Airbnb and other home share platforms have been exacerbating the already tight supply of affordable housing in many major cities (see other articles in the 323.APARTMENTS blog) by raising prices of short term rentals. However, home share platforms also increase liability exposure of  apartment landlords by introducing renters who have no written contracts with the landlord. In the event of catastrophic events, landlords are held liable even though they have no rental contracts with such renters and have never prior knowledge of their existence in the apartment complexes.

Airbnb and other home-share platforms are now banned in New York and Los Angeles apartments. In New York, under the new legislation, the fine for a first offense increases tenfold, from the current $1,000 to a whopping $10,000, with the maximum penalty jumping from $25,000 to $50,000. A companion bill mandates an annual report from City Hall of complaints, inspections, and fines connected to illegal short-term rentals.

Los Angeles passed a similar law. In Los Angeles, a tenant must have prior written permission from landlord otherwise face prosecution and eviction resulting from breach of contract (lease agreement). The stiffest opposition to Airbnb has ironically come from places like San Francisco  (its birthplace and headquarters) and New York. There, affordable housing advocates have joined forces with the hotel industry and labor unions to demand greater regulation.

SOURCE: New York Daily News
SOURCE: City of Los Angeles Ordinance 185931
SOURCE: Los Feliz Ledger

Top earners, or Americans making $150,000 or more per year, are the fastest-growing renter segment, according to apartment search website RENTCafé. After analyzing recent U.S. Census data, the research team at the company found that more than 1.35 million high-income households became renters between 2007 and 2017, a 175% increase.
As of today, there are 43.3 million renters nationwide, with 2.1 million in the high-income category. In 2007, RENTCafé reports, only 774,000 people were represented in the demographic.

The City of Glendale has imposed a rent freeze which will force 323.APARTMENTS to raise rents, since our average historical rent increases were lower than rent control. This ordinance will adversely impact all 323.APARTMENTS residents who reside in Glendale. Here are the details...

New York-based Blackstone has invested millions in California’s elections—and its homes

On Friday, a profile in the Intercept discussed the prominent role of Wall Street investment in the fight over rent control in California, including the part played by the private equity firm Blackstone, which has poured millions into defeating Proposition 10.

Glendale Tenants Union, a radical tenants rights advocacy group, has failed to collect barely less than half of the required signatures to get rent control on the November 2018 ballot. Glendale joins a list of other cities like Pasadena, Long Beach, Inglewood, and Santa Ana which have also failed to garner the required number of signatures to qualify for the November 2018 ballot. Here is a partial list of their onerous demands...

Evictions in California have been on the decline since 2008, contrary to popular belief. In fact, only 0.1% (calculated as number of evictions divided by population) of tenants are evicted in the Glendale-Burbank area. Glendale and Burbank have among the lowest eviction rates in the United States.

Here is the detailed data...

Today, 323.APARTMENTS launched video streaming as another method to resolve resident maintenance problems in real-time.

The 323.APARTMENTS video  streaming platform is based on WebRTC /SIP compliant transcoding, which runs within our maintenance request database. Residents do not need any upgrade or app to use the system.

Here is how it works ...