​Break the inertia through mediation? 

Some landlord-tenant relationships are so acrimonious that it can be impossible to have a constructive dialogue.

There is some value in having a neutral third party removed from the emotional fray to listen to the concerns of both parties and attempt to work through differences. 

Yet with increased calls for alternative dispute resolution, are mediators a substitute for an attorney when the owner’s goal is to recover possession of the unit? In our biased opinion, we think not. 

One potential subject of mediation is hoarding, but we have found that this type of behavior has a high recidivism rate.

Both housing providers and tenants have a responsibility to maintain the rental unit in habitable condition, yet when the squalor prevents egress and is a public health issue, it must be proactively addressed. 

Oftentimes, tenants’ attorneys will claim that the hoarding tenant suffers from a mental illness and is entitled to reasonable accommodations under fair housing laws. We’ll have to deal with it. 

While we have religiously sent weekly emails, some of you have elected to subscribe to daily legal tips. Thank you. 

If you’d like to subscribe to our daily updates, we welcome sharing our hard-won experience with rental housing providers and the professionals who serve them. 

Some topics we covered thus far in our daily email tips

Las Vegas bets on everything. As the 49ers take to the field and football returns, it's worth noting that there were even bets on whether fans would get their moment of glory by running onto the field in the Super Bowl and get arrested.

But what bet would be placed on whether Proposition 33, the so-called “Justice for Renters Act” will pass? It seems like something interesting to bet on, right?

We are nervous to gamble.

If we are playing Las Vegas odds, our community of rental housing providers should be concerned in today's climate when we have inflation and fed-up, rent-burdened tenants who will agree that the rent is way too high. The movement to expand rent control is no longer concentrated in urban areas but has widespread support from people in outlying locales who are not traditionally associated with tenant activism. 

After efforts to repeal Costa-Hawkins were defeated twice, there is now a real possibility that our industry will be upended, a sentiment that has been echoed by industry advocates. Their call to action: Get out your wallets and donate. 

Abraham Lincoln once said that you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

With their war chest and messaging, tenants’ advocates are putting forth propaganda to fool voters that expanded rent control will benefit renters when in reality, it will be to their detriment. 

We know that there are brilliant political operatives who can articulate a counter-narrative to new landlording restrictions, but they need money to buy air time and use other means to reach the masses to defeat this disastrous ballot measure.

If you have the wherewithal, donate. We've put together a list of industry partners you can contribute to here. We don't need to educate you on the consequences of Prop 33. We need money to educate others who are less informed.

Even as we keep our eye on the bigger picture and brace ourselves for a raucous political season, Bornstein Law is hyper-focused on managing the finite details of landlord-tenant relationships.

Dedicated to your real estate success,