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A bill intended to boost the construction of accessory-dwelling units has passed the state Senate and now heads to the Assembly.
SB 831 by Sen. Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, won full Senate approval Wednesday on a 30-1 vote, sending it on to the second house of the Legislature.
The building of accessory dwelling units — also known as granny flats or in-law units — is increasingly considered one of the more sensible ways to address California’s housing shortage.
And while this housing type is cheaper and quicker to build than a single-family home, the excessive fees and regulatory hurdles associated with… Read More
Tagged: Legislation
Question: When not renewing a one-year lease, do I have to give the tenants a reason for not extending their lease?
Answer: California law does not require landlords to give their tenants a reason why they are not renewing the lease, unless the property is situated in a “just cause” rent controlled jurisdiction.
Question: How can you enforce the pool rules where someone continuously leaves underage children in the pool area?
Answer: This is a safety issue and you should be able to address it. However, it needs to be handled carefully in order to avoid potential claims of discrimination… Read More
Tagged: ColumnsComplianceLegal Q&A
A bill that would mandate that landlords and property managers receive training on fair practices and tenant rights is dead for 2018 after stalling in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 2618 by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, sought to require the Department of Consumer Affairs to administer a certification program for the training. The bill also would have authorized the department to identify and approve providers of the educational coursework.
Further, AB 2618 would have mandated that landlords and property managers be certified every two years.
Under an earlier draft of the bill, anyone caught managing property without the certification would… Read More
Tagged: EducationLegislation
Tenant activists Thursday conceded that they’d fallen short in their effort to place rent control on Pasadena’s November ballot.
To qualify their measure, rent control advocates faced a May 30 deadline to submit at least 12,982 valid voter signatures. On Thursday, rent control supporters announced a final signature count of 10,224.
Supporters of the rent control measure, “The Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Charter Amendment,” filed their initial paperwork for the ballot measure in November. The initiative sought to bring rent control, “just cause” eviction policies and a rent board to the city.
The San Jose City Council on Tuesday approved guidelines for property owners to phase out the use of ratio-utility billing systems, also known as RUBS, to charge tenants for utilities.
The council greenlighted the phase-out process one month after voting to ban the use of RUBS in the city’s rent controlled housing, defined as buildings constructed before 1979 with three units or more.
Some property owners use RUBS to divide utility bills among tenants based on the number of renters in the building or square footage.
Tagged: News Tri-County
The California Apartment Association spent many years developing a good working relationship with the Sacramento County code enforcement staff. The effort continues to pay off for the industry.
One example is the recent agreement between CAA and county staff to limit an increase of the annual Rental Housing Code Compliance Fee to only 50 cents. If approved by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, the fee will increase by 3.2 percent, from $15.50 per unit to $16 per unit, effective January 2019. The fee funds the rental housing inspection program and had not been increased in over three years.
This… Read More
Tagged: Compliance Sacramento Valley
Question: I own a fourplex. Unit B has two cars, one is broken down. What kind of demands can I place on B about the broken down vehicle?
Answer: You can create a lease term by requiring all vehicles to be in operable condition or they will be towed. To put this into place, you need to either serve a 30-day notice of change of terms to a month to month agreement, or wait until the lease expires and have the new condition in the renewal lease.
Tagged: ColumnsComplianceLegal Q&A
A bill aiming to help moderate-income families — or the “missing middle” — find housing within their price range continues to advance in the Legislature.
Last week, AB 3152 by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, won unanimous passage in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee and now heads to the Appropriations Committee.
Tagged: Affordable housing
Rent control activists in National City on Thursday submitted signatures in hopes of placing a rent control measure before voters this November.
Signatures filed at City Hall numbered more than 3,500, more than enough to qualify the initiative.
The petition must now undergo a signature count and verification process. If enough valid voter signatures were collected, the National City Rent Control and Community Stabilization Ordinance (accessible here) will be officially slated for November’s ballot.
The ballot measure would create a rent board funded by annual landlord fees, cap annual rent increases based on the rate of inflation and impose “just… Read More
The Torrance City Council on Tuesday, May 15, kicked off the creation of a seismic-retrofit ordinance for the city’s building stock.
The ordinance would include soft-story construction prior to 1997, including multifamily buildings. A staff report is available here.