Home » Santa Clarita News » Community News » EDITORIAL: More Rent Control? – Values To Go In The Toilet In 2018?

EDITORIAL: More Rent Control? – Values To Go In The Toilet In 2018?

By Jesus H. Henao, Managing Principal at LEOLA Commercial, Inc.

What is Proposition 10? It is an attempt by the state of California to dictate what landlords can charge for rental property, including personal homes, condominiums, mobile homes and multi-family apartments.


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Currently the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act of 1995 protects landlords from the state by preventing the state from enacting vacancy control.  

What is vacancy control? It is a strict policy mandating what an owner can charge for a vacant unit, house or condominium. If the Costa-Hawkins law is repealed, expect property values to be flushed down the toilet overnight.

Currently the cities of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and West Los Angeles have a form of rent control. Santa Monica and Los Angeles tend to be the most onerous.

If you own a rental property prior to October 1, 1978, you can only raise a tenant’s rent by 3 percent per year and 1 percent for any utilities paid by the landlord. If your tenant pays $600 in rent after year one, and the market rent is $1,500, the maximum allowable rent adjustment is only $18, equaling $618 per month — a loss of over $882. The electric, gas and trash bill increases faster than that.

The proponents of the repeal argue that the rent is too high and there are not enough rental units. Who do we blame for this? Your city. In addition, red tape, high construction city fees, high property/state taxes and the bureaucracy involved in obtaining a simple permit to build can take years.  

Finally, what other housing option are out there? Texas, Arizona and Nevada are a couple.

When we let the government control our business, what will be next?  Our rights to use a plastic straw, plastic bag or our freedom of speech?  Fortunately, the City of Santa Clarita does not have rent control and is a business-friendly city.  

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EDITORIAL: More Rent Control? – Values To Go In The Toilet In 2018?

14 comments

  1. If an $18 a month increase sounds unfair, consider Social
    Security gave out raises of $48… for the whole year!
    You sound so ‘put upon’ with your whining about plastic
    straws and bags. Freedom of speech too? Oh, my God!

  2. Santa Clarita needs rent control!! Here and many other places are getting out of control. There is no reason for SCV to be 6% higher than any where else nationally. NO REASON. They raise the rent just because they can? You’re average family can’t own or rent because of the ridiculous over pricing. Something needs to be done.

    • I completely agree. These landlord are taking advantage of us hard working middle class and as soon as the lease of up they put up the rent by $300 or more in some cases $600 depending on your lease and how long you chose to stay! Take for Instance The Colony Townhomes in Santa Clarita. Now they even charge residents to make visitors parking their own parking. When residents take up the street for the most part. This has gotten outta control. We need to do something to change this before rent ranges from $3,000 to lord knows how much.

  3. I think we should have rent control, the average of Herman is approximately 1800 a month to 2004 a two-bedroom and that’s a Newhall at the Terrace not a nice area thank the Lord. My daughter out of there. Two young kids young young adults that are struggling to go to college and get a degree and want to be a little independent and have an apartment it’s ridiculous.

  4. The average home I voice text

  5. Yeah, that’s why property prices are soooo.. low in the City of LA (which includes the SFV) and Santa Monica, and why they are so high in AZ, NV and TX. Rent control doesn’t cause property prices to tank; severe economic downturns, tightening of credit and lack of jobs are the true culprits. Wages and benefits haven’t kept up with huge increases in the housing market and rental markets (rentals benefiting from the low inventory of homes first-time buyers can afford.) Californians shouldn’t be forced to leave the state because of greedy landlords. Rentals are considered safe steady income for investors and the rate of rent increases should tied to the rate of inflation or perhaps money market interest rates. For the past 20 years, 3% would have often exceeded those rates. Not to mention the capital value of the property itself. My former landlord realized about 400% increase on our 30 unit complex, after 27 years ownership. During that time rents usually increased 2-4% a year and during the Great Recession, were actually decreased 12%. And we were not subject to rent control. Rent increases in the past 4 years under the new owner have been 9-15% a year which is forcing people to leave or get roommates. Yet maintance has been minimal and largely emergency based.

