These are the famous lyrics of rock legend, Jim Morrison, from the epic Doors song, “The End.” Those of us in the rental housing business have will have had our “end” of sorts with the intended end of the City of Los Angeles moratorium on evictions on January 31, 2023, and the end of the moratorium on rent increases twelve months later on January 31, 2024 – yes, that’s no typo, it’s 2024. At the City Council meeting held on the eve of the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, some of our prayers were heard and we dodged a bullet shot from the pen of Councilmember Nithya Raman who wanted to tack on another month to an already painful nearly three years under moratoriums – just stick the knife a bit deeper and twist it a little bit more I can only imagine was her line of thinking at the moment her failed amendment was proposed.

By Jerry L’Ecuyer & Frank Alvarez

Dear Apartment Owners:

Remember, the holiday season starts with Halloween and the demand on your properties only gets worse from there.  Check each stove and oven for proper operation, many residents only turn on their ovens at this time of year, and the problem may be as simple as a blown-out pilot light.  This time of year sees a higher than normal use of the plumbing, it may be a good idea to snake out or hydro jet your main plumbing lines.  In addition, sending a note to each tenant on the proper use of the garbage disposal will be useful.  Note what they should and should not put down the disposal unit.  A few items to include on this No No list are banana peals, potato skins, coffee grounds and any stringy food.  Also, make sure they turn on the water before using the disposer and put down small amounts of food at a time. Using the disposer as a trash can and turning it on when full, will lead to a clog.  

Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP

1.  Question:  We rent a house to a family.  My husband helped the tenant move a washing machine into the laundry room and noticed that the tenant’s defective hoses had leaked water onto the sheetrock.  We want to have the sheetrock repaired.  Can we deduct the cost from his security deposit and then send a 30-day notice for the tenant to reinstate that amount?

Answer:  You can serve a 3-day notice to perform conditions and covenants or quit to require the tenant to make repairs or to pay for the repairs if there is an appropriate provision in your lease regarding damages.  If they do not comply with the notice, you can proceed with an eviction, or alternatively, deduct repair costs from their security deposit.

By Ali Sahabi

Growing alarm over the threat of earthquakes up and down the Pacific coast has sparked an influx of inexperienced companies hoping to get a piece of a new business opportunity. In this atmosphere, how can you tell who’s legitimate and who’s not?

Here are four easy steps to ensure you are selecting a reputable firm to do the work, and that the process followed will bring you the best results for the safety of your tenants and protection of your building.

The Yardi Breeze team stumbled across a question on a popular multifamily discussion group. It was a simple question, but it set off a flurry of responses. A property manager discovered one of her residents had been keeping an unauthorized dog in the community. They confronted the resident, who said, “This is my partner’s emotional support animal.” The resident’s partner, as you might have guessed, was not on the lease.

So, does the resident’s partner’s assistance animal have a right to be on the property? Or is the property management office within their rights to deny the guest’s animal? After all unauthorized pets are not allowed on-site and the guest is not on the lease.

Which Is Right for Your Roof

Authored by Steve Pinkus, Owner of Royal Roofing Company

For your flat or low slope roof, there are more re-roofing options available now than ever. Choosing what’s right for you can be overwhelming if you’re not prepared.

Picking a roof can feel harder to do than picking just one ice cream topping at a shop with unlimited options. Unlike dessert, your roof can cost thousands of dollars, and you’ll have to stick with it for 5, 10, or even 15 or more years.

California’s Senate Bills 721 and 326 Mandate Inspections by Statutory Deadlines

By Omid Ghanadiof, EEEAdvisor Engineering

As the deadline for the California Balcony Laws Senate Bills 721 and 326 comes closer and closer, leading California-based engineering inspection company, EEEAdvisor Engineering, offers advice on dealing with inspections of your multifamily properties to help ensure your compliance with state law.

Energy use per square foot is about 10 to 35 percent lower in owner-occupied housing than in rentals, according to a report by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.[1] The study attributes the discrepancy to the so-called “split-incentive problem.” If landlords don’t pay utility bills, then they have little incentive to make energy-efficient upgrades. Since tenants don’t own the properties, they don’t usually take on energy projects either. Historically, the split-incentive problem has posed a major challenge to the availability of energy-efficient rental properties. But rising energy costs, the pandemic, and market shifts might be changing that. More than ever, both landlords and tenants can benefit from energy-saving projects that protect the value of real estate investments, cut monthly expenses, improve tenant comfort, and build trust. Here’s why.

By Shari Fykes, Partner Engineering & Science

(Editor’s Note: California Senate Bill 721 generally requires balconies, walkways, staircases, and other “exterior elevated elements” built primarily of wood or wood-based products on residential buildings of three or more units, and that are three or more feet above ground level and extend outside of the four walls of a building to be inspected.)

California’s Balcony Inspection Law, Senate Bill 721, was enacted in 2019. Many multifamily rental property owners were too impacted by the pandemic to address the law’s requirements in 2020 or 2021. Recently, however, there has been a surge of interest by portfolio owners and property managers inquiring about and implementing mandatory balcony inspections and inspection of other elevated exterior elements.

By Daniel Bornstein, Esq.

U.S. Supreme Court deals a blow to PAGA, ruling that arbitration agreements governed by federal law may require arbitration of PAGA claims on an individual basis only. 

Bornstein Law has said many times and in many ways that if landlords do not take care of their tenants or do not follow the law, a six-figure lawsuit can follow. Most of the time, the defendants are not bad landlords or bad people, but simply have an ignorance of the law. But what about taking care of resident managers?