Rental housing crime studies have repeatedly shown that moderate to high-crime problems can usually be traced back to a small percentage of residents. Those causing the crime problems are often the acquaintances, ex-spouses, or boyfriends of a legal resident who decided to move in without your permission.
California law prohibits discrimination based on source of income. Source of income is defined as legal, verifiable income paid directly to the tenant or his or her representative (such as a payee). Some examples of income types are:
Question: I am a landlord and do not want to look for new tenants every year. How many years should I make my lease for? Answer: A lease can be beneficial or disastrous for a landlord. It is beneficial to keep a tenant for multiple years, so you do not lose time and rent trying…
Planning is an essential part of our lives and with the new Soft-Story Ordinance it is critical. How much planning is usually a question of personalities, experience and skills. As property owners and investors, we all want to minimize liabilities and provide the safest housing standards for our tenants. At the end of the day,…
In a previous column, I discussed New York Times columnist Robert Frank’s book Success and Luck and his claim that there is no real meritocracy in this country. In his view, what best explains the difference between the economically successful and the economically unsuccessful – the so-called “haves” and “have-nots”- is not education, talent, skills,…
Economy: President Donald Trump signed his tax cuts into law one year ago. That means we’re going to hear a lot about how they fueled massive deficits and failed to boost economic growth. Neither are true, but that won’t stop [some folks] and the press from repeating these falsehoods ad nauseam.
Question 1: Are there any new landlord-tenant laws for 2019? Answer 1: Yes, and I should have gotten this question for the January magazine, but better late than never. There are several new state-wide laws affecting landlord tenant relations, but the one that may make the most impact is Assembly Bill No. 2343, which removes…
Hello everybody. Some 31 years ago in the August 1988 issue of AOA’s magazine, I published my first of what would become many articles concerning problems inherent in laundry leases which were prepared by laundry companies and given to apartment owners to sign.
Question One: A downstairs tenant, John, bitterly complains about the upstairs tenant due to noise from above. In actuality, the upstairs tenant, Harold, is not doing anything out of the ordinary. John complains about simple television sounds and even if Harold is just walking in his unit. Lately, John has been banging on his ceiling…
No qualified renters? A landlord shared a comment I often hear: “Jeffrey, my weakest link here seems to be that there are no qualified renters who currently need a new place to live. I’d love to have a solution to that one. I’m getting very few inquiries. About half are people currently going through a bankruptcy. The other…