Do these exclamations ring of an authoritarian bureaucracy ? That bell is ringing louder in the last year as local , state and federal agencies have approved new restrictions on property and privacy rights .

In California , the Oakland City Council outlawed criminal background checks on prospective tenants . The stated purpose is to allow the formerly incarcerated to compete for housing and avoid homelessness .

Any housing provider and any person aiding a housing provider ( i . e . a management company ) face stiff penalties for doing a criminal check . Liability can be three times the greater of a ) one month ’ s rent or b ) actual damages , including damages for mental or emotional distress . A court may award punitive damages and attorney ’ s fees . Criminal penalties may also be asserted . Tenant ’ s rights attorneys could make hay with this ordinance .

If you own a rental property in Oakland you most certainly want it titled in the name of an LLC , shielding yourself from personal liability . And rather than screening tenants personally ( for which the high penalties again apply ), you will want to use an independent management company for that task . If there is an accidental criminal background check on a prospective Oakland tenant , the management company will suffer the consequences , not you .

But while the new law allows criminal offenders to rent in Oakland , it doesn ’ t change a duty that is required across the country . Landlords have a duty to protect the neighborhood of the rental property from the criminal acts of their tenants . Landlords are routinely held responsible for their tenants dealing drugs on the property . Other tenants , or anyone in the neighborhood , can sue the landlord for the rental property being a public nuisance that threatens public safety .

So in Oakland , you have to rent to criminals but you are still responsible if they engage in crime . If one of your investing guidelines is to avoid nonsensical Catch 22s , you may want to sell your Oakland properties and never invest there again . Please note that several other cities in the San Francisco Bay Area are also considering legislation to ban criminal background checks .

Accordingly , you may need to reinvest farther away .

Across the Bay , San Francisco voters just approved two measures affecting real estate rights . The first one aims to deal with the “ blight ” of empty storefronts . The owners of retail spaces remaining vacant for six months or more will now pay a tax of $ 250 per foot of linear frontage . The tax can rise to $ 1,000 a foot in later years . New York City is considering a similar tax .

Supporters claim landlords don ’ t care about local neighborhoods and only want more rent . ( Of course , leaving a storefront vacant for years does not really constitute more rent ). Opponents argue the measure ignores current realities . San Francisco ’ s permitting process for tenant improvements and alterations , as well as new business approvals , is notoriously byzantine and can take a year or more to complete . Bank financing requirements for expensive neighborhood retail spaces feature covenants calling for only the most credit worthy tenants , limiting the pool of prospective users . And , the rise of ecommerce has certainly not benefitted anyone in the brick and mortar space . The unintended consequences of this ordinance will be interesting to watch from a distance .

San Francisco voters also passed a measure tying office development permits to affordable housing goals . The city builds an average of 712 affordable housing units per year . The new law asserts that 2,042 units must be built every year , and if not the annual 875,000 square feet allocated for office uses must be reduced accordingly . So if 1,024 affordable housing units are built ( which never happens ), then using the same 50 % figure only 437,500 square feet of office space can be approved .

Image by succo from Pixabay

Image by FreePhotos from Pixabay

Realty411 Magazine - Featuring Brandon Cobb | Page 35

Do these exclamations ring of an authoritarian bureaucracy ? That bell is ringing louder in the last year as local , state and federal agencies have approved new restrictions on property and privacy rights .