All Forum Posts by: Dylan Mitchell

Thanks, we’re in San Diego CA. You see some strange stuff in the recycling bins. I can only imagine what they’d put in organic waste bins. We do have enough room to expand the trash enclosure to fit another bin. Landscaper hauls away all our green yard waste. May wait until they start cracking down small properties. Or finish swapping out garbage disposers. Two units have the Insinkerator Evolution Compact our plumber recommended. It’s almost a direct swap for the Badgers, it costs about twice as much but we’ve had zero clogged sink calls from those units and it has a better warranty.

How are you handling the new organic waste recycling requirements? Anything over 4 units here is considered multi-family commercial. If you have 5 or more units you have to do organic waste recycling if you have more than 4 cubic yards of waste. We have very little green waste our landscaping company takes all the green waste. We can't imagine the mess and stink of putting out organic waste bins to sit in the sun for a couple of days or a week! How are you complying with the new law?

We have a 3-yard dumpster for trash and 2 recycling bins that I think are 64 gallons and zero green waste bins. Trash and recycling service is twice a week so at most, we have 6 yards of trash and 4 x 64 gallons of recycling. I think that's about 3/4 yard of recycling? I've talked to our trash company and it sounds like we fall just under having enough waste to have to do organic waste recycling. But they can't clarify if twice a week pick up of the 3-yard dumpster counts as 3 or 6 yards of solid waste.


https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/...

We own and manage a small apartment building in Northern Idaho. What policies or rules can we enforce on tenants posting political signs or activism signs? We'd like to restrict them to posting one or two signs in windows that are a 12" x 18" or 18"x24" and don't cover up more than 20 percent or 1/5th of the window. Does anyone have policies on signs they're willing to share? We had a tenant hang a political sign up and another tenant wanted to hang up an activist sign so we need a policy. We want to support free speech and expression but restrict tenants from mounting signs in a way that damages the building. Out existing lease does ban hanging anything on the building but we'd like to clarify the language. In 20 or so years of owning and managing the property, this is the first time this has come up. 

Exemption for properties less than 15 years old lets developers build condo-style rental units that can be rented without being subject to the new law and can be converted to condos after construction defect time limits expire. Or somebody like me could build a 2, 3, or 4 plex rent it for 15 years then sell it. Builders around here are reluctant to build projects that will become individually owned condos and risk construction defect lawsuits from HOA's or owners. So they build condo-style projects that are rented out as apartments. When the 10-year limit for construction defects expires they can be converted to condos. Now there's also a 5-year window to convert and sell before rent control starts.

There are always unintended side effects. In an effort to limit large increases in rent, tenants may now have their rent raised a little each year. And the nice landlords who work to keep rent affordable will get hit when they sell properties with tenants paying under market rent. Investors may decide to "demolish or to substantially remodel the residential real property" as a way to force tenants out and raise rents.

What does the law say about voluntary vacancies and raising the rent? If a tenant moves of their own accord, can you then raise the rent to market level or does the five percent plus inflation cap apply? For example, Joe decides to buy a house and moves out of your apartment. Since Joe choose to leave voluntarily what limits apply to rent increases?

We now have rent control in California limiting rent increases to 5 percent, plus local inflation, per year. What's exempt and what are your plans to manage properties now that we have rent control?

What's exempt? Just single-family homes and condos?

How much do you have to raise rent every year, so you don't end up under the market? Do you need to do the max of 5 percent every year?

What resets rent control? If someone moves out and you have a vacant rental (for example a 20 unit apartment where a tenant moves out) can you raise rent to market or does 5 percent cap apply?

Lots to think about going forward and getting ready for 2020 when it kicks in.

I've followed discussions on biggerpockets and it's been a good resource. I saw some of you use ZIllow and that it also lists to Trulia and HotPads. On Zillow is there any way to set it up so they can just e-mail us their info vs setting an appointment time? We like to phone screen tenants before setting an appointment so we don't waste anyone's time if they won't meet our credit and income guidelines or they need specific features the property doesn't have.  With Craiglist we ask folks to send us their phone number, we call them and do a phone screen, then if they qualify and are interested we set a time to show. We still have some odd or unqualified folks get to the showing stage but our background/ credit/ income verification/ reference checks catch the ones that try to hide something. As a workaround, we just call the Zillow folks and do the phone screen and set a showing as needed but would prefer they just send us their number.