Free Republic

The plan seeks to give more families the opportunity to become homeowners by removing an incentive to private equity firms and other large investors from purchasing one- and two-family homes. The proposed legislation would impose a 75-day waiting period before institutional investors, defined as those owning 10 or more single- and two-family properties with at least $50 million in assets, can make offers on such homes.

HARRISBURG — In his annual budget address, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro urged the divided Pennsylvania legislature to pass a measure that would seal eviction records for potentially hundreds of thousands of people. In 2024 alone, more than 115,000 tenants in Pennsylvania faced eviction filings. And while most filings end with rulings in favor of landlords, housing advocates told Spotlight PA that about a quarter do not, and some are never even adjudicated. Regardless of the outcome, that original eviction filing stays in a tenant’s public records indefinitely and can negatively impact their ability to find a place to live. Often,...

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted in support of eliminating a rule that allows renters to be evicted when landlords remodel their buildings. Under the city’s “just cause” eviction rules, landlords can evict tenants only for specific reasons, one of which is to “substantially remodel” their properties.... The motion approved by the City Council asks for new rules that would let tenants keep paying rent and maintain their tenancy while remodels take place. Similar rules already exist for rent-controlled properties under the Tenant Habitability Program, which requires owners doing significant renovations to submit plans to protect tenants while...

NYS Senate Bill S6181A 2023-2024 Legislative Session Removes the requirement that rent arrears be repaid (by the various social programs)

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Texas-based real estate company RealPage, accusing it of artificially inflating rent prices across the country. The lawsuit alleges that RealPage's software uses nonpublic data from landlords to generate pricing recommendations, effectively quelling competition and leading to higher rents for millions of Americans. According to the DOJ, RealPage's software enables landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and align their rents. "Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law," Attorney General Merrick Garland said...

On Wednesday, in Darby Development Co. v. United States, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (which reviews takings claims against the federal government ruled that a takings lawsuit against the 2020-21 federal eviction moratorium can proceed. In so doing, it overruled a trial court decision by the Court of Claims, which I criticized here. The decision could well end up setting an important takings precedent. In September 2020, during the Covid pandemic, the Trump Administration Centers for Disease Control (CDC) imposed a nationwide eviction moratorium, claiming that it would reduce the spread of the disease. The Biden...

.....After decades of being patched up on the cheap, London’s rental homes are in a state of comical disrepair. In one flat, my housemate and I spent an entire night trying to stop our sink from flooding the kitchen, which it tended to do whenever we used the washing machine thanks to a creative plumbing job the landlord had done while cramming another bedroom into the flat. I’m 28 now, and there’s a Section 21 notice in my inbox. My current landlord has decided to raise the rent beyond what I can afford, having already bumped it up last year...

After months of delays, the battle between landlords and tenants in one Bay Area city has come to an end. A rent control ordinance in the city of Concord went into effect Friday after its opponents failed to get enough signatures to place the issue on the November ballot. “We are thrilled that the people of Concord have spoken again in favor of people over corporate greed,” Rhea Elina Laughlin, executive director of advocacy group Rising Juntos, said in a statement. The ordinance reduces the annual percentage by which landlords can raise rent in Concord and bolsters certain eviction protections....

Wayne County is rolling out a new round of funding to assist landlords with small-scale properties in meeting federal housing standards. The initiative, explained by County Economic Development Director Brian Pincelli, is a collaboration between the county, The Housing Council at PathStone, and both the Newark and Geneva Housing Authorities. This effort aims to support landlords who manage fewer than 15 units in upgrading their properties to comply with Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program inspections and health and safety regulations. The program was designed in response to a 2021 affordable housing study that highlighted the necessity for maintaining affordable...

After years of missed rental payments, one Oakland property owner was left on her own to recover her losses, despite desperately seeking help from the city, state, and local law enforcement.Carolyn Silas-Sams, a retired paralegal and an Oakland resident, said she inherited a duplex in the city in 2006 from her late mother and has been maintaining it ever since, although she never imagined that she would face the disaster that she has over the past few years due to the eviction moratorium. “I’m telling you ... any level of education would not allow your brain to accept that something...

