Countersign Eviction Notice Made Easy

Countersign eviction notice

the tenant doesn't pay the rent and a landlord brings forth an unlawful detainer action if the tenant explains to the court that that was an improper rent increase then in that situation the landlord will lose the case also what can happen is four years down the line a tenant is at a cocktail party and is talking to a landlord terney or a tenant attorney and mentions how his rent got raised improperly in January of the year 2020 well that would then rise to a level that a civil suit could be brought against the landlord hi this is chris german from the apartment dealer bring you another episode of the apartment dealers show and with me today is mr. dennis block dennis has been a real estate attorney now for over four decades and most notably known for being and coordinating 200,000 eviction cases over two hundred thousand eviction cases so this thank you for nice nice to meet you to meet you so I know we just getting familiar with each other this will be the first time you attend or speak at our apparent owners educational luncheon it's a pleasure to have you especially because your forte your repertoire is eviction cases and with a new read control law I know people are chomping at the bit for us to discuss that which we will but obviously people are going to be drugged before the courts if they didn't do certain things concerning the loans so that's why we look to have you with our audience but before we go there we can start a little bit more rainy on some of our viewers may have been lucky enough never to have been involved in an eviction case so could you walk us through just from point A to point Z and maybe something more difficult than they didn't pay rent so let's say I have a tenant who's a nuisance bothersome to other tenants what's step a to begin processing the eviction and how do we how does that end well for a nuisance case that really needs to be evaluated by an attorney whether there's enough cause to evict now obviously if we're talking about an on rent controlled area the tenon is just on a month to month tenancy we would just serve a notice to quit either a 30 or a 60 day notice we don't have to prove any nuisance conduct and that would be an easier way to go forward with an eviction case but the problem is is if you're in a rent-controlled district or potentially the tenant is on the lease a fixed term lease what do you do in that situation that has to be evaluated by generally an attorney whether the conduct of the tenant rises to a level of nuisance nuisances described as an unreasonable interference with the comfort safety enjoyment of other residents or the owner of the property typically you're going to have somebody who's playing loud music constantly not just a one-time situation or they're banging on other people's doors or or throwing garbage or threatening other tenants and in that situation assuming it rises to the level of a nuisance we would serve on that tenant a three-day notice to quit giving them three days to vacate the premises most rental jurisdictions that have rent control would require us to describe the conduct that the tenant is doing and also to put names of witnesses in that notice that notice would then be served on the tenant typically the tenant does not vacate at the end of the third day period so we would have to file a lawsuit called an unlawful detainer as an eviction lawsuit that results at the end of the lawsuit of Sheriff physically escorting that tenant off the property the process is that once that lawsuit is filed the tenant is then served with that lawsuit and the tenant can contest the case if he doesn't contest the case the case will move relatively smoothly by way of what they call a default that he didn't contest the proceedings if he does for contest the proceedings then we're going to need to request a trial and will actually have to bring witnesses to courts to prove to the satisfaction of the court the judge that in fact that his conduct rose to a level of nuisance where it would support a judgment being issued against him for possession and as man Lords are going through the eviction process what are some common mistakes you see them make again and again and had the avoider to them they would have won the case but they had this blunder so now they automatically lose well there's a myriad of things we call them gotchas there's probably about 50 60 on any one particular case a lot of them deal with procedural mistakes dealing with for example rent control in Los Angeles which has had rent control since 1979 you have to have your units registered so if the tenant hasn't paid you the rent for example for four months and you serve the three-day notice to pay rent or quit and the tenant didn't pay you bring your case to court you can easily lose that case because you didn't register your units with rent control or even if your units were registered that you didn't before serving a three-day notice served the registration certificate that you get every year from the city of Los Angeles on your tenant so that would be a procedural mistake and there are tons of them that landlords can make which quite frankly is the reason why most landlords should engage the service of an experienced attorney who can't walk you through all these issues many times clients will come into our office or call us on the phone to initiate a case and just a view of their story I can immediately tell them that we're going to have to start all over again we're going to have to issue a new notice because procedurally they haven't done the correct thing even though the tenant hasn't paid the rent and there's no proper excuse for it now with respect to rent control it only has been law now a little over a month passed in October but now it's been a lie at least in those cities I didn't have a control prior correct I should preface that so with this new statewide rent control have they outlined what are the punishments if if you don't follow the laws in other words they're saying the rent cap is X well you know what I exceed