News – Renters Alliance

Beverly Hills Bar Association legal seminar

Beverly Hills Bar Legal Seminar Recap

November 17, 2019 Mark Elliot Beverly Hills Bar Association, education, empowerment

The Beverly Hills Bar Association Barristers today organized a free landlord tenant legal seminar at the Roxbury Park community center. Billed as a ‘pro bono legal clinic’ the event was more a presentation of relevant rental housing regulations punctuated by by audience questions. For tenants with specific questions there were individual consultations. This was not a city event. However it was timely given the coming changes in state law that will affect tenants. Here’s the recap.

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Who to Watch in the Beverly Hills City Council Election

October 24, 2019October 26, 2019 Mark Elliot Campaign 2020, Farshid 'Joe' Shooshani, Julian Gold, Lili Bosse, Lori Gordon

Beverly Hills voters will elect two councilmembers at our upcoming municipal election scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, 2020. For residents who rent this is an important election. Because the rent stabilization ordinance has yet to be finalized, the incoming councilmembers will have real influence over key aspects like the allowed annual rent increase and relocation fees and more. But many other aspects of rental housing regulation are affected too. It is crucial we have a city council that is supportive of tenants’ interests. After all we are more than half of all city households! Here is a look at the announced candidates.

News

Landlord Workshop: Mills Act & Rent Adjustment [recap]

October 19, 2019 Mark Elliot Community Education Workshops, historic preservation, Mills Act, rent adjustment

City of Beverly Hills held its second landlord education workshop and on the agenda were the city’s Mills Act historic preservation incentive and the rent stabilization ordinance’s rent adjustment process. The Mills Act is a tool our city can use to encourage the maintenance and preservation of local register-eligible multifamily apartments. The rent adjustment allows a landlord to petition for a rent increase higher than would otherwise be allowed.

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Metro’ Wilshire-Rodeo Station Work May Continue Through the Holidays

September 16, 2019 Mark Elliot Metro, Steve Mayer, Wilshire-Rodeo station

This Tuesday evening City Council will hear a request from Metro to allow construction (specifically station pilings) to continue throughout the holiday period, prior to Thanksgiving and extending through New Years Day. The issue is whether to require Metro to adhere to the schedule already formalized in a memorandum of understanding with the city, or to grant a waiver to allow that work to continue — and if so under what conditions. Will you be affected?

Landlord community education workshop overview of the room

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Our Recap of the Landlord Community Education Workshop

September 15, 2019 Mark Elliot building managers, Community Education Workshops

City of Beverly Hills recently divided the community education workshop into separate tenant and landlord sessions. We recapped the August 12th tenant session and here we look at the September 12th landlord session, RSO Basics and Updates for Housing Providers. With two additional landlord sessions in coming months focused on specific topics like rental unit registration, turnout for this basics session was pretty light

News

Breaking: Sacramento Inches Toward Statewide Rent Control

August 31, 2019August 31, 2019 Mark Elliot AB-1482, David Chiu, Gavin Newsom, rent control

California leaders announced an agreement to enact strong tenant protections, says a release trumpeting Governor Gavin Newsom’s support for capped rent increases and just-cause eviction only. But we have been here before only to be disappointed by our Sacramento lawmakers. Because it is a rocky road from good intentions to signed legislation. Let’s look at what’s on offer.

News

What is Driving the City’s Housing Policy? RHNA!

August 30, 2019 Mark Elliot housing, John Mirisch, RHNA

Beverly Hills is now entertaining a wide-ranging discussion about housing affordability and accessibility and the key issue is how the city can provide stability to residents today while accommodating housing demand in the future. Cutting right to the heart of the matter is state’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment: an obscure and complicated process for assigning to localities some responsibility for providing new dwelling units in order to meet that demand. In fact RHNA as it is known drives every significant housing conversation in our city today.

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Stop Work Order at 201 South Reeves

August 25, 2019August 25, 2019 Mark Elliot 201 S Reeves, Stephen Copen, unpermitted work

When you wake to the sound of a Sunday-morning demolition you might wonder whether the landlord has a permit for that work. But when your landlord is Dr. Stephen Copen you can rest assured: of course he has no permit! We remembered this lesson when the sledgehammer-and-pickaxe demolition commenced at 8 a.m. That must mean another Copen low-budget, under-the-radar job should meet an untimely end with a stop-work order.

City Council at RSO commission formation 2019-3-5

News

Rent Stabilization Commissioner Appointments Hit a Snag

August 18, 2019August 24, 2019 Mark Elliot Rent Stabilization Commission

City Council created the Rent Stabilization Commission in March to resolve certain tenant-landlord disputes and make recommendations regarding amendments to the rent stabilization ordinance. A total of 29 residents stepped up to apply, including 8 ‘at-large’ applicants (neither a tenant nor landlord). These disinterested at-large members are supposed to balance against the vested interests of tenants and landlords. But what if they’re not disinterested and unbiased after all?

News

Culver City Adopts an Interim Rent Control Ordinance

August 14, 2019August 15, 2019 Mark Elliot Culver City

Culver City has adopted an interim rent control ordinance that brings strong tenant protections to a city that had no local tenant protections at all. City Council voted to cap the rent increase at 3% annually; require a relocation fee; and most important agreed to end no-just-cause evictions. Like Beverly Hills, Culver City recognized what we can see with our own eyes: runaway rent increases leads to tenant displacement and greater regulation is necessary to ensure the stability of the renting population.

Microsoft's Clippy helps with tenant complaints!

News

New RSO Workshops are Scheduled

August 10, 2019August 14, 2019 Mark Elliot Community Education Workshops

This Monday, August 12th at 6pm the city will host a rent stabilization workshop specifically for tenants. RSO program staff will provide an overview of the rent stabilization ordinance amendments and discuss next steps in the policy process. But tenants need more than a high-level overview; we need help with our problems. Save the date and join us at City Hall with your own tough questions for city rent stabilization officials!

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