“My background is partially in extremism,” Rep. Emily Dievendorf, D-Lansing, told WKAR News recently while defending legislative proposals supported by a group of progressive lawmakers. Dievendorf is the author and key sponsor of a series of housing bills and ideas that would upend the rental market in Michigan. This includes rent control and preventing landlords from using criminal background checks for renters. More bills were introduced recently, including: HB 5235 – Requires housing providers to accept renters on a “first come, first serve” basis (unless legally obligated not to, as in cases of low-income housing). HB 5237 – The state...

Over 90% of Los Angeles tenants were given three days to get out of their homes, but the city is offering more help Tenants in the Hollywood neighborhood were handed the most eviction notices in Los Angeles after protections introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic lapsed earlier this year. Those living in the 90028 ZIP code received 3,585 — the most for any L.A. neighborhood — out of nearly 50,000 notices accounted for, according to new data released by L.A.'s City Controller, Kenneth Mejia on Monday. In August alone, 5,575 notices were filed across the city. Other top neighborhoods affected by...

It’s already very expensive to rent in a hot housing market like Southern California. Now landlords have found a way to make things even worse. A growing number of property owners and managers are hitting tenants with extra fees each month — a nickel-and-diming of people that the airlines, for one, have made a core aspect of their business model. It’s been common for years for landlords to charge more for a parking space or having a pet.

Far-left members of the City Council want to make Big Apple landlords do their work for them — or face five-figure fines. A new bill would require property owners to provide tenants with contact information for all elected officials representing their respective neighborhoods. Under the bill, introduced last week by Brooklyn Councilwoman Jennifer Gutiérrez, landlords would be required to supply new and existing tenants with hard-copy notices listing the names, office addresses and phone contacts for all federal, state and city pols representing their neighborhoods.

On July 27, the Biden Administration released a fact sheet detailing new actions to develop the Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights, which was rolled out early this year (covered by InfoBytes here). The three new actions aim to support renters by (i) “ensuring all renters have an opportunity to address incorrect tenant screening reports”; (ii) “providing new funding to support tenant organizing efforts”; and (iii) “ensuring that renters are given fair notice in advance of eviction.” Additionally, the CFPB, USDA, FHFA, and HUD concurrently released statements aimed at landlords, reminding them of “best practices” and their obligation to...

The ACLU and a taxpayer-funded group are “demanding a federal crackdown on landlords who don’t rent to tenants with eviction records,” reports Reason Magazine.They are arguing that it is racist and sexist not to rent to people who have histories of being evicted, because blacks are more likely than whites to be evicted, and black women apparently have the highest eviction rates.In a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week, the HOPE Fair Housing Center, which gets taxpayer money, “argues that such policies amount to illegal discrimination based on race and sex, given...

Now, a New York State Supreme Court judge has ruled for Ithaca Renting, agreeing with the local business’s position that the Section 8 program’s inspection requirement was a violation of the Constitution’s protection against searches. In his ruling on June 27th, Hon. Mark G. Masler says the Attorney General’s argument “is fundamentally flawed for the simple reason that, as set forth above, a landlord cannot accept a Section 8 housing voucher as payment for rent without agreeing to participate in Section 8, which, in turn, requires that the landlord authorize warrantless searches.” Judge Masler’s ruling points out that the Housing...

Illinois will soon require landlords to rent and sell property to illegal aliens, opening the housing market to tens of thousands considered deportable from the United States, even as rents remain sky-high in metropolitan areas like Chicago. Late last month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed SB 1817 into law, which will add “immigration status” as a protected class under the Illinois Human Rights Act.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Retiree Pamela Haile has paid property taxes, insurance and other bills on a house she lets out in Oakland, but for more than three years her tenants have paid no rent thanks to one of the longest-lasting eviction bans in the country. The eviction moratorium in the San Francisco Bay Area city expires next month and Haile can't wait. The 69-year-old estimates she is owed more than $60,000 in back rent, money she doubts she will ever see. Moreover, the tenants have trashed her house and it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to make it...

Albany must include “good-cause eviction” once it finally passes the stalled state budget, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive electeds said at a Wednesday rally in Astoria, Queens. “Fighting to pass good-cause eviction is essential,” the Democratic congresswoman, who represents a swath of the Bronx and Queens, told a crowd in Athens Square. “We have to push Gov. Hochul to make sure that she includes this in the budget.” The good-cause evictions bill, first introduced in 2019, would bolster protections for tenants in non-rent regulated apartments by barring landlords from kicking them out without “good cause,” such as failure to...