that or I was supposed to roll back my rents because I raised them too much last year you know what I'm not going to is there an outline of what the punishment is gonna be for that alerts you don't follow the guidelines there is nothing in the law that states what that the state will come down on you will find you or penalize you because you didn't comply with the law there is no quote state rent control office that will be knocking on doors or taking tenants complaints it's all going to be based on what the tenant does so for example if the current rent raised amount the percentage is seven point nine percent for the state of California if I raised my rent more than that and for a rent controlled unit that's under the statewide rent control and I did it more than the allowable amount it really is quote no punishment by the state but the tenant for example if the tenant doesn't pay the rent and a landlord brings forth an unlawful detainer action if the tenant explains to the court that that was an improper rent increase then in that situation the landlord will lose the case also what can happen is four years down the line a tenant is at a cocktail party Miz talking to a landlord terney or a tenant attorney and mentions how his rent got raised improperly in January of the year 2020 well that would then rise to a level that a civil suit could be brought against the landlord to disgorge all the additional rent taken and actually even sue for additional penalties so for those landlords out there that think to themselves well there is no room rent control board and the tenants paying me the rent so one of them getting a little bit more money my suggestion to them is don't do it roll back your red so the proper amount which is a 7.9 percent rent increase and don't go years and years down the line which could be in all fairness a ticking time-bomb and in your opinion I mean is there any hope that this now this new statewide reckon troll will go away I know for example in the city of Long Beach they issued a lawsuit against the city of Long Beach is there any hope anything that landlords can do to fight back it seems like there's no one really rallying the troops if you will well I think there's a lot of people rallying the troops this law is set to be only go for ten years but my expectation it will go until your grandchildren have grandchildren that's how long I don't think there's going to be any rollback I we live in a state that supports tenants rights beyond imagine beyond anything of course that is fair and rent control is here to stay it's it's up to the landlord to understand how to get around this new rent control ordinance how to keep your rents at market levels so that you don't get hit with the onerous factors that can be imposed by this statewide rent control and my understanding is you're not Lord yourself that's correct and I and I own multifamily so when I'm framing the conversation of multifamily investing I like to talk about that we're all building a financial legacy I imagine for you you rentals will serve as a portion of your retirement at some point and mine will serve likewise and then we'll think about what its gonna mean to our heirs and when we're in while we're building this financial legacy I've coined the idea that there's really three pillars if you will in the first pillars maximization maximization meaning from my side the table is a realtor hey how can I let help landlords get rental rates up what type of improvements can I do to their property so we can raise value so they can either refinery finance something like this from the lawyers perspective for again under the idea of a maximization how does someone maximize their chances of winning if they get drugged before the juggs a judge drug into the eviction court what really enables a landlord to to ensure that he comes out the winning end of that again I think what you need is to have an attorney who's experienced in this area of law who will guide the landlord through the process so that at the end of the case the tenant does have to vacate the unit and of course once the unit is vacated then the landlord is allowed to raise the rent to market level so for example I've had clients call me up complaining that the rents are really low they're under rent control be it the state or a local rent control jurisdiction so I'll start to talk to the landlord and then the landlord will casually mention that the tenant hasn't paid rent for the last three months so and of course I start to smile because one of the easiest way to get your wrench to market value would be to evict a tenant based on non-payment of rent and then once the tenant is evicted to raise the rent to market value and so there's many opportunities in terms of what the tenants are doing on the property maybe having extra people there maybe they've made alterations to the premises maybe they're parking cars that they shouldn't park these are all grounds that we use to terminate a rental agreement and to get the rents to market value and and the next pillar that I move people through is the pillar of growth so for again for a realtor that would be something like a 1031 exchange hey they have a five-unit we find out that their equity would be better served and say a 10 unit they're gonna have more net income and the like from an attorney's perspective as someone's going through that growth pattern or maybe the other side of that coin they're avoiding growing because they think that growth means more tenant headaches and maybe I'll just be happy with my five unit that I own so they stay away from growth what some things they just in being a mellow yourself they just need to be cognizant it of as they grow in the number of units the number of buildings they own to keep themselves out of the eviction courts well I mean again you can if the topic is getting rents to market value if you wanted to avoid going through an eviction case there is no way that you can just merely walk up to a tenant and say you know what you're in a fifteen hundred dollar apartment but truly this the value of this apartment