Post by High Priestess on Jun 1, 2017 16:12:14 GMT
If you are one of those property owners who feels ethically obligated to be kind to renters and keep their rent low...beware...it could bankrupt you if you ever need to move into your own house, as this Berkeley landlord found out:
www.aninterdisciplinarylife.com/2016/10/being-good-landlord-almost-bankrupted-me.html
www.aninterdisciplinarylife.com/2016/10/being-good-landlord-almost-bankrupted-me.html
There's a ballot initiative this year, Measure AA, that seeks to increase the relocation payment (the amount that a property owner is REQUIRED to pay to a tenant, if they want the tenant to move out) to $15,000 per unit plus $5,000 for families that claim to be low income. The wild thing is, there's no test for income status. All people have to do is claim to be low income, they are not required to provide proof unless the eviction goes to court. Had we been forced to pay $20,000 in order to reclaim our home we couldn't have done it. Essentially, our renters would have laid permanent claim to our house. It's unacceptable. A normal middle class family like ours shouldn't be held hostage simply because we didn't want to sell our home. Worse, we shouldn't have to be painted into a corner where the only way for us to get our house back is to drastically raise the rent in an effort to force tenants out. To borrow a phrase, "Ain't nobody got time for that." Besides, it's morally and ethically uncool. Sadly, if measure AA passes it will be the only way for people like me, people with no savings and no cash, to get their homes back when it is time to stop renting them out. If AA were in effect last summer I'd still be living in Maryland hoping that the job I wanted came open again while I was still in the workforce. My dream, my family's dream, would have been denied even though we've tried to do everything right.
UPDATE -- the ballot measure passed. Any property owner in Berkeley who wishes to MOVE INTO THEIR OWN HOME must now pay the vacating tenant $15,000. This is regardless how much that tenant's annual income, regardless how quickly the tenant finds a new place to live, regardless the level of income of the property owner. Some property owners simply don't have that kind of money. Should that mean that THEY CAN NEVER MOVE BACK INTO THEIR OWN HOME???! Apparently the city of Berkeley thinks so.
UPDATE -- the ballot measure passed. Any property owner in Berkeley who wishes to MOVE INTO THEIR OWN HOME must now pay the vacating tenant $15,000. This is regardless how much that tenant's annual income, regardless how quickly the tenant finds a new place to live, regardless the level of income of the property owner. Some property owners simply don't have that kind of money. Should that mean that THEY CAN NEVER MOVE BACK INTO THEIR OWN HOME???! Apparently the city of Berkeley thinks so.