  6. I think it should stay as it is. I rent my home in Valencia. It is well taken care of, gardener paid for, pest control paid for, HOA dues paid for, taxes paid for, & home warranty insurance. If houses are too high, this is why! Plus, it is our homes. People who can’t afford them, need to have a job that allows them to afford them! Sounds harsh, but it is very true. CA is a give away state. I worked damn hard to buy this home, and I paid for an education and had a career. CA votes for this. I just may sell and go to another state.

  7. Perhaps we need some kind of control. I am referring to major management companies who own the bulk of the apartments in the valley. My rent has increased $100 per lease renewal (5 years now). With a $20 parking space rental (which also has increased). This does not include trash, sewer, water, taxes and administration fees (we must pay these with the admin fees to our management company). If you want a pet it is a $500.00 deposit an additional $50.00 per month (as of late). They renovated the Manager’s office recently, which did not need it and have left the property wall issues to degenerate. In addition, there is never an offer to repaint…maybe I am just old. The average rent here now for a 1 bedroom, one bathroom (650 sg ft) in a Saugus location is around $1,800 + per month. No dishwasher, wall unit inside (like a motel 6) air conditioner/heater and a refrig space so small you must supply your own (for the one bedroom/one bathroom 650 sq ft units). Most units have not been renovated for ions. They do, however, have a new renovated home apartment program. Is it worth the rent increase with the washrooms that have to be used…I think most likely not. They call it private patios, but most are accessible to the parking lot. You cannot open your window blinds if you are on a major walkway, or you are open for zoo inspection. They do not allow plants on the balcony railing…upper/lower). You cannot put anything on your tiny tiny patio that is a bike or looks like it is a possible be storage for something. It is a non-smoking community and they encourage turning community and non-community persons in. It is not a community…we are treated as handicap renters who have been given some sort of blessing to reside here based at the personal discrimination of the property owners. In addition, there are new property owners of senior mobile park communities in this valley
    who are trying to take advantage. As long term and original residents in the City of Santa Clarita we are now being forced to find alternative places and ways of living. It is so very scary and we feel not heard and left behind.

  8. Time to move to Texas if the law is repealed. SanFrancisco has rent control and people still camp in the street. Senior help is being directed to THE HOMELESS.

  9. This article seems more like an editorial then an article. My rent just went up $200 a month and I don’t know of any companies that are giving $200 a month raises who help pay for all these increases. Some type of control would be helpful to keep the big apartment complexes from taking advantage of tenants that have lived there for many years.

  10. I agree there should be some rent control, I work a good job been there 15 years, my rent just raised 300 dollars when new owners brought the property and now we have to pay trash, water, sewer and admin fees. I was trying to save to buy a house however it is harder now. I looked for a cheaper place but no luck as every where is high rent 1800 to 2000+. I could go to AV, however, the rent is not that much different if you factor the commute cost and time spend on the road. It is easy to lable renters as these people who can’t afford to buy a house but I can tell you that is not the case.

  11. Affordable clean housing should be available to all people who work for a living regardless of which state a person calls home. The high cost of housing in Southern California, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, etal., is outrageous and quite frankly disgusting. Rent control is necessary because hard working individuals are not earning decent wages nor has the cost of living kept up with the cost of home ownership. To those of you fortunate to own your own homes, or fortunate enough to purchase one during the housing downside, good for you, but homeownership NOW is no longer a reality and will remain elusive for most of the younger generation. Affordable housing like quality public education and health care should NOT be a privilege for the few; we all need fair and equitable access to these things.

  12. The true secret purpose of Prop. 10 isn’t to protect housing by providing rent stabilization to the poor and middle class (that’s just the false sales pitch). Prop. 10 is deliberately worded to extend major forms of local political control over everyone’s home (renter or not), and to force mom and pop landlords to sell their land cheap to wealthy interests, both national and international. Once the mom and pop apartment owners are gone, the implications of the rest of Prop. 10 can be enacted against everyone. (Contrary to what Californians may believe, long term homeowners in places like Santa Monica have no rights to even come forward to discuss issues. Coming forward puts a target on a homeowner’s back and they will be quietly relieved of their land and possibly their lives.)

