The Smart Apartment Advisor Show for Wed. Jan 18th
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Welcome back everyone, we had fun last week on the Brian Copeland Show and hope you got a chance to check it out. I want to give a shot out to Brian and his Super-Producer Carolyn for inviting me back for another fun segment. I’ll be back on Brian’s show next month and will be taking calls. So make sure to tune into Brian’s Show on KGORadio.com and KGO810am weekly between 2 and 4pm.
We’ve now added YouTube Live to our broadcast. For those of you joining us from YouTube for the first time, Welcome! We produce live shows every Wednesday at 3pm so come join us. Also if you have tenant or property owner questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them live on the air if possible. For those of you on Facebook, if you want to check us out on YouTube just search for “The Smart Apartment Advisor Show” Channel on YouTube. If you like this channel please make sure to give us a “like” and click subscribe to get notified about future shows.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Every year the SF Rent Board announces the maximum allowable rent increase percentage for all Rent Controlled units. What is this year’s maximum allowable increase amount?
Ok, let’s get started with today’s big controversial topic. It’s a big one.
Issue #1 - SF Business Times article “NIMBYs move to block affordable Mission housing for Seniors” link is behind paywall so here’s the text in a Reddit post. This is similar to the story about the Forest Hill neighbors that blocked development of a 150 unit affordable housing development because they didn’t like it.
My thoughts:
- This system is broken because it allows ANY objection for ANY reason to derail the process of building more housing to satisfy demand. I believe we need a system that does a better job of balancing actual positive or negative effects from development of new buildings with the overall priority to build enough housing to meet the needs of people who want to live here.
- Example of property across the street having its light blocked by the development. This could be a good reason to at least find a way to compensate the neighboring property owner or redesign the property to mitigate the negative effects.
- Very few among us are actually served by the persistence of an auto repair garage across the street. Neighbors may prefer a single-story development for aesthetic purposes. Nearby homeowners may prefer to limit the development of more housing to preserve their own home prices in the long run, but these priorities cannot be given primary importance in the face of a pressing need to accommodate more people and build more housing.
Issue #2 - "Former Bocana Tenant Receives $400k in Settlement with Landlord” If the landlord had not tried to avoid the relocation payment she might have been able to settle for $50,000-100,000 more quickly. This way she may have gotten her insurance carrier to pay the settlement but she’s surely going to get some blowback from them on this regard. They’re probably going to, at the very least, cover defense cost and make her pay the $400,000 settlement cost back.
Issue #3 - "Video surveillance is increasingly used in legal disputes over rent-controlled apartments” I’ve seen this done several times by clients and their attorneys in situations where tenants have clearly vacated their homes and no longer reside there. The tenant intends to sublease the rent-controlled apartment to a third party at a profit and pocket the difference between the rent they collect and the rent they pay the landlord. This is unfair because the landlord bears the risk and expense of operating the rental building while being prevented from benefitting from the vacancy and increased rent. This is also unfair to the community as a whole because it prevents these apartments from being rented to other new residents. It takes rental units off the market.
Issue #4 - Hotel Hermit got $17M to make way for 15 Central Park West This one is more entertaining than serious. The tenant in this one was well within his rights to do what he did and he didn’t even care about the money. He wanted to fight and he got his fight. The owners ended up buying a $2M condo and giving him a lifetime lease at $1/mo
TRIVIA QUESTION: Every year the SF Rent Board announces the maximum allowable rent increase percentage for all Rent Controlled units. What is this year’s maximum allowable increase amount?
ANSWER: 2.2%
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Emergency call from this past Sunday afternoon. I fell on my toilet and it is smashed and can't be used. It's the only toliet I have and the window in my bathroom is jammed.
Looking for topics to discuss…leave us a comment or email me at jj@rmcsf.com to suggest show topics!