County is considering an ordinance that would require landlords to pay relocation assistance and penalties at three times the monthly rent plus a guaranteed right of return to the tenants if landlord received a building violation notice or wants to fix up his substandard rental units and then re-rent at a higher price.
See item 5 on the agenda:
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This allows the county to slap you with code violations ( changing light fixtures and kitchen floor without a permit does qualify as such building violation), impose hefty code enforcement fines, plus require you to pay over $10,000 total to a tenant who is asked to move because you need to address the alleged violations. What if the tenant was the one who created the violations in the first place? It will be up to the county to decide. What if you just need to move the tenant temporarily? Pay a penalty. This is not only a backdoor rent control measure, it is almost an eminent domain measure, as county does and will continue targeting the landlords who they consider should be providing affordable housing.
This measure greatly reduces the value of the buildings, discourages any improvements and repairs at all, and will hit the poorest renters the worst as they will not be able to find any housing in the area at all from now on. City of San Mateo considered and rejected this measure. Not only it hurts landlords, but it reduces the stock of affordable housing as many landlords will just not rent out their small second units as it becomes too expensive to risk county's wrath.
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This is a band aid measure to help a few current displaced tenants in North Fair Oaks, but we will all keep paying the price for it for years to come. Affordable housing is an issue, but this is a very short-sighted way to address it.
Please come on Tuesday, January 24 at 9:00 A.M. to the 400 County center (first floor of the court building, in the back). A must have a strong showing to stop this. Write to supervisors to oppose this measure:
