From: colon...@gmail.com
In San Francisco there are thousands of rental units vacant, even though there are thousands of potential tenants who want to lease them. Why? The idiots in the local government passed rent control laws that limit the percentage by which landlords can raise rent. If you own an apartment building, why lease a unit to a person who will trash it, not pay enough in rent to cover expenses, and then fight eviction for years with taxpayer-paid city attorneys? New York City has had similar problems because of rent control. If an old lady has been in an apartment for decades, rent control laws prevent the landlord from raising her rent to market levels. The landlords compensate by jacking up the rent of units when they become vacant. You end up with someone paying $2,000 per month in rent living next door to an old lady paying $800 per month, rather than each paying $1,400. Neighbors end up hating neighbors. Meanwhile, there is an apartment shortage because no one is stupid enough to invest in new buildings. Landlords leave units vacant rather than face problems. It is virtually impossible to evict a tenant, even if he goes months without paying rent. landlords walk away from their buildings, letting them fall into disrepair. The leftist laws intended to "protect" the tenants from the "evil landlords" end up harming almost everyone in the long run. And you have people like Charlie Rangel keeping an apartment he no longer lives in vacant solely because it is rent controlled, so if he ever needs it he can move back in at a low monthly amount. My advice to landlords is to rent only to gays. After they move out it will be better decorated than when they moved in! BOB GREGORY <rhg...@gmail.com> wrote: *Judy: That is an example of why I would not ever accept Section 8 tenants. I do realize that one could occasionally miss the opportunity to rent to a very good tenant and have regular "gummint" checks coming in, the the odds are against it. Even with good tenants, one has to contend with the Section 8 inspectors who are often arrogant and authoritarian and always very, very picky. I once had an inspector fail the entire unit because there was not a clear glass cover over one of the outside lights by the front stoop. (Tenants take them off to change bulbs and then either break them or lose them.) I searched for a replacement, going to six different supply houses and big box stores with no success. I finally told the inspector I could not find the cover and the he would have to take it or leave it. He caved finally. These inspectors are like codes enforcement inspectors. They are determined to find something to put on a report in order to justify their existence. It is sometimes a good tactic to leave some glaring problem un-repaired until after the inspection so that they will note it. There are annual inspections, and a unit that passed with no discrepancies at all will usually have a long list of repairs at the first annual inspection. I told tenants that they had to pay for anything damaged that I had to repair since no one was there but them to do the damage. How many people do you know who break toilet seats? Have screens go missing from storm windows? Have the batteries disappear from smoke detectors? I once had an inspection at one of the units I managed. My maintenance man was there on his knees changing the front door lock (because the former tenant had failed to return all keys). The inspector walked through, scribbled on his clipboard and started to leave without a word. I asked what about any discrepancies and he said it was not ready for inspection because the front door lock was not installed. ==================================================================* <judyfuller...@aol.com> wrote: On another note with the Section 8 housing, my ex owns a 2 family section 8 house and when they did an inspection, he was informed that the fan over the stove was missing. How could that happen? How could these buildings be in such terrible repair? Well I'll fill you in. It's the residents who do it. This house was fully carpeted when it was new 9 years ago. He gave them a vacuum cleaner because poor people don't usually have one. It was sold on the street. so the carpeting is long gone and he had to replace it with linoleum. Then one tenant heated up the oven, left the oven door open, put a can of roach spray on the hot oven door and blew out the front window. It's difficult to keep up with thse people. And when they move out, they take the pipes out of the wall. -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
