Free Republic

Nov 16, 2020 7:56 PM EST MONROE, La. — Louisiana landlords have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn a moratorium on evictions ordered by the CDC to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus. The suit says that “the CDC’s eviction moratorium represents a sweeping assumption of power by an administrative agency that it simply does not possess.” Figures provided by the Seattle-based Housing Justice Project says landlords in Georgia, Ohio and Tennessee have filed similar lawsuits against the CDC moratorium. Those in 13 other states and the District of Columbia are trying to overturn state or city eviction moratoriums. The...

Amazon has rolled out a whole-building version of its Alexa AI voice assistant for landlords, billing ‘Alexa for Residential’ as extending smart-home functionality to renters – tenants’ consent apparently not required. The e-commerce giant announced Alexa for Residential on Thursday, describing it as a feature “that makes having an Alexa-enabled home accessible for anyone, regardless of whether they rent or own their home.” Tenants can link up their own Amazon account, but if they don't have one, no problem – they'll be placed on the building's system. Landlords, Amazon explains, will have the option to provide “custom voice experiences for...

A group of self-governing, co-living tenants residing in a 17,000-square-foot grand mansion on the San Francisco Peninsula are looking for some new roommates. A tenant at the unique living situation in Woodside, Calif., is seeking three new renters to join their sprawling palatial home, and started the search on Facebook Wednesday. "We all enjoy developing quality relationships and maintaining a sense of community. We’re all open minded, educated, conscientious, and responsible professionals who work hard and like to enjoy ourselves on our time off. We are a diverse group of technologists, financiers, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, nurses, musicians, etc.," the post...

Rarely has a word been subject to so much misuse in recent years as “stimulus.” The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by President Trump on March 27, represents an apex of this language malpractice. The stated purpose of this $2.2 trillion “stimulus plan” is to boost our economy in the wake of virus-induced mass layoffs and business closings. But the implicit purpose is paying people not to work. Section 4022, a residential landlord bailout, effectively does that. And it may prove very expensive. Fear of COVID-19 has triggered an economic downturn...

Renters came out winners under the new tax law. For over a century, the federal tax code catered to homeowners and treated renters like second-class citizens. Homeowners have been able to deduct interest on their mortgages and home equity loans, as well as property taxes. Meanwhile, everyone, including renters, footed the bill for these deductions by paying higher rates. The new tax law at last begins leveling the playing field between renters and homeowners. Millions of New Yorkers and Californians reap the benefits, because these states have among the lowest rates of homeownership in the nation, and renting is...

Video and photo evidence has surfaced that could prove Imran Awan maintained a chain of computer servers in the basement and locked garage area of an Alexandria, VA home he and wife Hina Alvi rented to a tenant. The embattled Awan couple did not reside at the home, however, did maintain separate internet service and a router which fed into a locked internal storage area connected to the home, according to an interview with former tenant Laurel Everly who rented the home for nine months from the Awans in 2014 and 2015. Everly has now provided photos and videos of...

Seattle is apparently breaking new ground by requiring landlords in the city to rent their housing units to qualified applicants on a first-come, first-served basis. Officials say they’re unaware of any other U.S. city with a policy like the one the Seattle City Council approved Monday, along with other rental-housing changes. The goal is to ensure prospective renters are treated equally, according to Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who championed the policy. When landlords pick one renter among multiple qualified applicants, their own biases — conscious or unconscious — may come into play, she says. Some landlords don’t mind the policy, saying...

Suppose your best friend is down on her luck. Magnanimously, you give her a spare room in your house, on a temporary basis, and when she starts earning some income, you let her pay rent -- say, $100 a week. You would think that just about everybody would applaud you. After all, your act of charity has prevented one more person from becoming homeless. But not everybody is happy with that result. The hotel industry doesn't like it for selfish reasons. Progressive politicians don't like it because .... well, it's not always clear why progressives think the way they do....

The Kings rented out their Calgary, Alberta, home in Canada using the popular renting service Airbnb. They thought it would be an easy way to help offset the cost of their travel with their two kids, CTV reported. They were wrong. The Airbnb renters told the King family that only four people would be staying at the home while they attended a wedding. So on Saturday, they handed over the keys and were off on their trip. But it wasn’t long before they their neighbors called and sent them text messages, explaining that they were concerned about what was going on. Later,...

