AOA Magazine Contributor Receives Accolades!
Dear Jeff and AOA:
I hope the email finds you well. I wanted to share with you that I get lots of great feedback from members about my articles, and this morning I received an email that highlights the positive impact that the AOA magazine has on the apartment industry. The feedback underscores the organization’s vital role it plays in helping the apartment industry, and it’s an honor to be a contributor to your magazine. Best, Mercedes
“Ms. Mercedes Shaffer: I recently read your terrific article in the current AOA magazine. I really enjoyed it. It was hard hitting, backed by the facts that you presented. That kind of writing should be more frequent and presented to the broader public more often, perhaps to inform the general public what rental property owners in California are up against. It is tough and getting tougher.
Please keep up the good work. Best of luck in your career.” Regards, Paul G.
Another One Bites the Dust – Landlord Leaves Business
Dear Jeff and Everyone at AOA:
The time has come for me to exit the landlord business, and therefore, I sadly will not be renewing my membership this month. Believe it was back in 2017 that I first told Allison, at an Oakland seminar, that renters in my owner-occupied triplex were hacking my phone and also secretly filming me – inside my own bedroom and bath.
Much has happened since, including a 2021 criminal prosecution of what turned out to be successive waves of my own then-former renters, plus disgruntled renters and condo owners in other neighboring buildings. Plus … (this next bit will be hard for you to believe, I know), persons apparently affiliated/working with certain so-called “tenants’ rights”groups to take over small “mom & pop” buildings and make them“permanently affordable.” As I am merely the victim in this years-long harassment, I had no contact from anyone on the prosecution team, once I’d reported what was being done to me. The case was assembled and tried with no input from me..
When the prosecution somehow managed to lose that 2021 case (maybe due to picking a jury of like-minded renters, as the defendants’ peers?), I was really taken aback when the angry group attempted to put together a malicious prosecution case against me (not, please note – against law enforcement/the prosecutors). The group managed to take their brilliant idea to a competent lawyer, who must have explained that it was a non-starter, as a matter of law. Next, the group recruited a new pair of people who somehow became my next renters, in early 2022. Those two immediately reactivated the cameras and the hacking. Unfortunately for them, I discovered their quite serious application fraud within a month of their move-in, and law enforcement swung into action, yet again.
Too early to say how this year’s prosecution turns out. Having had no renters onsite since the latest duo left at the end of their first full year, I have opted to maximize the value of my triplex, and sell it while it is fully vacant. Hope to close, as it happens, on July 17th, (the anniversary of my AOA membership). When I bought the place back in 2005, it was with the idea of retiring back in my home state of CA and then supplementing my meager government pension with rental income. Silly me! Keep up the good fight. All the best, E.B.
TRASH CARTEL – THE WAR ON LANDLORDS
Dear Mr. Faller: The city of Los Angeles imposed a monopolistic refuse clearance vendor and is endeavoring to levy an approximate 42 % monthly rate hike based upon coerced installation of a green (vegetation/foodstuff) refuse receptacle at multifamily sites. The vendor spontaneously submitted a so-called “contract” for endorsement, accompanied by literature, alluding to a State Assembly bill mandating that localities implement such a regime.
A purple refuse receptacle counterpart had already been furnished, pro bono, with weekly pickup. The green receptacle contents would have to be segregated at deposition, with the housing provider subject to sanction if residents default. The onus of ongoing sanitization of such a foodstuff/vegetation harboring receptacle, a beacon to wildlife, would befall the housing provider as well.
The windfall revenue, generated from compostable foodstuff/vegetation, inputs into the refuse stream, coupled with the approximately 42 % monthly rate hike, would be reaped by the insider monopolistic refuse cartel patrons and their political aristocratic lackeys, while further encumbering beleaguered housing providers. This unconstitutional egregious shredding of antitrust and non-competition provisions, a flagrant constitutional takings clause impingement, will intensify exponentially unless challenged in a federal forum. The war on small housing providers is well underway.
Best regards, Lawrence W.