ACTION Apartment Association

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.

Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS) by Michael Millman

02/28/2017 10:25 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS) is not only Legal , but also the most effective Water Conservation vehicle for older apartments with Master meter systems.

In 2016, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 7 which expressly legalized the RUBS protocol and system: “This bill would express the intent of the Legislature...to encourage the conservation of water...in multi-family residential rental buildings through the means either within the Landlord’s or the Tenant’s control, including ‘Ratio Utility Billing System,’ which means...the allocation of water and sewage costs to the Tenant based on the square footage; occupancy; or other physical factors of the dwelling unit.”

Slow-Growth Activists Girding for Fight Against "Plaza at Santa Monica" Downtown

02/28/2017 9:56 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

February 28, 2017 -- A Santa Monica slow-growth group is rallying members behind a proposal to create a sprawling urban park on 2.5 acres of City-owned real estate downtown that officials want developed as a 12-story mixed-use “plaza.”

The Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) says allowing construction of the 357,000-square-foot “Plaza at Santa Monica,” at 4th/5th and Arizona, would be an “irretrievable” loss to residents in the park-starved city.

Another 42,000 square feet would house neighborhood retailers and restaurants, and 40,300 square feet is earmarked for 48 units of affordable housing. The mix is four three-bedroom units, eight two-bedroom units, 20 one-bedroom units, 16 studios and ground floor lobbies.

Santa Maria Moves Toward District-Based Voting; Could Santa Monica Be Next?

02/27/2017 3:38 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

February 27, 2017 -- While the effort to change how Santa Monica’s City Council is elected from at-large races to district-based contests is being argued in court, a similarly sized city in Santa Barbara County has decided to make the shift.

A trial for that lawsuit [Santa Monica] is scheduled to begin October 30, according to the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s website.

Santa Monica Should Encourage Home Ownership

02/27/2017 3:32 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

by Robert Kronovet

Dear Editor,

It's been awhile since I've written; the time has come to discuss once again the nature and interactions between housing, the right to private property, rent control, upwards mobility and the state of our nation.