All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Yes @DG A. , I spoke last night. It was your messages from 2 years ago.
It does seem it will pass, it's really troubling. Owner-occupiers are a minority and our voice is being lost in the thunderous roar of renters wanting renter's rights.

Many owner occupiers came out to speak last night. I believe 15+ spoke against the motion, as did I.

The opposition passed a flyer around with a screenshot of bigger pockets thread from some time ago.

I think terms like "house hacking", and even the name "bigger pockets" itself is not doing owner-occupiers any favors.
Being the proprietor of an owner-occupied building is not so much as  "hack" as it is a "stepping stone". It's often the most entry-level opportunity into ownership in expensive markets.

Anyhow, you can watch the entire agenda item & public speak here beginning at (2:59) http://oakland.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=3075

Lynette Gibson replied saying that Kalb and Gallo were the ones pushing for the legislation.

She is the councilmember for my district and the only one who responded thus far.

I have a list of all the councilmembers email addresses/phone numbers but I can't post it to BP. 

Yeah, I emailed all the councilmembers, as well as the mayor about this exemption removal. Here is my email if you'd like to see what I had to say

Subject: Regarding the Repeal of Owner-Occupied Exceptions for Duplexes and Triplexes

Body: 
Hello Libby,

In 2017 I bought a very old triplex in West Oakland with the plan to live in it, maintain, and restore it. The city council increased pressure on my situation last November with Measure Y. Now, new proposals to repeal owner-occupier exemptions will make my residency in my own home too risky to maintain. I am slowly being encouraged to move out of my own home because I will lack the necessary tools to maintain a safe and harmonious environment with my immediate tenants/neighbors.

I view homeownership as a lifestyle investment—I can't afford a single family home and a multifamily building gave me the opportunity to become an owner. Given how much rehabilitation I've had to do to my property, and how much more I must do in order to keep it habitable at the benefit of my tenants, I will be losing money on this decision if my tenants are able to leverage me out of being able to safely and peacefully enjoy my home.

Many people imagine building owners to be greedy, lazy, members of the landed gentry class.

I refute that idea. I am here in the trenches keeping a building from falling into complete disrepair, and the city decides to impose more and more restrictions on me denying me control over my own well being.

I would like to make a plea for your understanding in this situation.

The existing Eviction Ordinance passed in 2002 because it exempts owners that live in their duplex and triplex as having “a special relationship” with their renters. They live on the same property, often in the same house. It was true then. It still is. They are not just my tenants, I don't live elsewhere and have the ability to tolerate behavior I don't agree with.

Please leave me and the 8,000 owner-occupiers alone. We represent a mere 0.5% of the housing inventory. Meanwhile, 10% of the units in Oakland are vacant, many because they fell into disrepair.

I feel like this thread could better serve future users if a new topic was created about earthquake retrofitting so it was more searchable. Thanks for all the useful info @Ryan Scott Isacksen and @Jenna V.

@Account Closed, well that's good news. Hopefully I can find a physical utility bill from the time I started residing here.
I do remember calling RAP and being like, your ordinance says "staff will develop a form for this purpose..." but there is no form, what do I do? They had no answer, and didn't ask for my information to follow up when they did have an answer. Useless.

Update/Resolution:

Measure Y still hasn't gone into effect because elected officials haven't held their customary vote to ratify what the people decided. This probably won't happen until mid December. My settlement discussion date was this week. Because Measure Y hadn't actually passed yet, we had some leverage, but the defendant's side also knows the courts are backed waaaaay up and we wouldn't have had a chance to actually appear before judge/jury until Jan (nor would I have wanted to actually pay for Jury procurement).

We settled with an incentive plan as such (on top of the 2 months unpaid rent they already have):

If they leave in 105 days they get $4,000

If they leave in 120 they get $3,000

If they leave in 150 they get $2,000

They do not pay rent during this time.

So, depending on when they leave, the eviction will have cost me ~$8,000 in cash/rental income.

I will be able to recoup that money more quickly if they leave promptly, so I am hoping for the 105 days & 4k option.
Additional lost rent totals $1800, plus $3700 in lawyers fees. 

Total cost being: $13,500.

I think this is on the low end of what I could have ended up losing to this situation. I'm glad to have a resolution and not have to think about this anymore. Once this rehab is done the building with start having positive cash flow, which I'm very thankful for. It will have taken me 1.5 years of negative flow (but I live here so chalk it up to living expenses), but it's good to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

There is a lot of "live and learn" going on here. I wish there was a better guide with consolidated instructions about all the hoops you need to jump through to assume all your property ownership rights in this town.

Very hard to find on their website, here's the link: https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/certificate-fo...

NOTE: This certificate must be filed annually to evidence continued owner-occupancy.

I have failed to do this for my entire first year of residency because I didn't know about it!
I even called the Rent Adjustment Program hotline like 10 months ago to ask if there was some kind of paperwork I needed to submit in order to verify occupancy and they just said "no". The tenant advocacy in this city is really beginning to sour my occupancy decision. 

I need to mail in my certificate for owner occupancy as well, with all of the docs. Thanks for reminding me to send that in.