The Berkeley Property Owners Association’s fall mixer is called “Celebrating the End of the Eviction Moratorium.”
A group of Berkeley, California landlords will hold a fun social mixer over cocktails to celebrate their newfound ability to kick people out of their homes for nonpayment of rent, as first reported by Berkeleyside.
The Berkeley Property Owner Association lists a fall mixer on its website on Tuesday, September 12, 530 PM PST. “We will celebrate the end of the Eviction Moratorium and talk about what’s upcoming through the end of the year,” the invitation reads. The event advertises one free drink and “a lovely selection of appetizers,” and encourages attendees to “join us around the fire pits, under the heat lamps and stars, enjoying good food, drink, and friends.”
The venue will ironically be held at a space called “Freehouse”, according to its website. Attendees who want to join in can RSVP on their website for $20.
Berkeley’s eviction moratorium lasted from March 2020 to August 31, 2023, according to the city’s Rent Board, during which time tenants could not be legally removed from their homes for nonpayment of rent. Landlords could still evict tenants if they had “Good Cause” under city and state law, which includes health and safety violations. Landlords can still not collect back rent from March 2020 to April 2023 through an eviction lawsuit, according to the Rent Board.
Berkeleyside spoke to one landlord planning to attend the eviction moratorium party who was frustrated that they could not evict a tenant—except that they could evict the tenant, who was allegedly a danger to his roommates—but the landlord found the process of proving a health and safety violation too tedious and chose not to pursue it.
The Berkeley Property Owner Association is a landlord group that shares leadership with a lobbying group called the Berkeley Rental Housing Coalition which advocated against a law banning source of income discrimination against Section 8 tenants and other tenant protections.
The group insists on not being referred to as landlords, however, which they consider “slander.” According to the website, “We politely decline the label “landlord” with its pejorative connotations.” They also bravely denounce feudalism, an economic system which mostly ended 500 years ago, and say that the current system is quite fair to renters.
“Feudalism was an unfair system in which landlords owned and benefited, and tenant farmers worked and suffered. Our society is entirely different today, and the continued use of the legal term ‘landlord’ is slander against our members and all rental owners.” Instead, they prefer to be called “housing providers.”
While most cities’ eviction moratoria elapsed in 2021 and 2022, a handful of cities in California still barred evictions for non-payment into this year. Alameda County’s eviction moratorium expired in May, Oakland’s expired in July. San Francisco’s moratorium also elapsed at the end of August, but only covered tenants who lost income due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In May, Berkeley’s City Council added $200,000 to the city’s Eviction Defense Funds, money which is paid directly to landlords to pay tenants’ rent arrears, but the city expected those funds to be tapped out by the end of June.
What? You couldn’t kick out tenants if they weren’t paying rent before?? That’s insane.
Obviously there should be grace periods etc and the whole system is fucked with house prices, but if you’re providing a service and people don’t pay for the service, you should be able to stop providing the service.
It got pretty bad for a while. Landlords were stuck with properties that had tenants that were getting absolutely destroyed and there was nothing they could legally do about it. It resulted in increased barriers they put up to ensure that folks would actually pay rent and not destroy properties. It’s become increasingly difficult to actually get an apartment in many cities with this rule in place.
I am sincerely sorry that you don’t care about people’s quality of life and ensuring everyone gets quality housing over your ideology.
Then what you want is less rental inventory. Because this is how you get less rental inventory.
The service is warmth, shelter and safety. I just want to point that out since you really want to make it sound like it’s the same as a Netflix subscription.
All true. But what’s also true is paying a mortgage with rental income. It’s why some folks found themselves out anyway as the house was sold. When a landlord is backed into a corner financially, this is their answer.
What is also an answer is rentals sitting vacant out of squatting fear. I found this often while travel nursing. Landlords who would rent to me for 3+ months, but only because I’m temporary and can show them I already have a home. When folks stop honoring the contract to pay for the shit they’re borrowing, less inventory is going to be a very real outcome.
Consider. Your monthly income is 4 rentals at $1500 each, minus expenses. Property tax. Income tax. Maintenance. Possibly a water/sewage bill. One stops paying. Then 2. Enter legal expenses. Your current mortgage where you’re living is still due. Managing it and providing your own childcare is your full time job.
There’s this whole ethos that there are no people involved on the landlord side and there can be no financial struggle from anyone with a landlord title.
That and there’s a very simple fact of it’s not your shit. You’re borrowing someone else’s things under contract.
I agree it’s not ideal, but systemic housing change comes from several steps above a landlord. She’s just someone with extra shit she can lend out for a fee. Punishing her in the meantime like she owes you something, after making property available for use so someone can have a home, not cool. She doesn’t owe you rent or a home.
Landlords existing increases the cost of housing for everyone, they’re parasites on society.
A house should only be held by a landlord or builder for as long as it takes to sell it, with heavy taxes for sitting on properties. That would provide housing.
Consider. Your monthly income is 4 rentals at $1500 each, minus expenses. Property tax. Income tax. Maintenance. Possibly a water/sewage bill. One stops paying. Then 2. Enter legal expenses. Your current mortgage where you’re living is still due. Managing it and providing your own childcare is your full time job.
There’s this whole ethos that there are no people involved on the landlord side and there can be no financial struggle from anyone with a landlord title.
You’re ignoring the main point. If people stop paying, it’s usually because they lost their job and are looking for a new one. So why don’t you suggest the landlord get a part time job to make up their income? Why should they be entitled to rent during a pandemic when their tenant lost their job?
Also, you are ignoring the fact that there were Covid funds available for landlords who lost rent due to non-payment. It was an inconvenience, but so was Covid. As a nurse did you throw a fit because you had to wear extra protective equipment? Or did you realize the reason behind it?
