As long as water runs through pipes and people live on a property, there will be leaks and spills. This is nothing new to us.

But after historic rainfalls, we have never seen such widespread water damage. It was saddening to see hundreds of residents displaced from an East Oakland apartment complex after the parking garage flooded and PG&E cut power. Tenants ushered in the New Year in a cold, dark, and smelly apartment building with instructions to leave. Weeks later, they remain transplanted and it’s become a multimillion-dollar crisis for the management of Coliseum Connections.

Property management can be a rewarding career path for those who love helping others build a life and settle into a community. But along with the joys of the business are costly legal pitfalls you need to know and avoid at all costs. Some are easier to avert than others. Let’s take a look at the most common property management legal issues along with steps to avoid them.

As you read, you’ll notice a common thread: better technology and standardized procedures and routines can protect you from most legal issues in property management.

1. Locking a late-paying resident out of their home

It’s understandable to feel frustrated when a resident doesn’t pay rent on time. It’s against the law, however, to retaliate in any way that doesn’t conform with federal and state statutes. You cannot change the locks on a resident for nonpayment, no matter how many times you’ve warned them or reminded them to pay. The only way to deny a resident entry to their dwelling is through the eviction process. Even so, eviction can take weeks or months to complete and must be resolved in your favor.

If mediation doesn’t work and eviction is your only option, lean on your attorney to keep everything above board.

COMMUNICATE THROUGH OFFICIAL CHANNELS

It’s best to send important notices through official means, such as a professional email sent via your property management software and/or letter delivered to the residence. (State and local laws around correspondence apply.) The nice thing about software is that it ensures permanent, paperless evidence of all correspondence for your records.

Don’t Miss the West Coast’s Largest Income Property Expo – Attendance is Free!

Explore Investment Opportunities Both Large and Small, Meet 100’s of Vendors

The Income Property Management Exposition (IPME) returns to the Pasadena Convention Center Tuesday, May 23^rd, and this year promises to be bigger and better than ever before.  IPME provides rental property owners, managers, and investors with the latest insights to succeed in the changing rental housing market. In response to the high demand for rental housing, rising inflation, interest rates, and pandemic-driven challenges, IPME offers an opportunity to learn how to adapt and thrive in this ever-changing marketplace.

By Dwight Kay, Founder and CEO, Kay Properties

Key Highlights:

• DSTs can help investors successfully complete a 1031 exchange
• DSTs can potentially provide investors greater diversification
• DSTs can help investors replace debt for their 1031 exchange
• DSTs can provide investors a back-up option for a 1031 exchange

Regardless of what economic trends are taking place, Delaware Statutory Trusts provide investors a number timeless benefits for their 1031 Exchanges including deferring capital gains taxes, eliminating the headaches of active management (think the Three T’s: tenants, toilets, and trash), the ability to create a more diversified* portfolio, and provide investors the potential for consistent and durable income streams**.

By Laura Hertz, Loan Officer, CSMC Mortgage

If you are thinking of buying a home or income property, now is still a great time to purchase. You have the chance to get into the market before rates drop more and there is even less inventory. Once you purchase your home, you can always refinance if rates drop later.

Recently, we have seen lower mortgage rates which means greater purchasing power for you. The same mortgage payment in today’s market can buy about 15 percent more property value compared to just three months ago. This is obviously beneficial, and it is expected that rates will continue to drop.

By Tracey Merrill, Esq., Partner, Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP      

The legislative session for 2022 has come to a close. Information about the new California laws for 2023, compliance dates and other trends which will affect California residential landlords can be found below. For your convenience, the new laws and trends are divided into five sections: Landlord/Tenant, Compliance Updates and Language Trends, Affordable Housing, Fair Housing and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) updates, and Collections.

“At Livable, we want to keep residents and property owners up to date on issues that impact everyone in the rental market. We sympathize with tenants having financial issues, especially in the current inflationary climate. But we also recognize that housing providers are investors. Livable helps protect the health of those investments while educating residents on conservation, which saves everyone money and helps the planet.” – Livable CEO Daniel Sharabi

The White House recently proposed a comprehensive plan to address the affordable housing crisis in the country. The proposal, which focuses on rental rights, aims to ensure that renters are treated fairly and that the rental market works in the best interests of everyone involved. The proposal has faced significant pushback from the industry, as some believe it would impede the development of new housing and further damage the market, driving up rental prices and limiting access. But the White House remains committed to the proposal and believes that it will help to create a fairer and more just rental market.

Calling All Property Owners: It is Not Just for Apartments, But Single-Family Homes and Condominiums Will Also be Adversely Impacted

By Daniel Yukelson, Executive Director

The Latest Threat to Our Livelihoods and Retirement

California’s rental housing providers are again under attack by a well-known and controversial adversary, Michael Weinstein, the President of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Called the “Justice for Renters Act,” this proposed, November 2024 statewide ballot initiative would eliminate the protections rental housing providers have today under the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (Costa-Hawkins).

By Kari Negri, Chief Executive Officer, SKY Properties, Inc.

• Dear Kari, what can I do to improve employee performance?

In today’s social media-driven world, TikTok is the place to find all the latest trends. From dance moves, songs, pranks, lifestyle advice – you name it; it is all on this platform. One of the TikTok trends many Gen-Zs and Millennials have adopted is “Quiet Quitting,” formerly known as employee disengagement. As explained in many viral TikTok videos, it refers to when employees do not outright quit their job, but instead, quit “the idea” of doing their best or going beyond the very basics of their job position. The old adage that hard work equals reward is something most of the younger generation of employees strongly disagree with.

By Marc Frenkiel

Affordable housing refers to housing that costs less than 30% of a household’s income. Harvard University and Habitat for Humanity’s 2022 State of the Nation’s Housing report shows 30% of all U.S. households in 2020 had rent or mortgage payments exceeding 30% of their household income —a 1.5% increase from the year prior. The research also shows that more than 1 in 7 households paid over half of their income on housing in 2020. With home prices and rents rising even more significantly from 2021 to 2022, housing unaffordability has undoubtedly worsened in the past two years since the report was written.