Free Republic

Almost a week after the midterm elections, San Francisco's Proposition M, a vacancy tax on landlords, is projected to pass. The San Francisco Chronicle called the race Monday afternoon. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.) The ballot measure is a warning shot at landlords who are sitting on multiple vacant units, but it includes some notable carve-outs that critics say will blunt its impact. Starting on Jan. 1, 2024, property owners with at least three units that have been vacant for more than 182 days (six months) will be taxed...

New York State Attorney General Letitia James is suing an Ithaca landlord for allegedly denying housing to low-income tenants. Landlord Jason Fane, his company Ithaca Renting Company, and his related entities are all subject to the suit. An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that Mr. Fane and his real estate agents refused to accept Section 8 vouchers at his properties, in violation of New York’s housing laws against source of income discrimination. The lawsuit alleges that agents at Ithaca Renting repeatedly told renters they do not accept government assistance vouchers. Through her lawsuit, Attorney General...

CHICAGO - A Chicago woman was charged Wednesday with murdering her landlord, apparently using "large butcher knives" to dismember her body before putting the body parts in a freezer, police said Wednesday night. Around 2:30 a.m. on Monday, tenants in a home in the 5900 block of North Washtenaw Avenue heard screaming. Police say they tried texting and calling their landlord — identified as 69-year-old Francis Walker — to make sure everything was OK. They got a text response back, but it was later discovered that the response was sent by the murder suspect — 36-year-old Sandra Kolalou. Later in...

A Massachusetts woman allegedly beat her former landlord to death with a hammer and wrapped his body in a curtain after he found out she was forging checks in his name and had stolen over $40,000, officials said. Xiu Fang Ke, 43, of Newton, was arrested and arraigned on a murder charge Wednesday in connection with the death of her former landlord Leonard Garber, 65, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Wednesday.

DENTON, Texas - Denton police arrested a 68-year-old man for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a video shows him confronting a tenant with a gun. When FOX 4 spoke to the landlord, he did not deny his role in the confrontation. Cell phone video shows the intense Sept. 9 encounter between 27-year-old UNT grad student Mohammed Alzahrani and his 68-year-old landlord, Phillip Young Young told FOX 4 he had a verbal agreement with Alzahrani that he wouldn’t use the kitchen in exchange for cheaper rent. "So all of a sudden after two weeks, he decides he’s going to...

In a sign of the times, a fed-up Queens landlord posted two giant banners calling out his allegedly deadbeat tenants for owing him $17,000 in back rent. “MY TENANTS ON THE FIRST FLOOR ARE NOT PAYING RENT” read the bold posters slung above the first-floor rental on 175th Street in Springfield Gardens. Landlords Calvin and Jean Thompson posted the banners — which can be seen from the Belt Parkway — in the hopes of shaming their tenants into paying up. It was also featured in a TikTok video that got more than 14,000 likes — and supportive comments like, “Not...

A Minneapolis landlord says he was attempting to have multiple stolen vehicles towed from a lot behind his property when a group of individuals attacked him. Dale Howey manages 11 properties throughout the Twin Cities, and says last week, residents at the Green Rock Apartments, located at 2440 Harriet Avenue in Minneapolis, reported cars illegally parked in the back lot. Howey says it was later learned the cars had been reported stolen. “There was one without plates,” Howey said. “That raised a flag.” On Dec. 30, he notified a towing company the cars needed to be moved. Around 1:30 a.m....

I don't know what to do here. Landlord is "losing" my rent checks that I always send out a week or two early. I have had to stop payment and reissue two checks in a row. The second time I sent it certified mail, return receipt requested. USPS tracking says he was not present to sign so they did not deliver and left a notice.

At least 22 farm animals were discovered in the rented home of a self-proclaimed Santeria doctor from New Jersey, whose landlord suspects he’s conducting animal sacrifices — but says she can’t evict him because of the COVID-19 eviction moratorium. Resident Emilio Otero, who identified himself to NBC 4, allegedly kept goats, chickens and even nailed a dead pigeon to the door of the three-bedroom Jersey City rowhome.

A Las Vegas landlord accused of shooting dead two female tenants and critically injuring a man in a dispute over unpaid rent allegedly said he’d “handle it his way” instead of trying to evict them. Arnoldo Lozano Sanchez, 78, shot the three victims inside his home early Wednesday after an argument broke out regarding the rent, police say. The landlord, who also lived at the home, allegedly laughed and smiled as he opened fire on the victims in their rooms, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It is not clear how much rent the tenants...

