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- in whatever flavor they are introduced - adds a new layer of complexity and delay in an already complicated regulatory regime. We also warn buyers, sellers, and real estate professionals that liability could await when aggrieved nonprofits or tenants feel that they got left out of the loop when an eligible property is on the eve of being listed or feel slighted in subsequent negotiations.
Tenants should absolutely have a voice in the rental relationship and a trajectory for upward mobility. We are very concerned about our unhoused neighbors, as well. What alarms us are the tactics and language being used to advance the agenda of tenants’ advocates.
We’ve always said that there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. When landlords encounter problematic tenants, proper legal protocols must be followed when transitioning tenants out.
“Self-help” eviction measures like harassment cannot be used by a landlord to drive out the tenant, but it strikes us as a double standard that tenants can use a rent strike to resolve differences. Landlords cannot take matters into their own hands, but it seems that tenants have the license to do so.
In Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, neighboring tenants got together and decided to withhold rent payments to make a statement. It worked - the landlord was coerced into selling the building to a community land trust.
We’ve always said that there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. When landlords encounter problematic tenants, proper legal protocols must be followed when transitioning tenants out.
“Self-help” eviction measures like harassment cannot be used by a landlord to drive out the tenant, but it strikes us as a double standard that tenants can use a rent strike to resolve differences. Landlords cannot take matters into their own hands, but it seems that tenants have the license to do so.
THE GENESIS FOR THIS, OR AT LEAST THE FUEL TO THE FIRE, HAS BEEN THE MOMS4HOUSING MOVEMENT
The Robin Hood philosophy that all property should be used for the public good is epitomized by the viral Moms4􏰀ousing cause. 􏰁fter a group of homeless and marginally housed mothers occupied a vacant Oakland property, they put a target on the
backs of real estate investors with empty homes.
Although prominent politicians stopped short of calling for squatting in vacant properties, many of them applauded the movement and paved the way for reform.
WHAT’S ON THE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA FOR 2022?
We are encouraged that homelessness is a topic top of mind for lawmakers and that there has been unprecedented spending in attempts to solve this intractable problem.
That being said, tenant protections that have been floated recently have used the homeless crisis to argue for more stringent tenant protections. If a person is a tenant, then by definition they have housing - a tenant cannot be homeless. Yet terms of homelessness and displacement are being invoked in an attempt to push through new laws governing landlord-tenant relationships.
This is a clever marketing strategy. After all, who can be against a law called “Homeless Prevention Act,” or something along those lines? At first blush, the way some laws are coined are hard to argue with. Until you go through the details of the law.
The marketing strategy now is to not address the legitimate homeless crisis. It is to enact proactive policies that avert homelessness, at the expense of owners’ rights.
Take, for instance, 􏰂􏰃 64􏰄, a proposed bill that would require landlords renting a unit to give preference to applicants who are local residents at risk of displacement. Key term, local.
What if a prospective tenant is far away and submits a rental application? If the landlord rents to someone not currently residing close by, are they in violation of the law because the selection of the tenant does not conform to the goal of using property to solve the woes of a particular neighborhood? And let’s say they do not find a rental applicant at risk of displacement to be the most desirable of candidates. If they deny the application, will they be violative? Who, exactly, is considered at risk anyway?
There is an ever-expanding definition of protected classes under fair housing laws and perhaps those who are at risk of losing housing will join this club.
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APARTMENT MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE - MARCH 2022 CS-27