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Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian’s bed bug legislation, AB 551, establishes protocols and duties for rental property owners and tenants to follow when bed bugs are identified in a rental unit.
All interested parties and members of the California Legislature worked diligently this year on the legislation. More work remains, however, before all interested parties are content with the final bill language. They have all vowed to continue their work in January.
As written, the bill would do a number of things:
Requirements for landlords
Requires use of Addendum to Rental Agreement (bed bug identification, importance of reporting promptly, tenant duties), like… Read More
Tagged: Bed bugsLegislation
A bill that will undercut eviction-delay tactics used by tenant attorneys who claim mold as a substandard housing problem advanced Wednesday from the Assembly Floor.
SB 655 by Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, specifically provides that a property owner has no obligation to repair a mold problem unless the owner has been notified of the problem. It also makes clear that the owner can enter the unit to repair any identified mold issue.
While the bill provides that mold is a substandard housing condition, it will only rise to that level if a health officer or code enforcement officer has… Read More
Tagged: LegislationMold
Thanks to a referendum backed by the California Apartment Association and its supporters, rent control in Richmond is on hold.
Today, CAA, on behalf of thousands of local property owners and concerned citizens, submitted 7,025 signatures to Richmond’s city clerk.
The referendum asks voters to repeal a rent control and just-cause-for-eviction ordinance approved by the City Council on Aug. 5. The referendum also postpones implementation of the ordinance, which had been scheduled for Friday, Sept. 4.
The City Council can now either repeal the ordinance or send the issue to voters. If the council chooses the latter, the referendum will … Read More
Tagged: Rent Control
Several bills that would affect the rental housing industry are a vote or two away from heading to the governor’s desk.
After the state Legislature returns Monday from its summer recess, they’ll likely take about two weeks to hold final hearings on the following CAA priority bills:
On the Senate floor
AB 447 (R-Maienschein) Insurance Discrimination – This bill would prohibit insurers from discriminating against a property owner who offers housing for tenants with Section 8 vouchers or who are in other low-income programs. The Senate floor vote is one of two final stops for this bill. If passed by… Read More
Tagged: Bed bugsLegislation
As in past years, Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, introduced legislation in 2015 that would mandate the installation of water submeters in units of new multi-family housing. SB 7 would impose this mandate effective Jan. 1, 2017, and include provisions to clarify how multifamily property owners can charge tenants for water use.
A submeter gauges water use in an individual apartment. This gives the tenant a financial incentive to conserve water because it keeps the renter’s bill down. This is good for both the tenant – and California’s water supply, especially during California’s worsening drought.
Many property owners already have voluntarily… Read More
For years, tenants facing eviction have delayed the process by making unmeritorious claims regarding the presence of mold.
A California bill, however, would undercut this delay tactic by clarifying when mold constitutes a substandard housing condition.
While SB 655 by Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, provides that mold is a substandard housing condition, it will only rise to that level if a health officer or code enforcement officer has determined that it is extensive enough to endanger health or damage property.
The bill specifically provides that a property owner has no obligation to repair a mold problem unless the owner… Read More
When it comes to calculating school developer fees, covered walkways are off-limits.
A CAA-sponsored bill signed into law this week removes any ambiguity on the matter.
The law already says that walkways in apartment complexes – not being livable spaces like apartments themselves – can’t be assessed for the purpose of school developer fees.
But in some jurisdictions, as more builders have opted to cover walkways, they’ve incurred developer fees.
While walkway covers protect people from the elements, they’re not livable spaces and aren’t assessable, clarifies AB 715 by Assemblyman Tom Daly, D-Anaheim.
CAA sponsored this bill to make sure… Read More
Tagged: Legislation
While the economy looks good on paper, America didn’t exactly come bounding back from the Great Recession.
The recovery, according to Professor Jay Prag of the Drucker School of Management, has come slowly and strangely, hindered by a series of fiscal policy missteps, courtesy of the federal government.
“I’ve been around watching this stuff since the ’80s, and this has been a weird economic period with the United States,” said Prag, the keynote speaker at the California Apartment Association’s Professional Property Managers’ Forum in June. The CAA Greater Inland Empire event attracted about 90 rental housing professionals to the DoubleTree… Read More
Tagged: News Greater Inland Empire
After working with the apartment industry, the Burlingame City Council on Tuesday, July 7, voted to prohibit smoking inside multifamily units.
The 4-1 vote came after four months of discussions between the California Apartment Association’s Tri-County Division and the city.
CAA Tri-County’s objective centered on drafting an ordinance that would achieve Burlingame’s goal of protecting multifamily residents from second-hand smoke while also offering the clarity needed to minimize impacts on rental property owners and managers.
After receiving feedback from CAA Tri-County and multiple conversations with city leaders, the adopted ordinance:
Gives property owners and managers the option of designating an… Read More
Tagged: Smoking Tri-County
The California Apartment Association is fighting newly proposed legislation that would allow tenants to withhold rent and avoid eviction based on their own, unqualified opinions about whether apartments are outfitted with water-saving fixtures.
CAA contends that AB 723 by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, would fail to further water conservation, while needlessly subjecting rental property owners to litigation and lost rent.
While it’s too late in the session to propose a new bill, lawmakers will sometimes get around this by jamming a new legislative proposal into an existing bill. Such is the case with AB 723, which was gutted and amended… Read More
Tagged: LegislationWater conservation