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.

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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

Mountain View Aggressively Increases Housing Inventory

Anyone driving through Mountain View cannot help but notice the volume of commercial and residential construction underway. The Mountain View Community Development Department’s February 1, 2017 Planning Division Update memorandum shows 75 projects in various stages of approval and construction.

I combed through this document and found that 41 of the 74 projects are for residential housing units. If all 41 projects are approved and constructed, Mountain View will be adding approximately 3,400 rental apartment units and 1,880 owner residential units. The projects will demolish approximately 480 existing units, mostly rental apartments.

The net result is approximately 4,800 additional housing units in Mountain View. Will this new inventory slow down the rising cost of rents and home ownership?

Mountain View Current Project List

Some of the larger apartment unit projects include:

400 San Antonio Road - 583 apartment units
2700 W. El Camino Real - 211 apartment units
1984 W. El Camino Real - 160 apartment units
801 W. El Camino Real - 164 apartment units
100 Moffatt Blvd. - 184 apartment units
1001 N. Shoreline Blvd - 203 apartment units
777 W. Middlefield Road - 711 apartment units
500 Ferguson Drive - 394 apartment units
1696-1758 Villa Street - 240 apartment units
394 Ortega Ave - 144 apartment units
779 E. Evelyn Ave - 116 apartment units