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THIRTY-FOUR STATES NOW PREEMPT IMPOSITION
OF RENT CONTROL BY LOCAL JURISDICTIONS!
On April
13, 2000, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, Democrat, signed into law
the Rent Control Preemption Act. The new law, which takes effect
July 1, 2001, prohibits cities and counties from enacting, maintaining
or enforcing an ordinance or resolution that controls the amount
of rent charged for leasing private commercial or residential
property. The National Apartment Association and the National
Multi-Housing Council led the lobbying coalition.
In Huntington Beach, owners gathered sufficient signatures
to qualify an initiative for the March 2002 ballot that would
change the city charter to give only an owner the right to set
the rental rate and sales price of his/her property.
Over 20,000 voters signed the petition requesting that the "Property
Rights Protection Act" be placed on the ballot. The Act would
amend the City Charter as follows:
| "The
City shall not enact or enforce any measure which mandates
the price or other consideration payable to the owner in connection
with the sale, lease, rent, exchange or other transfer by
the owner of real property. Any such measure is repealed." |
POVERTY FORBIDDEN
Politicians think they can create utopia on Earth simply by passing
new laws. So writes Timothy Sandefur in an op-ed for the Orange
County Register. Congratulations to Santa Monica. It has solved
the problem of poverty: It simply made poverty illegal.
But the minimum wage law isn't passed to help the poor. It's passed
for two reasons: to make politician look like they care and to
keep out cheap competition.
The first motive has been around forever. Politicians have always
pleased one group of people by giving them someone else's property.
The second is even nastier. Unions make it illegal for anyone
to work for less, even if they want to.
In "Politics" written three centuries before Christ,
Aristotle wrote that "Such legislation may have a specious
appearance of benevolence; men readily listen to it, and are easily
induced to believe in some wonderful manner everybody will become
everybody's friend, especially when some one is heard denouncing
the evils now existing in states, suits about contracts, convictions
for perjury, flatteries of rich men and the like, which are said
to arise out of the possession of private property." Can
the voters of Santa Monica be duped into believing that five of
the City Council people who are pushing the Living Wage Ordinance
care one whit about hotel workers? Or will they be astute enough
to recognize this Living Wage Ordinance is nothing more than a
pay back to the Unions that invested heavily with donations and
manpower to the City Council campaigns of Genser, Feinstein, Bloom,
O'Connor and McKeown. Disgusting hypocrites.
Perhaps one of the most frequently disputed issues between an
owner and tenant is the disposition of a security deposit. The
law is clear that an owner can collect two months security on
an unfurnished apartment and three months on a furnished apartment.
The law is also clear that the security deposit must be returned
to the tenant within three weeks after the tenant vacates. Where
the issue gets cloudy is for what the owner may deduct from the
deposit. A given is the deposit may be used to cover any unpaid
rent; to repair damages to the unit exclusive of wear and tear
and to clean the premises, if necessary. "Wear and Tear"
Aye, there's the rub! SO. Before the tenant/s move in, walk through
the unit with them. And take pictures. Lots of pictures.
And have
the prospective tenant/s sign a "Move-In, Move-Out form,
noting the condition of the unit. You'll be glad you did!
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