The eviction moratorium was ultimately a health policy. Maybe you didn’t realize that, but its purpose was to save lives.
The responses absolutely blow my mind here. I’ve been fucked over by landlords before but it’s completely illogical to expect someone to just let you live in their apts rent free.
No one is saying people should be able to simply not pay bills. They want the bills to not exist. People deserve mortgages of their own.
Not everyone wants to own. There are legitimate reasons for landlords to exist. They shouldn’t be as prevalent as they are, but buying isn’t always the best option for everyone.
Yes but there is no way an 18 year old who just left school and is working minimum wage can afford a mortgage, completely ignoring the fact that they haven’t had time to even save a deposit. Being able to rent and pay less than mortgage prices gives people a chance to save up for their own house.
Berkeleyside spoke to one landlord planning to attend the eviction moratorium party who was frustrated that they could not evict a tenant—except that they could evict the tenant, who was allegedly a danger to his roommates—but the landlord found the process of proving a health and safety violation too tedious and chose not to pursue it.
I feel like people should really read this part and fully absorb what it means.
It’s not that surprising, courts require specific hard evidence. Getting the roommates present to testify may or may not be enough, but it’s far more difficult than showing unpaid rent or a hoarding situation.
Oh, boo hoo. A landlord actually having to do work. How awful, this is truly a tragedy of unspoken proportions
You seem to have this idea that landlords don’t work? I am a landlord and I have to work full time to help cover the cost of the mortgage. If I don’t, the tenant will get kicked out by the bank when they take back the house.
Been a landlord for almost 20 years. I’ve rebuilt some of these houses myself from an auctioned off unlivable disaster to a safe, clean, maintained property. To imply landlords don’t work is such a narrow sighted view of reality. I got a glimpse during covid of an eviction moratorium a tenant that had quite a bit of hardship and I worked with her for 5 years pre-covid. Heating oil run out she couldn’t afford I filled it out of pocket for her and her family. If she needed flexibility on rent timing I worked with her. When she snuck an untrained dog classified as an emotion support dog that chewed up the house’s 70 year old woodwork stairs and balusters. I worked with her. When covid hit and the moratorium was about to go live her lease was up1 month prior. She ceased paying rent and utilities, I was informed I’d have to cover all her expenses during the moratorium. If she hadn’t had that lease end right before this moratorium she would’ve continued staying there for free while I covered her family’s entire housing and utilities. In the end my thanks for covering her and enforcing the lease end date was an entire house abandoned and full of trash and pest. Took my wife and I almost 2 months and close to $5000 to clean, repaint, repair/replace that property on top of the maintenance costs. This isn’t a black and white situation…
Tldr, I guess: Evictions are a last resort for people who have had an agreement no longer be met by the other party. Should never have mad a moratorium on that legal process imo, it needed to have flexibility to help both parties not just shoulder 1 party with all the responsibility. The party is in extremely poor taste but I can understand their relief if they have similar tenants they can hopefully divest of after years of what my example held. I wouldn’t have been able to do it for 3 years financially or mentally.
I would be partying too, you gotta pay your rent. That’s insane they couldn’t evict for that.
The city should have to pay the rent since they’re making it unrecoverable.
You know the city only has tax money right? If the city were to cover the unpaid rent every tax paying person would really be paying the rent.
“you see honor, this 600 sqft apartment has a value of $4500 a month but the tenant can’t afford that… Just make the tax payers pay me!”
It’s crazy it’s been this long. Most places had a year or so of no evictions. It’s also a not insignificant reason rent is going up, previously it was unthinkable that the government would just prevent any recourse for people not paying rent. Now it’s happened in recent memory.
Landlords provide no benefit to society, outlaw them
I totally agree. We should provide homes to people to live in instead of giving them to landlords to rent seek with
I have benefited from being able to rent a house because there’s no way I would have been able to afford to buy one at 18.
Explain to me how, at age 18 with no money and minimum wage, I would be able to build a house. If there are no landlords, then there is no housing excess houses so I would need to pay for a house to be built. How can I afford to pay the workers to build the house and pay for the construction materials? You seem to think houses just magically spring from the ground at no cost. Taking away landlords doesn’t remove the cost of construction, materials and connection to utilities.
I bet you’re going to say something like ‘but the government will provide it.’
Land lords aren’t the only option for short term housing. Housing can be provided by the state or the university without a profit motive for cheaper. You can look to systems like Singapore and Vienna where the public housing is robust enough to cover housing needs, without landlords leeching off the work of others.
I bet you’re going to say something like ‘but the government will provide it.’
See my comment below.
The government uses income taxes to build public housing, how is that not leeching off the work of others??
“We prefer to be called ‘housing providers’”
I’ll call you extortionists. Take it or leave it.
“We prefer to be called ‘housing providers’”
Landlords provide housing like scalpers provide concert tickets.
You seem to think that houses just spring magically from the ground without any huge financial cost to build them.
Hi, landlord here and I want to clear up any misconceptions. I don’t build any houses, I only buy them up and then rent them out at a profit.
Concerts fundamentally have a limit or capacity. There is no such thing for housing. All current restraints are arbitrarily chosen and we can change them if we want to.
At the root, housing in the US and especially California is a tragedy of the commons where it is in no current owners interests to allow more construction. So all of them have created a homeowners lobby to make new construction illegal.
So you’re saying housing has a fundamental limit?
I mean you could say the same about concerts. They have a fundamental limit because the venue refuses to build a bigger space.
extortionists
This only exists because almost every American city makes it illegal, or very difficult to build new housing. It’s very hard to extort people when the a proper supply.
