Free Republic

New York State housing advocates say they are furious about the so-called “good cause eviction bill” in the new state budget. It grants tenant protections to people in New York City but all other municipalities will need to opt in. It also requires renters to know their landlord’s portfolio to determine eligibility for “good cause” eviction protections and the information can be hard to find. Ritti Singh, communications organizer for the group Housing Justice for All, said previous iterations would have balanced tenant and landlord interests. “What it required landlords to do was to show they had a valid cause...

(Colorado Newsline) Colorado landlords will now need a specific reason to evict or not offer a lease renewal to a tenant under a new law signed by Democratic Governor Jared Polis on Friday. It is a victory for tenants-rights organizers and progressive legislators who seek to include renters in the conversation about how to address the state’s housing and affordability issues. Colorado is the sixth state to enact such a policy. “Everybody here wants to prevent unnecessary evictions and save families money. And House Bill 1098 does these things while placing no financial burdens on landlords. This is the right...

Heads up to all NYS property owners (yes upstate too) Not only is "Good Cause" back on the table, but the Winter Eviction Moratorium is also on the floor in the NY Legislature. If you want to sell your property and get out of the landlord biz, as hoards of mom and pop landlords are doing due to the overly restrictive regulations of 2019, you'll have to WAIT to evict them between October and April. As you know, if "Good Cause" goes through, you will be unable to "not renew" a lease. All "non renewals" will be turned into a...

PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is suing several owners of apartment complexes throughout the Valley for allegedly engaging in illegal "price-fixing" and creating a mechanism that's exacerbated Arizona's housing crisis. The state's top legal official announced Wednesday her office had filed a lawsuit against nine major residential apartment landlords in Arizona and RealPage Inc. for allegedly conspiring to inflate rental rates and eliminate competition in the market. "One reason renters in the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas are paying more is because RealPage has facilitated a price-fixing conspiracy among a large share of multifamily apartment lessors in Arizona,"...

(KRON) — With the new year comes new changes involving housing in California. Governor Gavin Newsom signed several bills into law this year that will go into effect starting Jan. 1, 2024. Some bring changes to the workplace, others to the state’s official symbols. Here are five impacting housing that you’ll want to be aware of: 1. Security deposits Tenants will no longer have to fork over several month’s rent as a security deposit. A new bill caps the amount a landlord can charge to one month’s rent. 2. Evictions based on alleged criminal activity Tenants will not be able...

A Queens landlord was killed by her teen tenant during a fight that erupted this week when he failed to make good on rent, authorities said Thursday. Davi Vidal, 19, lashed out at Leo Zoraida, 55, around 5:15 p.m. Tuesday inside their building on 96th Street near Northern Boulevard in East Elmhurst, cops said. Vidal hadn’t been paying rent, sparking the deadly altercation with Zoraida. Cops say the landlord was found unconscious and unresponsive with scratches on her face inside an apartment.

The city of Rochester has asked a state judge to order an out-of-town real estate investor to pay more than $131 million for code violations at derelict properties he owns. The request is by far the largest judgment sought since the city began more aggressively pursuing neglectful landlords in court a year ago. Citations for rodent infestations, holes in walls, smashed windows, and dilapidated roofs are among the more than 470 violations that have accumulated at 15 single-family homes and apartment houses owned by Meyer Hirschhorn, of Rockland County. Hirschhorn, who has real estate holdings across New York and New...

A D.C. landlord who tells the News4 I-Team he hasn’t been paid rent in three years will have to wait at least another four months to get a trial on evicting the tenants. John Jones owns a single two-bedroom unit in Southeast D.C. The I-Team first met him when he complained he was missing $14,000 from a COVID-era rent relief program. City documents show a check was sent in 2021 to the tenants, and that check was cashed — but the tenants never sent the money to Jones. He says they hadn’t paid rent for a few months before, and...

California lawmakers have voted to strengthen eviction protections for renters, closing an existing loophole allowing landlords to circumvent the state's rent cap. SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California Legislature voted Thursday to bolster eviction protections for renters and close a loophole in an existing law that has allowed landlords to circumvent the state’s rent cap. The eviction reform bill was among hundreds approved before the end of a late legislative session, including giving striking workers unemployment benefits and reforms to the state’s mental health system. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Oct. 14 to act on the bills by signing them...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – A woman accused of releasing bees on Sheriff’s deputies to stop an eviction at a Longmeadow home this past October was in court on Wednesday. Woman given bees back after alleged attack during Longmeadow eviction Rebecca Susan Woods of Hadley appeared in Springfield District Court Wednesday morning. According to the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office, on October 12th, Woods pulled up to an ongoing eviction on Memory Lane in Longmeadow in a blue Nissan Xterra. Woods left her dog in the car and immediately went to the bee hives being towed by her SUV, and tried to...

