California Voters – I’m voting NO on 10 … here’s why
If 10 passes Berkeley (and probably other rent control communities) will bring back vacancy control.
With Vacancy Decontrol, an owner set rents for mew renters based on the current market, while stabilizing the rents of current Vacancy Decontrol provide income for maintenance and repairs.
What this means is that future rents will be based upon past rents … in some cases 5, 10 (or more) years in the past.
A new renter would then be paying rent based on historically old (and lower rents) while a property owner’s operating expense for repairs, painting, roofs, electrical, etc. pays based upon current costs. Prop 10 has no provision for expense or repair cost control … so limiting rental income results in lower resources for property repairs, maintenance and upgrades.
One net result of Vacancy Control – Owners would likely be less likely to fix up or maintain their properties since they wouldn’t be able to recover the investment.
We spent $20,000 to update a small studio apartment … and after doing so were able to rent a beautifully updated unit. If the rent was limited to the level it was 5 or 10 years ago, we simply would have made it look tidy rather than great.
There’s no means test under current rent stabilization, so even if you’re a highly paid google engineer, you’d be paying the same rent as someone earning less. And owners would have many more highly paid renters to select from.
Ira Serkes
Vladislav Davidzon brought up an excellent point – developers would be less likely to build rentals in a community where they would be subject to rent controls in the future.
Leave a Reply