    Currently, Santa Monica gets the votes it needs to fund a massive corrupt bureaucracy from tenants who have below market rentals (one tenant has a rent controlled $1,600.00 two bedroom place on the beach she uses just for parties). In Santa Monica, it’s mostly smug white liberals who benefit from rent control. Even when their landlords are forced to sell out (and some landlords only make enough to eat and drive beat up 25 year old economy cars) the tenants know they’ll get as much as $50,000.00 in payoffs for moving. Santa Monica has repeatedly gotten multi-millions to help the homeless and provide affordable housing. They always manage to spend the money in corrupt ways. For example, Santa Monica’s bureaucracy is paid way above normal salaries. Santa Monica has massive unfunded pension liability, but they want to spend $15 million buying new unneeded buses (the city already had zero pollution buses and ridership is way down). The buses are another corrupt scheme, as are many of the art projects and community funding Santa Monica does. Santa Monica loves to give their friends large salaries to pretend to counsel the homeless. Santa Monica has built apartments on the beach where tenants are given lifetime rights to live for around $500.00 for a one bedroom unit. However, the apartments went mainly to young Russian immigrants (through Russian organized crime connections with city), not to SM seniors and disabled. Santa Monica insists that small landlords rent to seniors (who often require personal care daily by a landlord living on the premises – and seniors are allowed to pass their rental on at the same cheap price to a caretaker or child that moves into the rental unit shortly before the senior dies). Santa Monica also says landlords must rent to criminals and risk multi million dollar lawsuits that will wipe them out. Santa Monica recently discussed forcing landlords to take classes every two years where the city would tell them how to harass their own tenants and spy on them (and report back to the city). Santa Monica also discussed “windfall profits tax” on landlords to punish them for having ever raised the rate on an apartment that became vacant. Santa Monica got federal funds after the 1994 Northridge earthquake to give to local apartment owners to help retrofit their buildings. Santa Monica spent the money on pet projects. Now they are forcing apartment owners to retrofit even if they can’t afford it (and landlords can’t pass on the increased cost of water, utilities, trash, costs of retrofitting, costs of meeting new property bond initiatives voted in by renters, etc.). If the apartment owner can’t retrofit in a very short time period, then Santa Monica will be assessing massive financial penalties.

    I should also point out that Santa Monica is so expensive now because everyone around the world wants to live here. (Additionally, wealthy Chinese communists, international drug dealers and others, love to buy homes and have them sit empty in Santa Monica as financial investments. A few nights ago I thought there was a dangerous situation with gas leaking, yet I realized there was not a single neighbor nearby I could go to for a second opinion.) More importantly, we have a severe water shortage so more population is dangerous (nor should water be stolen from California farmers so as to drive them out of business and drive up the cost of food). High rents create a natural way to restrict population. A rich population not being overtaxed by a corrupt city bureaucracy will be able to pay high wages to its workers.

    Many crooked developers with ties to organized crime are actually supporting Prop. 10. Meanwhile, their false front organizers lie and tell the newspapers and naïve mom and pop apartment association members that millions are being devoted to campaigning against Prop. 10.

    To all California voters, please understand that what is happening in cities like Santa Monica isn’t about some liberal experiment with socialism (plus cities can enact rent control without Prop.10). Some forms of rent stabilization are fine, but that’s not what Prop. 10 is actually about. It’s about foreign global interests attempting to destroy American property rights. The carefully worded Prop. 10 is actually about extending government control over everyone’s home. It’s too complicated to explain but once Prop. 10 passes, local governments will be used to figure out every person in every home and put them under increased surveillance, local penalties and taxation. Unlike naïve young Californians, wealthy foreign globalists understand that civil liberties don’t exist without strong property rights. The permanent damage to American property rights by a “Yes” vote on Prop. 10 can never be undone in our court system. It will quickly open the door to the destruction of property rights across the 50 states.

  13. On DEC 1,2018 my landlord raised by rent by $230.00. I am a single mom and cant struggle to pay rent and put food on my table. I have two kids and have to pay for child care as well. Something needs to be done. My kids don’t deserve to loose our one bedroom apartment. We make things work for us but I am scared a lot of the time.

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