WAM- Westside Insider, August 2001

Westside Insider, August 2001

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 Any such measure is repealed."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!