill wouldn’t affect homes intermittently available for rent.
Calderon, D-Whittier, frames the bill as a way to promote the “American dream of family home ownership by maintaining and, over time, increasing the market of homes that are available for purchase.”
The legislation, however, would limit the already scarce availability of rental housing in… Read More
Tagged: Legislation
Just a few months after being vetoed by the governor, legislation to provide tax credits for earthquake retrofits is back.
Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, D-Sherman Oaks, has again authored a bill that would help landlords pay for seismic upgrades.
AB 2392 would allow a tax credit in an amount equal to 30 percent of the qualified costs paid or incurred by a qualified taxpayer for any seismic retrofit construction on a qualified building.
Last year, the same proposal, carried as AB 428, passed both houses of the Legislature before being rejected by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Tagged: Legislation
A Southern California lawmaker has proposed legislation that would help deter frivolous disability-access lawsuits against landlords and other business owners.
SB 1142 by Sen. John R-Moorlach, Costa Mesa, would provide property owners and businesses a “right to cure” within 120 days of any Americans with Disabilities Act violation without penalty or threat of lawsuit.
The bill would stipulate that a defendant is not liable for statutory damages, costs, or plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees if the violation is corrected within 120 days of service of a demand letter.
California law provides that a plaintiff is entitled to a minimum of $4,000 per… Read More
Property owners would have to rent to Section 8 voucher holders under legislation proposed by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.
The California Apartment Association will oppose the legislation, SB 1053, which would make it unlawful to deny housing based on an applicant receiving Section 8 assistance.
The voucher program requires that owners and operators abide by federal regulations that differ from state and local laws. Moreover, it forces owners to work with a third party, the local housing agency. Many owners and managers believe that local housing agencies and their complex rules and regulations compromise the performance and financial viability… Read More
Tagged: LegislationSection 8
The California Apartment Association this year is sponsoring four state bills to help increase the state’s housing supply, a fair and economically proven way to lower housing costs.
CAA’s four housing-production bills come as California contends with several years of climbing home and rental prices, driven primarily by an imbalance between new jobs and new residential development in regions where employment has boomed.
Encouraging residential development via the Legislature also offers reasonable alternatives to rent control and other ill-conceived policies. Providing sensible solutions in Sacramento is urgent as a growing number of local governments consider rent control, rent mediation and… Read More
Tagged: Legislation
In light of the burgeoning medical marijuana industry in California, CAA will pursue legislation this year clarifying that landlords can prohibit the smoking of marijuana by tenants in apartments, just as they can ban the smoking of tobacco products.
The California Apartment Association’s bill comes amid conflicting marijuana laws at the federal, state and local levels that have created challenges for both landlords and tenants.
One of the most prolific problems rental property owners face today is the tenant who uses marijuana with a valid medical card. Many neighboring tenants complain that smoking marijuana is a nuisance and that it… Read More
Tagged: LegislationLegislature