Analysis – Renters Alliance

Habitability: A Few Key Concepts

January 14, 2022January 14, 2022 Mark Elliot habitability standard

Tenants living in rent-stabilized apartments time-and-again have informed city officials that conditions in rental housing need improvement. Sometimes the housing is substandard because it doesn’t meet the state’s ‘tenantable’ requirement which is merely fit for human habitation. More often conditions deteriorated because the landlord failed to maintain the property. Habitability touches on a number of concepts that didn’t get an airing in the Rent Stabilization Commission discussions. Let’s explain!

Analysis

Commission Recommended Relocation Fees: A Bad Deal for Tenants

December 31, 2021July 5, 2024 Mark Elliot relocation fees, Rent Stabilization Commission

On December 5th the Rent Stabilization Commission is poised to pass a resolution that will recommend Beverly Hills to change the way the relocation fees are calculated. The new formula would reduce the fee for nine out of ten rent-stabilized households, should they be evicted, and effectively reduces the compensation for moving expenses to a flat $1,000 regardless of apartment size. The commission majority supported a change to relocation fees by a 4–2 vote. Tenant commissioners didn’t support it, though, because it would be a bad deal for tenants.

Analysis

Newsom Survived But It Was a Closer Call in Beverly Hills

September 21, 2021September 22, 2021 Mark Elliot 2021 gubernatorial recall, Gavin Newsom

The voters have spoken! Only 37% of voters supported the recall and that is well short of the 50% threshold necessary to unseat Governor Gavin Newsom. However Beverly Hills voters were more likely to support the recall than our neighbors. The fact is that a deep red conservative streak runs through Beverly Hills and that makes us something of an outlier in the region. How did the recall vote break? Let’s look at the precincts!

Analysis

What a Post-Moratorium Rent Increase Could Mean to the Bottom Line

February 9, 2021 Mark Elliot rent-increase moratorium

Beverly Hills enacted a moratorium on rent increases for rent-stabilized tenants during the COVID local emergency and the provision mirrored similar action in surrounding cities. But ours came with a hitch. Or rather a clause. “Nothing in this Ordinance shall alter the date of annual rent increases in future years.” That could open the door to double rent increase after the moratorium is lifted. Here’s it could affect your pocketbook.

Analysis

Election 2020: Beverly Hills Steps to the Right

November 9, 2020January 16, 2022 Mark Elliot Election 2020, Proposition 21

California voters have spoken! Biden/Harris prevailed with 65% of the statewide vote and handed Trump/Pence a defeat by a margin of thirty points — a showing matched by just a few left-leaning states. But Los Angeles County leans even more blue: the Biden/Harris ticket won over 71% of county voters. How did Beverly Hills voters swing?

Analysis

The Mandatory Rent Repayment Plan: No Good Option for Tenants

May 4, 2020August 4, 2022 Mark Elliot eviction moratorium

Tuesday afternoon city council will consider modifying the urgency ordinance that sets the terms for the moratoriums on eviction for non-payment. The agenda item A–2 is titled ‘Consideration of Modifications to the City’s Urgency Ordinance 20-O–2808.’ We could have missed this important discussion had we not read through each of the five meeting agendas on the council calendar that day. Good thing we noticed: up for discussion is a proposal to make a rent repayment plan mandatory for tenants who delay paying the rent.

Analysis

Bosse-Gold PAC: Connecting the Dots

March 2, 2020July 5, 2024 Mark Elliot Bosse-Gold PAC

Election 2020 for Beverly Hills is shaping up to be a four-way contest between the three leading candidates — Lili Bosse, Julian Gold and Lori Greene Gordon — and the new independent political action committee ‘Beverly Hills United to Support Bosse and Gold.’ The PAC is better-resourced than any candidate and in the closing days of this election it is burning through its $110,000 with a singular purpose: To associate candidates Bosse & Gold in the minds of voters.

Analysis

Who’s Behind the Bosse-Gold PAC?

February 28, 2020July 5, 2024 Mark Elliot Bahador Mahboubi, Barbara Sanborn, Behrouz Mahboubi-Fardi, Bosse-Gold PAC, Bruce Meyer, Daryoush Mahboubi-Fardi, Election 2020, Gabriel Frem, Leon Vahn, Mark Tronstein, Stephen Copen, Stephen Massman, Steven Gordon, Steven Hakim, Tom Blumenthal

If you’ve received a Bosse-Gold mailer you will be forgiven for thinking these city council candidates are running as a slate. They appear side-by-side. They celebrate endorsements in common. They even stand together as cartoon likenesses. But these candidates do not share much in style and they make an unlikely slate. The Bosse-Gold mailers are the product of a political action committee (PAC) called ‘Beverly Hills United to Support Bosse and Gold.’ Why are they jamming our mailboxes and who’s behind them?

Consumer Price Index for Los Angeles area: prices were up 3.1% from a year ago

Analysis

How Does Beverly Hills Compare on the Rent Increase Cap?

August 11, 2019July 5, 2024 Mark Elliot City of Los Angeles, Culver City, Inglewood, Los Angeles County, max increase, Santa Monica, West Hollywood

Beverly Hills recently posted the maximum allowed annual rent increase percentage for Chapter 6 tenants and we breathed a sign of relief: it has dropped to 3.1% from last year’s 4.1%. That’s because the rise in consumer prices has slowed and, with it, the cost of providing housing. But most localities don’t cap rents and those that do take various approaches even in the same rental market. How does Beverly Hills compare?

Rent stabilizaiton commission application

Analysis

Rent Stabilization Commission Applications: Landlords Really Stepped up!

July 15, 2019July 15, 2019 Mark Elliot Rent Stabilization Commission

With Rent Stabilization Commission interviews commencing this week we have looked at those who applied. Now we turn our attention to the numbers: specifically the proportion of applicants who stepped up for the tenant, landlord and ‘at-large” categories relative to the number of potential applicants in each category. Which group was most motivated to apply for a commission seat? Landlords!

Analysis

Rent Stabilization Fallacy Exhibit B: 9683 West Olympic

March 26, 2019June 22, 2019 Mark Elliot 9683 W Olympic, unpermitted unit

In a previous post we followed up on a real estate listing for 169 North Clark Drive that local landlord (and Apartment Association executive director) Dan Yukelson had forwarded to city power brokers. His message was that longtime landlords are forced out of business by rent stabilization. He groused about “over regulation.” And he suggested that rent stabilization makes rental property ownership a losing proposition. That was all fallacy: 169 North Clark is a cash cow property. It was ‘exhibit A’ in rental property ownership ‘upside.’ Here is ‘exhibit B’: 9683 West Olympic.

← Previous

Explainer

My Landlord is Asking for an Estoppel. Need I Sign It?

July 16, 2024July 29, 2024 Mark Elliot

An estoppel certificate is a legal document that simply establishes the terms and status of a rental agreement (or lease) for a third party like a prospective buyer. Typically a tenant is asked to complete an estoppel when purchase negotiations advance and that request may come from the current owner or an agent working on behalf of a prospective buyer. It is nothing to fear; it is a standard step in the sale of real property. In any case the lease or rental agreement may require the tenant to complete it. When presented with an estoppel to complete and sign you may have questions. Here is what you need to know.

Explainer