Investment Opportunities in Mountain View with ADUs

The city of Mountain View is embracing backyard rental units, which they call companion units, as a means to address the housing shortage. Officially known as Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and more commonly known as granny units, Governor Brown passed legislation in 2017 aimed at easing local restrictions on ADUs. In supported this legislation, Mountain View has adopted several zoning ordinance amendments to encourage the construction of more companion units.   

Mountain View companion units can be up to 700 sq. ft., attached or detached from the primary home, only need 1 uncovered parking spot and in some cases, can share the driveway and garage with the primary home.

Click here for Mountain View’s Companion Unit Regulations

ADU workshops have been held at Techcode, 1172 Castro St, Mountain View, CA

Back Yard Rental Units as a Means to Address the HousingShortage

Purchasing single-family homes and adding an ADU will create a great rental income property, while gaining single-family home levels of appreciation. Between the first quarter 2017 to the first quarter 2018, the median price of a single-family home in mountain view rose 36%.

There are builders specializing in ADU construction, such as Tony Chan, CEO at adu-builder.com, who will build your granny unit for a share of the rent.

Marijuana Policies for Landlords

With proposition 64, legalizing marijuana, going into effect in 2018, it’s a good time to consider your position on its use in your rental property. Consider prohibiting smoking it in your property, as it, like tobacco, can cause excessive damage to walls, carpets and everything else. 

• Properties with no-smoking provisions should review their lease to ensure their provisions will allow landlords to prohibit or control marijuana use, as well as tobacco and e-cigarettes. (Many smoke free provisions do not address marijuana or e-cigarettes).
• Properties that do not currently prohibit smoking, may want to consider going smoke free, or prohibit marijuana smoking.
• Landlords may wish to add provisions to their leases prohibiting marijuana plants.
• Landlords who choose to prohibit marijuana smoking and cultivation should expect to continue to encounter issues with residents claiming they need to smoke or cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, which raises issues relative to disability-related accommodations.

For assistance with lease provisions or notices of change of terms of tenancies to address these issues, contact Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP attorney Jamie Sternberg at jamie.sternberg@kts-law.com  or (619)744-0863.

kts-law.com - marijuana-law-for-california-residential-landlords

Text of Applicable Laws:

Information from the California Secretary of State regarding Proposition 64 is available at http://vig.cdn.sos.ca.gov/2016/general/en/pdf/text-proposed-laws.pdf#prop64.

The text of Civil Code 1940.10 is available at http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1940.10.

The text of California Civil Code 4750 is available at http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=4750.&lawCode=CIV .

Hot Topics for Rental Property Owners

Mountain View’s new rent control ordinance, Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act (measure V) went into effect on April 5, 2017 (applies to buildings with occupancy prior to February 1995). One of the more significant provisions is the requirement for landlords to rollback rents to the October 19, 2015 rate, for tenants who moved in on or before that date. For complete information on the ordinance: Mountain View Rent Stabilization Ordinance. 

Rents starting to level off. “After a couple of years of scorching rent increases, rents are stabilizing or actually declining in many parts of the Bay Area,” said Andrew Woo, data scientist for ApartmentList.com.

For more information: Apartment List National Rent Data and SJ Mercury New article New 

Bed Bug Laws AB 551 and AB 2881, Recently enacted bed bug laws now require California rental property owners and managers to take on additional duties and responsibilities. The new laws, which go into effect in 2017 and 2018, require owners to make new bed bug disclosures, while prohibiting owners from retaliating and renting units known to be infested with bed bugs. Tenants, under the new law, must cooperate with inspections and treatment of bed bugs. For more information: California Bed Bug Disclosure Requirements