By Ari Chazanas, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lotus West Properties

During the Coronavirus Pandemic, we have been faced with numerous challenges. One of them is the eviction moratoriums, which is legal authorization for indebted commercial and residential renters to postpone their rent payments to landlords. Tenants may wish to extend the eviction moratorium and landlords wish that it may soon end.

At this time, we anticipate that the eviction moratoriums may be extended long before being repealed; With the original due date for the State of California’s eviction moratorium having expired on January 31^st only to then be extended to June 30^th, one might expect that this latest expiration date to again be extended by May or June.  Many renters and landlords must now anticipate their next action steps with the latest expiration date on the horizon. The Coronavirus has certainly changed the landscape of evictions and rent collections. Even online unlawful detainer and other court hearings may become commonplace.

By Jerry L’Ecuyer & Frank Alvarez

Dear Maintenance Men:
I am starting my planning for a major kitchen cabinet remodeling project in my rental units.  However, I am having a difficult time making material and design decisions.  What recommendations can you give?
Allen. 

Dear Allen,
When doing a kitchen or bath material selection, cohesive and functional design is important.  Kitchen and bath rehabs are some of the most expensive work you can do in an apartment unit and proper planning is a must.  In order to appeal to a larger segment of the population, try to keep the interior color scheme to neutral earth tones.  Cabinetry quality varies greatly.  Don’t let the cabinet fronts fool you.  Manufactures designed their cabinets to look good at first glance.  Keep in mind, being in a rental environment, the cabinets also need to hold up to abuse. Look at the actual construction of the cabinet box or frame.  Keep in mind; you do not need to use custom cabinets to fit your existing layout.  The use of prefabricated modular cabinetry can greatly reduce the time and cost to have a finished kitchen or bathroom.  Using real wood cabinet fronts with 3/8” plywood sides is essential for durability. The drawer fronts and sides should be connected with a dovetail or other positive lock construction.  Drawers that are held together by nails or cabinets built with particle board will not hold up to tenant abuse. 

On a side note;  if you are gutting the kitchen or bathroom, use this time to relocate and add more electrical outlets and under cabinet lighting. 

By Ben Tansey

South Pasadena’s moratorium on evictions triggered by unpermitted renovation work will has been extended through mid-January, when the City Council will adopt an ordinance making the prohibition permanent. At its last meeting of 2020, the Council unanimously approved the extension despite considerable disagreement in the community over whether existing state law (AB 1482) already offers tenants such protection.

The Council also decided to give staff and the Planning Commission a couple more months to craft an ordinance setting relocation assistance payments to tenants in good standing who are evicted for so-called “substantial remodels.”

2020 may be remembered as the year many of the freedoms we had, or thought we had, died or were mortally wounded. It was the year we became subject to arbitrary government decree without recourse.

Time magazine missed the mark by not naming The Government Bureaucrat, Person of the Year.

Naturally, property rights are the subject of primary interest to the readers of this publication. Tenants without any showing of hardship have been allowed to remain in their units with little to no payment of rent.

By Dwight Kay, Founder & CEO; Betty Friant, Senior Vice President and The Kay Properties Team

“Is that your final answer?” You may recognize the question made famous by the popular TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Choosing the right answer in this game gives you a shot at winning big money, while the wrong answer leaves you with nothing. Investors conducting a 1031 Exchange face a similar make or break decision when it comes to identifying suitable replacement properties.

The right choices can help streamline a smooth and successful execution of a 1031 Exchange. Choosing wrong with properties that may not be viable or deals that are unable to close within the 180-day time period can derail the entire 1031 Exchange. The good news is that investors do get to identify more than one replacement property. However, just like the gameshow, once that 45-day deadline hits for identifying replacement options, those answers are final. Making the most of that short list is one reason that the 200% Rule is a popular choice for many investors. The 200% Rule allows an investor to identify the largest number of replacement options with four or more properties or Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) replacement investments.

By Christopher Miller, MBA

What Net Leased Properties Are

Net leased properties get their names from how expenses are treated; rent is paid to the landlord “net” (tenant pays) certain expenses.  In any kind of net lease, the tenant will generally pay all operating expenses, such as electricity, gas, and water.  Property taxes and insurance are also the tenant’s responsibility in a “double net,” or NN, lease.  A “triple net,” or NNN, lease will pass all responsibilities and expenses to the tenant – even maintenance of the building.  The net leased properties that I come across – with long-term leases and credit tenants – will typically have either double net or triple net leases, so that’s what this article will focus on.

Ever hear the one about the emotional support peacock that wasn’t allowed on a plane? If it sounds like a setup to a bad joke, it’s actually a real story that made national news.

You’ve probably heard of emotional support animals (ESAs), but you might not know that they aren’t just dogs and cats. They can be ferrets, fish, pigs, peacocks — almost anything a qualifying owner wants.

So, what are they really? Who qualifies for one, and what are the owner’s rights? The answers to these questions are important. If the animal is why you turn away a rental applicant, you could be charged with housing discrimination. Here’s what landlords need to know about emotional support animals. 

By Paul Bergeron

After Moderna and Pfizer announced results from a large-scale clinical test showing as high as a 94% success rate for a COVID-19 vaccine, experts in the multifamily industry have begun to consider what property management will look like when the pandemic threat eventually subsides.

What’s clear is that the virtual leasing technology that was developed and implemented to help the apartment industry withstand 2020’s toughest challenges will continue to play a critical role as the country comes out on the other side — and new research supports this.

By Harold Greenberg, Esq.

Many years ago, a self-appointed group calling itself the Blue-Ribbon Committee on Slum Housing surfaced in the City of Los Angeles calling for major changes to the City’s rental housing inspection system. The City’s Building and Safety Department was to be replaced by Housing Department inspectors who would be more responsive to tenant activist concerns. Every apartment in the City of Los Angeles would be inspected, not just those where tenants had filed complaints about habitability violations. Radio, television, and newspaper articles exploded on the scene, triggered by Blue Ribbon claims that 107,900 rental units were rat-infested, and another 131,700 units had non-operating toilets. University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) law students under the direction of tenant activist retired professor Gary Blasi used numbers from the 1995 joint U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and U.S. Census Bureau “American Housing Study” to substantiate their claim that almost half the rental units in the City were uninhabitable.

By Gina Gaudio-Grace, Platinum Trust Group

In November 2020, Californian voters passed Proposition 19, a State Constitutional Amendment, with 51.1% of the voters approving it. The new law goes into effect on February 16, 2021. This means that you have a short window of time to act under the existing law.

The Way We Were: How It Works Today

To understand the impact Proposition 19 will have on apartment owners, it is helpful to recognize that it modifies Proposition 13 (originally passed in 1978).  Under Proposition 13, parents are permitted to transfer: (i) their primary residence, and (ii) up to $1 million in assessed value of other properties, to their children without triggering a reassessment for property tax purposes. This means that children can keep the low property tax assessment from their parents following a transfer of a primary residence or the first one million dollars of assessed value (which is usually substantially less than fair market value) of investment properties.