ACTION Apartment Association - Future Bonds in Jeopardy if Rent Board Nixes Pass-Throughs, Santa Monica Property Owners Warn

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Future Bonds in Jeopardy if Rent Board Nixes Pass-Throughs, Santa Monica Property Owners Warn

Future Bonds in Jeopardy if Rent Board Nixes Pass-Throughs, Santa Monica Property Owners Warn

03/21/2018 4:43 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

March 21, 2018 -- Santa Monica property owners are warning the City's Rent Control Board that eliminating pass-throughs to tenants in the form of surcharges could jeopardize the future passage of funding measures.

The city's landlords and their organizations have traditionally stayed on the sidelines when local voters have approved bonds and parcel taxes to fund capital projects, primarily for the School District and College.

So far that has been the case -- with the approval of six bonds totaling more than $1.5 billion since 2012 -- because the Rent Board has allowed property owners to pass the surcharges on to tenants, usually in the form of small rent increases.

But with those surcharges rising in buildings that are reassessed when they sell, the Board is considering eliminating the pass-throughs, a hotly debated issue it will take up at its meeting Thursday ("Santa Monica Rent Board to Discuss Eliminating Surcharges for Existing Tenants," March 20, 2018).