San Francisco is a cauldron of rights, unless you own a home. Buy a property here and you might as well paint a target on your back. That's what Dan and Maria Levin discovered after they bought a two-unit North Beach home in 2008. They moved in to the upstairs one-bedroom apartment and told the downstairs tenant that they eventually planned to use the downstairs apartment for friends and family. (The state Ellis Act allows property owners to evict tenants without cause if they plan to take the property off the rental market.) Five years later, the Levins served a...

We’ve all heard that millenials are the key to the housing recovery and that home prices are set to skyrocket just as soon as all the people renting or living in family homes (read: basements) get out, get married, get employed, and settle down in their new homes. However, for some reason, the estimates for when all this will happen just keep moving farther and farther out. In an effort to determine just what is delaying renters from becoming homeowners, the New York Federal Reserve conducted a Survey of Consumer Expectations to address the issue. The study found that while...

In Rochester, New York, renting rather than buying a home is enough cause for a search warrant. Florine and Walter Nelson are grandparents who have lived in Rochester for over 30 years. For nearly a third of that time, they have resisted the efforts of city officials to inspect their home on the basis that they are renters rather than buyers. Since 2005, the city has steadily escalated its efforts to enter their house, by charging them with contempt and attempting to use “administrative” search warrants to conduct suspicionless searches.The Nelsons and other renters claim that the city is violating...

If you are a renter and pondering whether it’s time buy a home, one thing that might be on your mind is a rent vs. own analysis. As you can imagine, this analysis will help you determine the financial benefits of owning a home vs. staying a renter. Many online rent vs. own analysis tools are available, but a little caution is needed, as some of these tools are very biased and skewed. Some always find that it typically makes sense to buy, while others show that you should rarely buy. Most of them look at the difference between the...

There is an old program called "Section 8" housing where the US taxpayer gives welfare folks a voucher to rent houses or apartments. In many states (and everywhere, if Obama's HUD prevails), landlords have to accept Section 8 tenants or they get sued or even criminally prosecuted. The link is a video showing what happened to a lovely restored home whose landlord was forced to accept a Section 8 tenant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAzDaKsBUk0

Owner rented a nice house via Section 8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMt9hNa_9SA

Janet Sluizer knew she was taking a bit of a chance when she turned to Craigslist this summer to find a tenant for her apartment in the Mission.What she didn't expect was that she'd be spending thousands of dollars in a struggle to evict a roommate who she says hasn't paid rent beyond the first month. "This is a nightmare,"Sluizer said. It's a nightmare that landlord advocates say is all too common in SanFrancisco, where 64 percent of residents rent. .....According to [Janan]New[executive director of the San Francisco Apartment Association], a combination of confusing rent ordinances and an abundance of...

As you may have guessed, rising unemployment accounts for many home foreclosures. That's turning many people from homeowners to renters. Judy Heller and her husband spent 24 years in their Rochester home, raising their kids. But they're moving out soon. "It's too expensive, we can't afford to stay here and my husband had looked for a job around Rochester but most of them are minimum wage, and you can't survive on minimum wage now," Says Heller. They're moving to an apartment in the Twin Cities, where her husband's found a job. Down sizing means living in a smaller place, and...

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2009 – President Barack Obama’s latest efforts to look after home renters gives military members additional protection if the homes they rent are foreclosed, a Defense Department official said today. The president’s Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009 was signed into law on May 20. The legislation ensures that renters aren’t forced out of their homes if foreclosure occurs and a new landlord takes over. Renters in every state now have more time to find new homes. The new law greatly benefits the military, as the vast majority of active duty servicemembers rent homes throughout...

Supervisor Chris Daly plans to introduce a series of new laws that's intended to help renters during these tough economic times -- a proposal that is likely to anger landlords. The proposals include the suspension of any rent increases that would cause a tenant's rent to exceed one-third of their income; expansion of the rights of tenants who want to add roommates to help pay their rent; and limiting the amount of "banked" rent increases -- where annual rent increases allowed under city laws are saved up and then imposed at one time -- to 8 percent.

The U.S. Supreme Court created a huge political backlash when it ruled that local governments could use eminent domain to seize private property and transfer it to other private owners for "economic development." Since the Kelo ruling in 2005, 42 states have enacted limitations on eminent domain — not always effective ones. But like lawmakers in many other states, some California officials are trying to block real eminent domain reform. On June 3, Californians will vote on Proposition 99, a ballot initiative sponsored by groups representing cities, counties, redevelopment agencies and other pro-condemnation interests. It purports to protect property rights...