Socialist lawmakers are still pushing statewide rent control, resorting to outright deception and bogus compromise in hopes of passing it before the Legislature wraps up for the year. To sneak through the so-called “Good Cause Eviction” bill, they offer to water down some provisions to attract more votes — with an eye to toughen it back up (or worse) next year or late. The lies start with the bill’s very name: Requiring landlords to have a good reason to evict anyone is fair, right? Except that the bill would make it near-impossible for landlords to evict tenants for almost any...

That’s one way to get an apartment steps from Central Park. A pair of alleged squatters from Oregon have commandeered a two-bedroom, rent-controlled co-op worth nearly $1 million on Manhattan’s ritzy Upper West Side after the longtime tenant died, according to court papers. Sheila Upjohn, 72, of Salem, has been living in the roughly 1,100-square-foot pad on the ninth floor of 46 West 95th Street since 98-year-old resident Mary Etta Tanuma died in April 2022.

A New York State Assembly bill that would have banned landlords from reporting late rent payments to credit agencies was withdrawn this week, exposing potential difficulties for Democrats in achieving housing reform before the legislative session ends on June 8. The bill, proposed by Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, sought to protect tenants from credit score damage and potential issues securing future leases due to delayed rent payments. Rosenthal asserts that the bill would have leveled the playing field for renters, as landlords can still pursue fines or evictions for late payments. However, the proposal was deemed too open-ended by some Democratic...

The state is considering a right-to-counsel bill that would set up a state “Office of Civil Representation” to provide attorneys to tenants in eviction cases. The office could also contract organizations to represent people in court. The bill requires the provision of information on tenants’ rights, and non-compliance with the law could result in vacating eviction warrants. Legislators have pushed for policies like “Good Cause Eviction” to limit filings that inundate courts and shelter systems by forcing people from their homes. The cost of implementing the right-to-counsel bill is estimated at $500 million, with proponents stating that it would save...

Earlier this month, a state Appellate Court struck down the city of Albany’s “good cause eviction” law. Benjamin Neidl, the attorney who argued for property owners in the case, told Capital Tonight that the ruling effectively ends the conversation on a local level unless the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, decides to hear the city of Albany’s appeal. Albany was the first city to implement the policy, which requires property owners to give cause for an eviction and limited the amount that they could raise rent on tenants. The rent increases are capped at 5% with exceptions for...

It took three years for New York City landlords to remove squatter tenants who refused to leave and refused to allow them into the property. The squatters extensively damaged the property but were finally removed by the police. Unfortunately, building inspectors immediately began issuing citations following the eviction totaling $5,000.

A federal judge in California denied a request by Oakland landlords to stop the city eviction moratorium. One of the reasons was because the moratorium is supposedly temporary, but after nearly 3 years it’s hard to believe that to be the case.

VALLEJO, Calif. — Two people were arrested on suspicion of murder in the death of a fellow squatter who was shot and killed by a California property owner, authorities said. The property owner was impaled by a sword during the confrontation. A witness told the newspaper that the property owner, identified as Curt Lind, 80, came to his mobile home covered in blood. “He came banging on my door with a sword sticking through him,” Patrick McMillan, a tenant who lives in a mobile home on the property, told the Chronicle. McMillan told the newspaper that Lind was his landlord...

Almost a week after the midterm elections, San Francisco's Proposition M, a vacancy tax on landlords, is projected to pass. The San Francisco Chronicle called the race Monday afternoon. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.) The ballot measure is a warning shot at landlords who are sitting on multiple vacant units, but it includes some notable carve-outs that critics say will blunt its impact. Starting on Jan. 1, 2024, property owners with at least three units that have been vacant for more than 182 days (six months) will be taxed...

New York State Attorney General Letitia James is suing an Ithaca landlord for allegedly denying housing to low-income tenants. Landlord Jason Fane, his company Ithaca Renting Company, and his related entities are all subject to the suit. An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that Mr. Fane and his real estate agents refused to accept Section 8 vouchers at his properties, in violation of New York’s housing laws against source of income discrimination. The lawsuit alleges that agents at Ithaca Renting repeatedly told renters they do not accept government assistance vouchers. Through her lawsuit, Attorney General...