Moderators Kassandra RPM Alaska Posted September 6, 2018 Moderators Share Posted September 6, 2018 One of the reasons for this forum and club is to help share infirmation so we can be ready to handle difficult things the best way possible. Tonight I just found out 2 things.... In California, they passed a background privacy law regarding evictions. So if a potential tenant has an eviction you won't be able to see it when you do a background check. So now you have no idea if a person has been evicted or not. Scary thought on where this is going some days. The state of California is trying to do rent control in the whole state. It is already a thing in many cities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachael Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 What is rent control? The state tells you what you can rent your property for? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Persinger Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 What are the main arguments for rent control @Kassandra RPM Alaska Or do you know? I have heard from people in rent control areas that it creates a number of significant problems within the housing market with issues related to having poor utilization of space. For instance a couple or single person renting a huge home due to having a cheap rent controlled price that is grandfathered in from when they had a whole family living there. I don't really think I have heard what the benefits would be from a promoters perspective. Affordable housing I suppose? Buying votes? ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admin Posted September 13, 2018 Share Posted September 13, 2018 @Rachael @Ben Persinger Typically a local area starts this topic when rent is too high for "affordable housing" (which is a choice of words being tossed around in Alaska a lot lately) and/or the vacancy rate is so low causing rents to increase very large amounts in short periods of time due to demand. This is typically seen when the rents outpace the job pay market or a way to "fix homeless" issues" by forcing rentals to be affordable and not increase. When an area votes on the rent control laws it can come with various rules. In short, the rules could say max amount of rent increase in a year, how you HAVE to renew tenants and not kick them out just to get a higher price on the open market, controls how much you have to pay a tenant for moving costs, controls how much up front a tenant can pay to move in, restricts why you take back over possession of a unit, can change the eviction process to be more challenging, and more. There are different political opinions and investor opinions regarding this matter. Investors - some don't like it because increase rents allow an increase in the value of the property and now it is restrictive. Some investors say it is good because they know their place will be 0 vacancy and consistent rent because the tenant has no options, as a result, slumlords become a bigger issue. Everyone has an opinion. When Anchorage had 1% vacancy, the topic did get started. Now the topic is more about using it as a way to stop the homeless problem. There are studies that were submitted to Mayor and Governor in the last 2 years saying the homeless problem is mostly due to affordable housing and rent control should be considered to fix that. United way came out with a study from other cities and they didn't recommend rent control - the recommended various programs for various types of causes for the homeless. 1 of which was announced and Weidner started testing the program this year. Hope this helps a bit Kassandra 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Persinger Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Thanks for the thorough response on this @Kassandra RPM Alaska. Those were some of the things I have heard as well and I agree that the homeless issues are quite complex to solve. I know there are a lot of sides to the problem and I'm not wanting to start a political debate, but I find it interesting as a general contractor how much I hear about needing to create affordable housing and cheaper housing when people are campaigning but on the administrative side of things the city has been making it more and more difficult for contractors and investors to operate. Permitting is an example of this, I now rarely spend less than $500 on permits for even a fairly simple project not including the two-three hours of time needed to take them to the city as well as site delays waiting for inspections. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Kassandra RPM Alaska Posted September 27, 2018 Author Moderators Share Posted September 27, 2018 Correct, I don't want to get political. Yes, I 100% agree that the city is in great conflict and sends unclear messages on this matter. The large issue is that we have a housing shortage causing valley to boom and causing prices to go up. Which messes with supply/demand. This has been off for 10-15 years so it will take a while to find a solution that is a win-win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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