is $2,200 and I think it would be fair for you to pay me that now if the tenant agrees to do that that the landlord still is committed an illegal act you cannot take more rent than what is legally permissible notwithstanding the fact that the tenant agrees to pay up so that's not an avenue that you can use truly the easiest way is to go through an eviction process but other ways when you have a tenant who isn't doing anything wrong he pays his rent on time he hasn't violated any term of a rental agreement or is not a nuisance so there's another avenue that many landlords use and we call it in our officer of voluntary vacate agreement a lot of people call it cash for keys and in that situation you would walk up to a tenant and offer them money to move now it seems inconceivable to most landlords that why would I pay a tenant and we've had landlords give up to $50,000 but the typical payout is twenty thousand and to most landlords that seems inconceivable to them that they're going to pay a ten and twenty thousand dollars to vacate their own unit but clearly on an economic level a simple math equation if you're getting a thousand dollars for a unit but you could get two thousand that means that in literally in 20 months you're going to make back your investment in addition as a Realtor I'm sure you are aware of dealing with the concept that if buildings are selling based on the income of the property that you've just raised the value of that building at least 150 160 thousand dollars just by taking in an extra thousand dollars income per month so the voluntary vacate is a very popular vehicle that we use to encourage tenants to vacate so that landlords can do a rent increase and and I have to thank you with regards to disrespect because as rent control was passing in October I saw a like webinar if you will that a Oh a conduct it with yourself and you were walking through the new rec control proposed law and I was in escrow purchasing a building myself where if you believe it or not tenants on two bedrooms were paying seven hundred dollars because he was being sold by the original builder and now the woman was in her 80s so at this point the law hadn't been passed but it was discussions we said you know what we need to be change everything and just everyone 60-day notices to vacate so it didn't come to the point of where it is now you could do substantial improvement and and so forth but along the way some people of course said no we're not going to leave so we offered them cash for keys and and we were able to vacate the whole property when someone's doing cash for keys what are some mistakes that you see them make that then eventually they are drug in front of the judge because there was a blunder when they other agreement itself well there is no in statewide rent control which just passed there really has been no procedures that they've set up for say obviously you have to have a specific agreement which states when the tenant is supposed to leave what money is to be paid when it's to be paid how are you going to handle the security deposit and also during this interim period of time when the tenants still on the property waiting to leave is the tenant supposed to pay rent so the landlord needs to go through all these procedures but when you're dealing with for example Los Angeles rent control if I have and this is most people have no idea as to the problems that can occur when you're dealing with a cash for keys in Los Angeles if I an attendant agree that I'll pay them twenty thousand dollars to move and we sign an ironclad agreement that I will vacate for example in two months I get the twenty thousand dollars upfront and everybody signs it it's notarized now when that two months comes and go as the tenant doesn't move most people would think that you could easily bring forth an eviction action to evict that tenant he agreed to move he has the money in his pocket unfortunately under the LA rent control ordinance there are 12 reasons to evict and that is not one of those reasons that I signed an agreement to move and I didn't move so these are the kinds of problems that tenants can get into and that's not to say that that's going to happen all the time 10 it's going to get the money they're going to vacate we use a special agreement that allows us actually to evict the tenant even if even though there is no specific ground in Los Angeles we do it in an indirect way which allows us to bring forth an eviction action something that I came up with many years ago to defeat this issue dealing with LA rent control but there's a myriad of problems again these types of situations you really need to deal with an attorney who's well-versed in this area of law and it's obviously done it for a long time so to kind of lead you down this path where your path is successful now many of our viewers are you know mom-and-pop mom-and-pop in the sense that say they own one five unit 110 unit maybe two ten you know something like this and they've all known for a long time so they get chummy chummy with the tenants they start a payment plan for the rent some of the rent they take on the first thumb on the seventh some on the fifteenth they start this program but then eventually the hand that feeds invites them something happens and now they're they're in a dispute with a tenant and Meyer your argument has always been that it comes down to management style that it needs to be friendly but businesslike would you say that a lot of these simple issues that landlords run into it's just because it's their management style and how their their relationship with the tenants absolutely I think that landlords income property owners have to understand that they're running a business first and while you can be cordial with your tenants you can be nice to your tenants but it still is a business relationship and I'll see many landlords that will allow rents to go on month after month after month because they're either intimidated about bringing forth their ambition or more specifically they're really not running like a if you are in the business of managing income