On Nov. 8th Mountain Voters approved Measure V, commonly known as the Rent Control Measure. If you are the Administrator of a Mountain View Probate Estate that has rental property to sell this is a huge deal. You need to know the rules in order to make sure the property is sold without breaking any new laws.
What does restricting rental price increases have to do with selling a Mountain View rental in Probate you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you.
The reason is MOUNTAIN VIEW JUST CAUSE EVICTION.
Measure V relates to not only rent control, but also JUST CAUSE EVICTION.
Just Cause Eviction means that tenants cannot be asked to vacate just because the lease is up or they are on a month to month rental and you give 30 or 60 days notice (if they have been there a year or more).
Tenants can only be told to leave a Mountain View Rental Property under the following circumstances:
- Failure to pay rent or other breach of lease
- Continuing failure to give landlord access
- Repairs that will last over 30 days that are needed for code upgrades or health and safety reasons. NOTE: COSMETIC REPAIRS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS EXEMPTION. This would include a kitchen or bath re-model to make the property more valuable.
- Owner or family member going to occupy the entire property
- Withdrawal from rental market with 120 day notice to tenant, unless over 62, disabled, or a tenant for 5 years or more. In these circumstances you need 1 year notice.
The good thing is that single family homes, condos, and duplexes are exempt from both rent control and Mountain View Just Cause Eviction. If you are an Administrator of a Mountain View Probate Estate that has a four- plex or more units to sell Mountain View JUST CAUSE EVICTION rules will apply to the estate.
Some things you should NOT do before selling the building are:
- Try to evict the tenants because they make the building look messy.
- Try to evict the tenants because the property is dated and you want to upgrade it before putting it on the market.
- Raise the rents above the allowable rent increase so the CAP rate looks better and makes the property more valuable.
Some things you can do when you are selling a Mountain View Four-Plex or larger building in Probate.
- Paint the exterior
- Make sure the tenants do not leave personal property outside the building
- Upgrade the landscaping
- Give the tenants an incentive to keep their apartments clean and allow showings.
This law is new, and takes effect Dec 23rd. There is an emergency ordinance that was passed Nov 16th to keep landlords from evicting tenants in order to raise rents on vacant apartments before that date, so if you are reading this before Dec 23rd you are out of luck anyway.
Just remember the Mountain View rental market is strong, and even with rent control and Just Cause Eviction there will be buyers for your Mountain View Apartment in Probate so relax, hire a great real estate agent who knows Probate (like myself) and let the process work itself out.
If you have any questions about selling or buying Probate property in Santa Clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
Keller Williams Realty
650-619-9285
www.marcymoyer.com
