Trade Show a Huge Success!
Our Million Dollar Trade Show and Landlording Conference last month was a huge success! You should have been there! Our members were more educated, motivated and stimulated by some very knowledgeable speakers who helped give them that one idea that would help them make and keep more money than ever! Some even walked away with valuable prizes given away at every seminar! WOW! Where else could you possibly spend a more profitable day?
There was no place in the world like the Los AngelesConvention Center on Thursday, October 25th! Thousands of our members really know how to take advantage each year of this incredible source of information and…it was all free! It’s just one of the many services we provide our members in addition to the lowest membership dues and credit check fees as well as the best service in town! You have truly made AOA the #1 Apartment Association in the whole state!
Many thanks go to our dynamic speakers – Eviction Attorney Dennis Block, Attorney Michael Brennan, Tax Expert Karla Dennis, Foreclosure Specialist Bruce Norris, Nick Sidoti – also known as, “Dr. Cash Flow”, Financial Specialist Steve Sitkowski, Tax Lien Specialist Mac Boyter, and Asset Protection Specialist Dale West. They provided the most powerful and contemporary information on wealth-building and apartment landlording that you’ll ever be able to find.
Our thanks also go to our large variety of exhibitors and their commitment to our members in offering the best possible professional assortment of services. Be sure to see highlights of the show and photos included in this issue and on our website at aoausa.com!
And … a very special thanks goes to you, our members, who truly are the essence of our trade show success! Your generosity to our Union Rescue Mission’s “Christmas in October” program was greatly appreciated. Thank you! And your thirst for knowledge in your pursuit of excellence is a driving force in the betterment of our industry! A thousand thanks….and we’ll see you at our next trade show at theLong BeachConvention Center on Tuesday, May 21st, 2019.
It pays and saves you big just to be an AOA member. BUT … it pays and saves even more for those owners who turn up every year to discover new ideas at the Big Show!
Be sure to mark your calendar for “AOA Show Time” at the Long Beach Convention Center Wednesday, April 17th, 2019.
Our friends at Institute for Justice have convinced the Supreme Court to soon decide in the case Timbs v. Indiana whether the Constitution restrains states (and not just the federal government) from imposing excessive fines. This case started when the State of Indiana attempted to take Mr. Timbs’s Land Rover, on top of other punishments, for his violation of a drug law. But as we explain in our friend-of-the-court brief, it is not just common criminals who need protection from excessive fines. State and local governments often impose excessive fines against responsible individuals who violate codes that regulate innocuous activities like residential landscaping choices or minor home improvements.
When Missouri city fines a homeowner $180,000 for choosing to plant flowers instead of grass, or aFloridacity fines a homeowner $58,000 for failing to register a burglar alarm with a local bureaucrat, alarm bells go off in most people’s minds. Government violates a natural right when it responds to minor violations of the law with such excess. Yet in both cases, the respective courts just shrugged.
The lack of meaningful protection from excessive fines should trouble every responsible American. The power to fine threatens other constitutional rights. For example, Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) clients often must risk huge fines to stand up for their property rights or free speech rights, for example, to “fight city hall.” Many other people understandably will give up their rights to avoid ruinous fines.
When fines subsidize the enforcing agency’s budget, local officials have an incentive to pick the harshest penalty available under law, regardless of the gravity of the offense. This perverse incentive is particularly visible in communities that have struggled to balance their budgets.
PLF client Uri Rafaeli lost a house (and all of its equity) when he accidentally underpaid property taxes by $8. While we think the seizure violates the Constitution’s prohibition on taking private property without just compensation, Oakland County, Michigan, argues that it is a fair punishment for Mr. Rafaeli’s $8 harm to the general welfare. ThatOaklandCountywould attempt to hide from the Fifth Amendment’s “Just Compensation Clause” by framing its theft of Mr. Rafaeli’s equity in his house as a forfeiture – a type of fine – is a troubling commentary on how weak many lower courts have rendered the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause.
As we explain in our friend-of-the-court-brief, the Supreme Court should take the opportunity presented by Timbs v. Indiana to show that a fine is not excessive merely because it exceeds the limits set by a state legislature or local commission; it is also excessive when it exceeds the limits of civilized society.
[AOA: It Gets Even More Ridiculous!
Talk about theft – what do you call our local Rent Board’s taking of our rental income? When their inspectors (little Gestapos) decide that a housing provider’s rentals do not live up to their “standard of living”, they order the tenants to pay one half of their rent to the Board. The tenants are then told that they no longer have to pay the balance until the owner brings the rentals up to the Board’s standards.
That, my friend, is even less than “just compensation”. It is taking our property with NO compensation! That’s rent control for you, or better described as “Tenant Welfare”, which is clearly a “seizure of private property with no compensation!
How about Rent Boards that charge late fees that penalize owners with almost a 300% punishment fee? Let’s face it – this tenant welfare thing is just another way that our politicians use to redistribute the property owners’ assets to the tenants and the bureaucrats who run these evil shenanigans!
The reasons the politicians put this burden on us? So they will be re-elected. You pay for their election campaigns. Shameful? Evil? You decide. – Dan]
Founded in 1973, PLF litigates cases nationwide to vindicate the rights fundamental to a free society. With nine consecutive U.S. Supreme Court victories and counting, PLF fights on the front lines, ensuring individual liberty is secure. Donor-supported Pacific Legal Foundation (www.pacificlegal.org) is the leading watchdog organization that litigates for limited government, property rights, individual rights, and free enterprise, in courts nationwide. PLF represents all clients free of charge. For more information, visit www.pacificlegal.org, call (916) 419-7111 or write PLF at 930 G. Street, Sacramento, CA 95814.