property than understand that that's what you are you're a business person if you cannot act like a business person then what you really need to do is you need to sell your buildings and get out of that business you know as nice as a market like for example Ralph's is you're not going to walk in there and ask for a steak and they're going to give it to you they're going to charge you for that and the same thing is true of landlords landlords are no different than any other person now anybody in business needs to be nice to their clientele that's obvious and the same thing is true for for landlords landlords need to do their part as well if something is broken it's good business to fix it it's good business to fix it because she wants your tenants happened you want your tenants to pay the rent and a landlord is not different than any other person unfortunately the media makes all landlords out of slumlords nothing could be further from the truth the truth is is that many more tenants are create the problems than by a far percentage than a small percentage of landlords that create problems but in any event landlords need to run a good business and by running a good business they can maximize their profits now at our educational luncheon we actually a portion of the event is dedicated to your questions questions particular to your situation that you would want to put forth to say dennis block or stephen spear who is also the real estate attorney or any of the number of speakers we'll have with us so to give you a flavor of that that as well just ask you a couple rapid-fire questions here because again we're gonna be an open forum to take all your questions is the guy having a free consultation if you will not free I mean it's not my expense but a free consultation with Dennis to help you and assist you so late fee is there parameters for how much a late fee can be when they don't pay the rental time there's specific parameters most late fee provisions in rental agreements are illegal based on a case that came down a few years ago a California case you have to have specific language in your rental agreement that gets it away from just being a penalty so if the typical languages if you don't pay your rent within five days there's a 6% late charge that is illegal in the state of California for anybody who wants to know what the proper language is it is in my website if you go to evict one two three calm EVIC T one two three calm go to the freeform sections and look at my lease and you can copy that language which has specific paragraph of the specific language that you need I put it down where we're charging on a daily rate like three dollars a day up to 20 dollars up to 20 days and with that language it makes it a legal a charge but one thing is certain you cannot ask for a late charge and a notice to pay rent or quit that's a common mistake by landlords you put a late charge in a notice your case will be thrown out of court next question someone you find someone living in your unit that's not on the lease okay is that automatic grounds to be baked how do you get that tenet out if you have a rental agreement which limits the amount of occupants that is certainly a ground to evict we do that take case all the time there's a notice called a notice to perform a quit which is also on my website where you would fill that out saying that pursuant to the terms of the rental agreement only mr. a and Miss B can live there you have brought an additional person you don't have to name them but you brought an additional person and within three days that person has to vacate if the person doesn't vacate within the three-day period then the landlord has the right to bring forth an unlawful detainer action to evict everyone from the unit not just the additional person so that is a kind of a popular way that we use to evict tenants or you know even if you're not talking about raising rats landlord should be controlling who's living in their units they they went through the application process when they leased out the unit they went through a credit check they want to know who's living there if this tenant decides to bring in an additional person that's truly is a violation of the lease and does give cause to and at our event of course we're gonna walk through the rent control law or I should say Dennis and Steve are two real estate attorneys will walk through rent control from A to Z so you have a full understanding but obviously that's not the only thing plaguing landlords in terms of the eviction courts but for those attendee or those landlords who or may be thinking well I'll just stay home or maybe it's gonna be one of these things where there's a big pitch based upon what you intend to share at the event if I'm a landlord why should I be in attendance well the topic of course is dealing with statewide rent control first you're going to hear me talk about the concept of rent control which I like to really call a tenant welfare because quite frankly that's what it is so I'm gonna go through the parameters of what this is all about and how unfair it is but more specifically I'm going to tell you what you need to know about this statute whether the statute affects you what rights you get from that statute in terms of rent increases but I'm also going to go through a very simple procedure which is going to allow you to get around statewide rent control where you'll be able to evict your tenants and raise your rents to market value I think this is going to be an invaluable discussion and seminar that we're going to be putting forth here and it's really going to give landlord it's a true step up to obtain market value for their property that is thank you for your time thank you sir if you're watching this video that means there's only days left to RSVP for the event I implore you this there's no charge there's no strings attached there's no ulterior motive other than to empower you the landlords again this is Christian were from the apartment dealer wishing you positive cash flow tenants who behave and much protection from Uncle Sam thank you you