President’s Message: Yes, Your Being a “Landlord” is Frustrating!
President’s Message
Yes, Your Being a “Landlord” is Frustrating!
By Board President, Cheryl Turner, Esq.
I am a rental housing provider…a landlord, just like you. I completely understand your frustration and the challenges we face in maintaining our properties and collecting the income we are entitled to and that we live on. One after another, there seems to be a never-ending list of harmful, proposed regulations that take-away our property rights and our right to collect income as if there is “death by a thousand cuts.” Whether they are proposals for lower rent limits (“Caps”), right to counsel (free attorneys for tenants, but none for landlords), higher taxes and fees, the insurance crisis, inspections, and more, it’s just so frustrating!
However, there is hope of turning things around for us. We can do it. It all begins with how we as an organized group engage in the process of creating new laws and regulations. When our elected officials do not hear from you, we do not ever stand a chance of successfully opposing harmful regulations and fees. Tenant groups seemingly always come out in force to lower rent increases and keep themselves housed despite some of the most egregious lease infractions, but we as owners rarely take the time to appear. Time and time again, we have prevailed when a large owner contingent has come out and spoken at a city council meeting or legislative committee meeting, or has written letters and emails telling their stories to politicians in office. It’s clear…our elected officials need to hear from you so they can appreciate the challenges you face and become educated on the nuances of our rental housing business.
Time and again, we advocate to balance or to overturn and prevent from passing harmful, sometimes extreme local ordinances and state legislation. And when all else fails, we have filed (and currently have outstanding litigation) lawsuits against all types of rent and tenant protection regulations. In doing so, we have spent nearly $1 million during the past 4 years alone. In doing so, we have had some “wins” along the way, but we understand winning in today’s political environment is an uphill battle, and we are perfectly willing to continue engaging in a litigation strategy.
Sometimes, I hear from our members who contact me to voice complaints about the situation we find ourselves in…I know our Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles’ staff members also regularly hear from you with your complaints. The complaints very often arise out of the frustration each of us feels in our capacity as housing providers. “Why did ‘this or that’ regulation pass?” ”Why didn’t AAGLA stop this new ordinance from passing?” “Why doesn’t AAGLA file a lawsuit?” “Isn’t this ordinance unconstitutional?” Believe me, I do hear you and sympathize with how you feel. I honestly know how you feel because I am a landlord too and the same issues you face also impact me. I do know and perfectly understand what you are going through, which is why I am involved at the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles.
While many of you may be feeling disappointed and frustrated with the California regulatory environment, I would ask when was the last time, if ever, you came out and spoke during a City Council meeting yourself, gave to help support our Legal Fund or political action committees, or wrote a letter to a newspaper or to an elected official? When have your "mom and pop" owner friends done the same? The fact remains that no organization other than ours is pressing cases against the city, county and state seeking to overturn regulations and recover money on behalf of all rental property owners that have been hurt by too many ridiculous regulations.
It is also important that you are up to speed on pending or proposed regulations. Don’t let yourself be slapped in the face when discovering new regulations after the fact…after the regulations have been passed and made official as the law of the land. It is easy to keep up to date and avoid surprises when you are a member of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles by reading our magazine, blog and emails, and also by attending our ongoing webinars and seminars. Be sure to heed our calls to action when you see a “Red Alert” in our email inbox. If upon receiving one of our “Red Alert” emails, failure by our members to act means that we are “doomed” and we are fighting back literally with one arm tied behind our back. Don’t let this happen…please engage with us.
It is unfortunate that so many of “us” rental property owners are getting hurt through government regulation, yet our Association’s constant calls to action requesting you, our members, call their elected officials, write letters and emails, and appear at public meetings are, for the most part, ignored. As I mentioned, the tenant groups show up in large numbers and, as a result, that’s who city councils and board supervisors often listen to. Please, I say all of this with the hope that you will help us to get the word out. Many regulatory proposals are terrible, and in a city, county and state so unbalanced politically, and with a majority of residents being renters, we must band together and come out in force to defend our rental housing business. There’s no time like the present to become engaged. If we do not band together to take a stand, then many more harmful proposals will surely pass.
And, while I have your attention, please do not forget to contribute to our opposition campaign against the “Justice for Renters Act” initiative that will be on the November 5th ballot. If this initiative is passed, you would lose your right to increase rent to market when you have a vacant unit, and as a result, your property values would decline 30% to 40%, or more. Please contribute whatever you can afford to defeat the “Justice for Renters” Act at www.aagla.org/issuespac, or you may also mail a check payable to the AAGLA Issues PAC at AAGLA Issues PAC, Attn. Cary Davis, Treasurer, 515 South Figueroa Street, Suite 1110, Los Angeles, California 90071-3301. We cannot afford to lose. WE MUST WIN! Help us to WIN!