ACTION Apartment Association

Proposed Law To Expand Rent Control Raises Ire Of Landlords

03/06/2017 7:42 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Assembly Democrats on Friday announced a slew of proposed new laws aimed at bringing the Bay Area’s sky-high prices back to earth.

One is AB 1506. It would allow local governments to create and impose rent control

“It’s a very controversial bill, but you have to look at both sides of the economic equation,” said California State Assembly member Richard Bloom.

Santa Monica’s Lincoln Boulevard could get pedestrian-friendly makeover

03/06/2017 7:40 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A long stretch of Lincoln Boulevard through Santa Monica is all set to get a major makeover that will make the street a bit more accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians. As Santa Monica Next reports, the city’s planning commission is set to review plans for the project’s first phase this coming Wednesday.

The Lincoln Neighborhood Corridor Plan seeks to promote public transit ridership and improve the experience of walkers and bicyclists along the stretch of thoroughfare between the 10 Freeway and Ozone Avenue.

State bill aims to keep rent in rent-controlled units low

03/06/2017 7:24 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

State Assemblymember Richard Bloom has introduced a bill that would allow cities to make it illegal for the owners of rent-controlled buildings to hike rents after tenants move out.

The bill would repeal the state’s Costa-Hawkins Act, which allows the owners of rent-controlled buildings to raise rents to market-rate prices when tenants voluntarily leave or are evicted.

S.M.a.r.t.-A Costly City Services Building; Is It Worth It?

03/03/2017 8:04 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Since Santa Monica has outgrown its City Hall, its staff are currently scattered across our city. The placement of the New City Services Building (CSB) behind our historic City Hall building will resolve this issue. Although its understated design may diminish its visual impact on our historic City Hall, its budget will not. Because it was initially designed to the highest level of sustainability, it could cost up to three times a typical office building – $86 million ($1,720/SF.) This does not include the financing that will add an additional $80 million.

Costa-Hawkins Repeal Threatened. Stop 1506

03/02/2017 8:07 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Help Fight California assembly bill 1506 which threatens to repeal Costa-Hawkins.

Activists press for district based elections

03/01/2017 2:55 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica activist Oscar de la Torre is highlighting his own election loss last November in a legal effort to dismantle the way the City has held elections for seventy years.

De la Torre is the board co-chair of the Pico Neighborhood Association, which has sued Santa Monica over the City’s use of at-large elections. De la Torre’s wife is also a plaintiff in the suit. The suit claims that citywide elections violate the California Voting Rights Act, which prohibits at-large elections if they can be shown to racially polarize voting.

The case is slated to head to trial in October.

New Bedbug Mandatory Disclosure Requirements

03/01/2017 2:34 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

In 2016, a comprehensive bedbug statute was enacted. It involves comprehensive and complicated “DISCLOSURE” requirements “and protocols wherein Tenants and licensed pest control operators are required to not only cooperate with the “investigation,” but exchange and deliver pest control reports wherein it is determined that either in an Apartment Unit or common area there is “evidence” of infestation of bedbugs.

There are two essential and important Disclosure dates: July l, 2017: Owners shall provide to all “NEW TENANTS” a written document in 10-point font containing “educational information about bedbugs; a simple procedure to report suspected infestation to the owner; and a protocol or statement that the tenant shall not only cooperate with the inspection, but will facilitate the detection and treatment.” Again, this is a “no fault” Statute.

Effective January 1, 2018, an Owner must give a prescribed “educational” Notification to all Existing Tenants

Luxury Apartment Landlords Sue Airbnb Over Raucous Renters

03/01/2017 6:54 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The corporate ownership of a trio of luxury apartment complexes near the Grove is suing Airbnb for allegedly encouraging illegal short-term rentals at its buildings.

In a suit filed this month in L.A. County Superior Court, Apartment Investment & Management Company (AIMCO), owner of the Villas at Park La Brea, the Palazzo at Park La Brea and the Palazzo East at Park La Brea (as well as Lincoln Place Apartments in Venice), alleges that Airbnb is violating L.A. municipal code by facilitating rentals shorter than 30 days at those properties.

BREAKING NEWS SANTA MONICA: RENT CONTROL UPDATE

02/28/2017 11:31 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

On February 17, 2017, Assembly person Richard Bloom, Rob Vonta (Oakland) and David Chiu (San Francisco), together with Senator Ben Allen (Santa Monica), co-authored AB 1506, a Bill to repeal the CostaHawkins Rental Housing Act, 1995. This Bill is the “bedrock” State legislation protecting Small Apartment Owners insofar as it exempted all new construction, condominiums, single family homes and vacancies created after January 1, 1999 from “local Rent Control laws.

Repeal 1995 Costa-Hawkins Fair Housing Act OPPOSITION

02/28/2017 10:39 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

by Michael Millman

Re: Assembly Bill 1506

Remove the Costa-Hawkins “free enterprise/vacancy decontrol” and these Small Apartment Owners will give up the Business and simply close down. They don’t have the money. And certainly no bank is going to loan money on an apartment building if Richard Bloom’s new Bill to repeal Costa-Hawkins is passed. Complete economic collapse.