After going down, can’t go up! much because of rent control. Screw big time. SELL.
Alameda County broadened its moratorium on evictions Tuesday, extending protection to most renters during the coronavirus pandemic.
“There are things we are doing now that we would not typically do,” Supervisor Nate Miley said, referring to the health crisis. “And I think the same thing relates to this ordinance.”
In order to keep people in their homes, the temporary moratorium now bans not only no-cause evictions, but also most just cause evictions, where landlords could evict a renter for things such as non-payment or violating terms of the lease.
However, landlords still can evict people in some circumstances, such as for health and safety reasons, which can include criminal behavior, as well as if a landlord is going out of the rental business and plans to take the unit off the market.
Evictions because of COVID-19 infection are not allowed under the new ordinance.
The ordinance applies to all cities and unincorporated areas in the county. Supervisors decided that local cities with eviction moratoriums could not opt out of provisions of the county’s updated moratorium unless their ordinances offered even more tenant protections.
“I think (those cities) should have to clearly prove their ordinances are more strict not to be obligated under ours,” said Supervisor Scott Haggerty, whose district takes in Dublin and Livermore, as well as most of Fremont and portions of Sunol and the Livermore-Amador Valley area, before Tuesday’s unanimous vote to update the moratorium.
The board’s action Tuesday amended an urgency ordinance that it enacted March 24 that put a temporary moratorium on evictions because of the health crisis.
The updated ordinance will take effect immediately and will end within 90 days, or when the state lifts the emergency it declared March 4.
“It’s absolutely important that the county makes sure as many people as possible are not made homeless,” Leah Simon-Weisberg of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment told supervisors. “And it absolutely makes sense that when we are facing this kind of emergency, everyone enjoys the same kind of protection.”
The adoption of last month’s urgency ordinance, which put a moratorium on evictions to tenants, homeowners and mobile homeowners who are facing displacement because of medical issues or a substantial loss of income as a result of the coronavirus, was in response to the state declaring a public health emergency, as well as the county’s declaration of an emergency on March 10.
“No tenant should be evicted during this time of crisis,” Paola Laverde, chair of the city of Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Board, told supervisors Tuesday.
While tenants who might be facing eviction will receive a temporary reprieve, they are still obligated to pay their rent.
Tenants will have 12 months to repay overdue rent, unless the tenant and landlord can come to a mutual repayment agreement.
Landlords also have the option of pursuing overdue rent as a debt via small claims court, a payment plan or garnishing of wages, according to Chris Bazar, director of the county’s Community Development Agency.
Both Miley and Haggerty said they were hesitant about including all evictions under the moratorium, but noted the regulations would be in place for just a limited time.
“We don’t want to enact something that could be overboard and have consequences in the future,” said Miley, whose district includes Pleasanton, Castro Valley and parts of Oakland.
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You can’t just waive your hand and overrule written contracts. That’s no how the law works. They are dumb for thinking they can ban evictions and foreclosures.
Many contracts change after you sign on the dotted line. Laws on marriage is a typical one e.g. divorce.
In the term “rent control” is often confused with the broader term “rent regulation.” New York City’s rent regulated housing is made up of two components:
- Rent Control.
- Rent Stabilization.
These are different programs of regulation, but both fall under the category of “rent regulated” housing, which I assume is the premise of the question asked.
My brother in law is a real estate attorney well respected in Utah. He says that contracts can not be denied by government fiat. The Newsom rent forbearance is illegal. So are most of the new proposals from Ting and Liu
Clause 1. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
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Read this today:
It’s not about rent control, but these eviction protection ideas are very “creative”. Once it becomes law in one place it will spread here in no time.
"Currently, renters have only a limited time to “cure” an eviction. State law says they have 10 days to repay their back rent after they get an eviction notice. After that, the landlord is not required to accept payment and can proceed with the court case.
The new bill would extend that cure period, allowing people to stay in their home if they can catch up on rent at any time during the court process. In fact, they would even be allowed to repay the rent for two days after a judge orders an eviction."
"Among other changes, the bill would also:
Forbid landlords from forcing tenants to pick up the full legal fees for a case"
So renters can just withhold rent, let landlord pay lawyers to start eviction process, then pay the owed rent 2 days after judge issues eviction order, and walk away without any consequences?
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This is the danger in areas where renters are a majority. They can literally vote to take rights away from property owners. Yeah, I know. Everyone says that’ll never happen, or you can’t extrapolate. The slippery slope analogy is just fear mongering and won’t happen. Once the momentum is there it will happen fast.
People with money need to wake up and realize what’s happening. Yeah, I know they’re only targeting the super wealthy, so it’ll never be expanded to include others. The original income tax only required 7% of people to pay taxes.
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The long game -
The sooner rent control is enacted broadly, (esp like the 3% version in St Paul regardless of inflation), the sooner there will be a backlash to the market distorting forces of rent control.
I am glad to see this being more broadly adopted outside CA.
American is turning into a big communist state where state increasingly decides private contracts, like rental.
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If the state wants to control my rentals it should be be required to maintain them and control the tenants.
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I do not need state to manage and control my rentals. State should just enforce moral laws and contracts,
The progressives want to take your property from you.