A North Carolina landlord says he is out $24,000 in unpaid rent from tenants, while one renter bought three boats over the course of the eviction moratorium just as the CDC announced a new ban that will last until October 3. Buddy Shoup, who owns 35 properties across the state, said that he has been forced to maintain the properties and hemorrhage costs while the federal government slowly dribbles out rental assistance, of which only 7% has been doled out to renters in need. ‘[The money] was used, they went and bought brand new boats, but I mean, you know...

In a step toward racial equity and ending housing discrimination, N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday signed the Fair Chance in Housing Act, barring landlords in New Jersey from asking about criminal history on housing applications. At the state’s first commemoration of Juneteenth as an official holiday, Murphy signed the historic “ban the box” bill (A1919), which advocates say is the most sweeping form of the law in the nation. … Under the law, landlords will only be able to ask about criminal records on applications if the prospective tenants are a registered sex offender or were convicted for making...

In 2008, shortly after becoming a U.S. senator, Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and her husband, John Bessler, began renting a house in Arlington, Virginia, from Chuck Todd, then NBC News’ political director. I unveil the ties between Todd and Democratic campaigns in my explosive new book, Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruptions.

Editor's Note: This column was authored by Emilie Dye.No one likes to think about people being unable to pay rent and losing their homes. But as I learned in high school reading Henry Hazlitt, “The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.” And the eviction moratorium, which the CDC extended this week for the second time, completely ignores landlords.Since September 2020, the government has essentially forced landlords to...

A nightmare facing a couple who purchased a home for cash perfectly illustrates why having the government over-involved in the rental market is a disaster even for people who never meant to lease their property but are plagued by a squatter. A couple who bought a house in good faith, now find themselves mired in California’s labyrinthine tenants’ laws, exacerbated by the new COVID rules. Riverside is a large suburban area located about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles – although it’s still considered part of the Greater Los Angeles area. Tracie and Myles Albert, a young couple in...

In England and California, much is made of second homes that are not placed in the rental market. The primary reason that second homes are not rented out is because of highly justified owner fears of tenant problems. These fears keep millions of higher quality houses and spacious condos out of the rental market. If millions of houses and condos were added to the rental market, rents would fall somewhat. The government insists on small security deposits because of a desire to make it easy for tenants to rent a place to live and to move. Security deposit laws were...

An investigation from NBC Bay Area found that a big-time real estate developer with properties throughout the Bay Area has sent at least 150 eviction notices to renters despite a moratorium on evictions.Tenants living in buildings owned by Madison Park Financial Corporation — which has properties in Oakland, Emeryville and Lafayette — have reported being bombarded with notices at locations including Lampwork Lofts, Town29 and Telegraph Lofts.Madison Park is owned by John Protopappas, a former chairman for Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's mayoral campaign.The notices, per NBC Bay Area, read that tenants are required to pay rent or "quit and deliver...

Editor's Note: This piece was authored by landlord and Young Voices contributor Jen Sidorova.To much aplomb from the public and to the great chagrin of landlords everywhere, President-elect Joe Biden announced plans to extend the eviction moratorium to the end of September. The measure, of course, was meant to protect 40 million Americans facing homelessness as a result of the ongoing pandemic. But Biden’s move isn’t just sticking it to greedy, rich landlords with an eye putting poor people on the street in times of crisis. After all, the white-collar landlords will make it out of this alive. No, this...

I’ve been writing about the looming eviction crisis since early in the summer. This entirely predictable disaster has been obvious to anyone who has been paying attention ever since the pandemic broke out. A well-intentioned “eviction moratorium” effort by the government to prevent renters from finding themselves out on the streets after government shutdowns eliminated their jobs did little or nothing to prevent the damages sustained by landlords. It also never answered the question of what would be done about all the back rent that was going to come due when the moratoriums expired. These challenges are already taking their...

A newly elected state assemblyman from Rochester says he’s been arrested after trying to video Rochester city police evict a public school teacher and her children from their home. “That is absolutely inhumane,” Assemblyman Demond Meeks said of the eviction on a sub-freezing night. Meeks, who was elected last month and sworn into office in mid-November, said he went by the home in Corn Hill after hearing that police were planning the eviction.