A Difficult Year?

“Man... the legislature was HARD on you guys this year.”

So said a friend of mine, recently, who sits on the Democratic Party of Orange County’s Central Committee.

“They were?” I questioned.

“Yeah, man...I looked at some of the legislation they passed on apartment owners, and it was BRUTAL!”

I honestly thought 2023 was not that bad of a year compared to where it started last January. I mean, we were facing a world where credit checks were going to be illegal, you needed to give a year’s notice to do a rehabilitation, and somehow, we needed to teach landlords what the caste system was to prevent them from discriminating based off it. I mean, in no way do I think we should discriminate based off the caste system, especially when so few people in America have even a remote idea what it is—let alone understand how to implement discrimination based off it.

In 2023, we managed to beat all of that back. And that is before we got into the “housing is a human” right stuff. 2023 was not a year where we went unscathed (I’m not sure there has ever been a year like that) but overall, we beat back many massive issues.

“Have you looked at housing legislation much in the past?” I asked my friend.

“No, I was just paying attention to some of it because we are friends.” he replied.

I explained, “Ahhh. Well, that explains it. Yeah, it was not an easy year for us, but given the circumstances it was not terrible by our standards.”

“It wasn’t?”

And that is when it hit me.

Our industry is largely unseen—and the compounding impact of legislation, year-after-year, gets forgotten.

Remember when a lease agreement was one page?

Remember when there was no rent control in Orange or Riverside Counties?

Remember when there was not an addendum for every issue possible?

Remember when the courts heard the interests of owners?

We have lived through eras where:

– Legislation was introduced to require 180 days to evict a tenant.

– The state wanted to charge landlords to create eviction databases.

– Inspection fees ran rampant throughout every government entity.

Now, let’s look at the most recent difficult era for rental property owners:

2019—AB 1482 is signed into law, establishing rent caps statewide

2020—Rent & eviction moratoriums implemented nationwide

2021—Rent control waves hit numerous cities statewide

2022—Eviction moratoriums extended in many California counties

2023—Local municipalities looking for inspection fees, restrictions on rehabilitations, and rent registries

This represents five years where the government has repeatedly placed hardships upon rental property owners that has only compound other issues. They said—

“We are going to limit your income, protect your tenants from paying rent, prevent you from collecting rent, prevent you from legal recourse to recover what you’re owed, and we are going to place additional burdens on your operation and charge you for them.”

But the average person does not see any of that. Including active, intelligent, concerned members of the political structure that oversees all of this.

So, what can we do in 2024 to reverse this trend?

The good news is—clearly people are taking notice. That is a good thing. But we need to tell them more. We need to share our story.

The city of Santa Ana does not reverse its direction without seeing the dangers ahead—so let us tell them.

The city of Buena Park does not change course without hearing about better solutions—so let us show them.

The state of California does not ease up on their attacks on property owners without seeing the reality that property owners face every day—so let us make them aware.

Share your stories with us—both heart-warming experiences where you helped a tenant—and the heartwrenching stories where your tenants

Watch — continued on page 20