NEW LAWS FOR 2004:
New
Laws for 2004:
We are going to bring you up to date on some new
laws that will effect real estate transactions and Landlord-Tenant
relationships. These laws went into effect on January 1, 2004 and are currently
the law of the land. If one of these laws affect you be sure to take immediate
action by either notifying the landlord, or if you are a landlord, your
tenants.
NEW REAL ESTATE LAWS
Airport Noise Disclosure:
I would think that
this should be a no-brainer for buyers and sellers, but evidently the
legislature disagrees with me. Under this new law those of you who live in
an "Airport Influence Area" are required to disclose this fact to
potential buyers. I wish that the California legislature would address real
problems and stop assuming that everyone who lives in California is a complete
idiot and needs "Big Brother" to take care of them. I cannot image
someone not knowing that an airport is nearby. The purpose of this law is to be
sure that buyers are aware of the noise levels around airports that may reach or
exceed 65 decibels. Consider yourselves warned.
Financial
Assistance for Low Income Buyers:
This law increases the amount of money that the
California Housing Finance Agency is authorized to use for down payment
assistance for low income first-time home buyers. The amount of the assistance
is increased from 3% to 6%. This program is also for the Extra Credit Teacher
Program that provides assistance for first-time homebuyers who are
teachers, educational support staff and administrators who work at poor
performing schools. The reason for the increase was due to the rising housing
costs. Since this is a politically charged issue, I will not take a position one
way or the other.
Eminent Domain:
This allows local governments to use eminent domain to
acquire property on which to build housing destroyed for the construction of
schools. This one makes you wonder about the efficacy of government's
involvement in this process. It sounds like a dog chasing his tail. You condemn
property and displace people to build a school. Then you condemn more property
to build housing presumably for the people that you have displaced in the first
place. I wonder if next year they will have a new bill to condemn more property
to replace the property that they took to replace the property that they took,
ad infinitem. And they say government doesn't do anything. Once again it shows
the ability of government to screw things up beyond belief. In the military they
called it FUBAR. I won't explain what it means, if you want to know, just ask a
veteran.
NEW LANDLORD-TENANT LAWS
Foreign Language Contracts:
Once in a while the legislature gets it right. This is
one time that I agree with what they did. This law expands existing law which
requires that certain kinds of contracts, including rental agreements have to be
in the language of the person whom you are contracting with. The law is
effective immediately for Spanish contracts, although it will include Chinese,
Tagalog, vietnamese, and Korean in July of 2004. There is an exception if the
consumer provides a translator for the purposes of translating the agreement.
Since many immigrants use their minor children as translators, I question the
value of this exception. I think it would have been better if the translator was
an adult.
Menacing Landlords:
This law really hits landlords who resort
to Mafia type conduct with their tenants. Any landlord who threatens or resorts
to extortion to force a tenant to vacate an apartment or rental unit is in
violation of this law. The offending landlord may be held criminally and civilly
liable in a court of law. The conduct described in the statute is defined as
using force, threats or other menacing conduct to force the tenant to vacate. If
the landlord is liable to his tenant civilly for $2,000.00 fine. This is in
addition to the existing criminal penalties.
While I certainly
do not approve of a landlord using force, threats or other menacing conduct to
force the tenant to vacate, I cannot envision why a tenant would stay in their
apartment if their landlord exhibited any of this type of conduct. I would leave
at the first hint of such conduct., although I might like to recover some modicum
of damages as an offset for my moving costs. We will have wait and see how this
new law works in real life.
Water Heater Strapping:
This requires all landlords to comply with existing
laws which have been in effect since 1996, and strap their water heaters
so as to prevent damages in the event of an earthquake. This law applies to
existing, replacement or new water heaters. There are no exceptions and a
landlord has 30 days from the date of the citation to comply. If the landlord
fails to comply within 30 days of the citation, then they are subjected to the
penalties set forth in the 1996 statute.
Residential Security Deposits:
This law is suppose to reduce the amount of small
claims cases by requiring landlords to provide copies of receipts for labor and
materials for all work deducted from a security deposit. In the alternative, the
landlord may provide the tenant with a reasonably accurate estimate of the
repairs, without actually performing the work, although he must provide a copy
of the invoice shortly after the work is performed.
This law is in
response to several commercial landlords who were making ridiculous deductions
for work that was never performed. They literally were making the figures up. I
don't know if this will have the desired effect, especially since the
legislature provided landlords a weasel factor by allowing estimates in place of
paid bills. I suppose that dishonest landlords will find this a mere
inconvenience from their larceny. We will have to wait and see how this shakes
out.
No Move Out Inspection
Required With 3-day Notice:
This is one that I
am not surprised over. It corrects an oversight in the original statute in that
it eliminates the requirement of landlord providing a tenant with a walk-through
inspection of the property prior to their moving out. By eliminating this
requirement, an evicted tenant cannot delay the eviction by claiming that the
landlord didn't provide him notice and conduct a move-out inspection. I believe
that this is common sense, we will see how it is applied, also.
Entry By Landlord Without
Notice:
Where the tenant requests that the landlord perform
repairs or other agreed upon services, it is not necessary for the landlord to
give the tenant a 24 hour written notice. This makes complete sense.
Sealing of Records Where
Tenant Prevails:
Where the tenant
is sued by the landlord for an Unlawful Detainer and prevails within 60 days of
the filing of the complaint, the court may seal the records to prevent other
landlords or U.D. agencies from having access to the record and using it against
the prevailing tenant to disallow the tenant to rent another unit. This only
seems fair to tenants that have been the victim of overzealous landlords.
Increased Damages For
Slumlords:
Any slumlords had better be prepared to dig a whole lot
deeper in their wallets. The penalties for landlords who raise rents on
substandard properties have been raised from $1,000.00 to $5,000.00 per
incident. This one is going to hurt, but since I don't represent any slumlords,
I really don't care if it does. Slumlords are the bane of a society's
existence by creating pockets of blight to line their own pockets.
Notification Of Low Income Tenants:
Landlords who participate in low income housing
programs such as section 8 housing, must notify prospective and existing tenants
of t when the agreement with the State or Federal agency is within one year of
its termination date. No problem with this one. Makes perfect sense.
These are by no means all of the laws which took effect of
January 1, 2004, but it gives you a thumbnail sketch of some of the laws that
directly effect you. Each of us should make it our responsibility each year to
stay informed of all these laws. We should also be aware of proposals that are
put on the ballot for your approval. Be sure to read each initiative
carefully and be sure that you really understand what effect a yes or no vote
will really mean and not what the politicos say it does.
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