Michele Byrnes: Go ahead and start
Moni Law: Okay, great. I didn't know if I was introducing myself. So here I am, I'm Moni Law, housing counselor at the Berkeley Rent Board with my colleague, Michelle Byrnes and I'm going to go over tenants rights and responsibilities and
Moni Law: There will be questions, we hope you ask them, and if we don't cover what you're wanting to have covered we'll definitely pick up on that at the end. Next slide please.
Moni Law: Or do I like pass the slide myself? oh wait, here we go. So these are our agenda items. Today we're going to cover the application process and rental agreements which is
Moni Law: really important.
Moni Law: security deposits, rent levels, good cause for eviction, protections and considerations during shelter in place - that's what SiP is - and then breaking a lease. And then finally, Q & A at the end. Next slide.
Moni Law: So these are the things you want to ask before you're signing a lease.
Moni Law: Maybe I should ask, is everybody in the process of looking for housing or does everyone already have housing? Sometimes it's good to test our audience and know where people are at
Moni Law: There's a little hard - It's funny, you can't - how do you exchange and do interaction with people on zoom. I can't see everybody's faces.
Anna Hoehenrieder: I've unmuted you all. If you want to talk or put your answers in the chat.
Moni Law: Yeah. Chat box is always good.
Moni Law: So no one said anything as of yet because you're just intrigued and wondering about
Anna Hoehenrieder: Currently have housing.
Anna Hoehenrieder: That's one.
Moni Law: They do. Okay. Is anyone looking for housing and looking at applying for place at this time?
Moni Law: If not, just think of all this in the next time that you go out to look for housing or tell your friends. So the questions you want to ask yourself, and
Moni Law: Michael's not looking currently, but he might in the future. These are things to ask yourself when you're looking
Moni Law: Oh, is there a tenant screening fee? Yeah, there usually is and there's an ordinance for that. So an ordinance is a city law that was passed to regulate this because some landlords were charging $100 per person or all kinds of fees.
Moni Law: It changes every year, a little bit increase, but it's about $56 per tenant now is the maximum and there's things that they have to put on their application form and their tenant screening form -  tenant screening information has to be there.
Moni Law: There's information, you should have ready. People go to these things now as job interviews as you're probably aware if you're looking for the second or third year or fourth year
Moni Law: Excuse me, you want to have your credit score, a cosigner, and letters of reference, like, make yourself stand out just as though you're in a job interview.
Moni Law: And then thing to know before signing a lease is this thing called Costa Hawkins. Anybody heard of Costa Hawkins? What's Costa Hawkins?
Moni Law: This guy named Costa and this other guy named Hawkins came together and made a law. It's called Costa Hawkins and it basically is vacancy deregulation, where
Moni Law: Whenever there's a vacancy, quote and quote, a turnover in tenancy, the landlords are allowed to reset the rent in a rent-controlled unit.
Moni Law: So if you're like most Cal students, your roommate has been there 5, 6, 7 years with lower rent moved out. That was the last original tenant. There's now a quote vacancy even though there is three of you left. Your rent might go up hundreds of dollars more a month.
Moni Law: Or maybe a thousand. I don't know, I've seen really high increases sometimes, in the past, anyway. So Costa Hawkins event is when there's a vacancy turnover of tenancy.
Moni Law: And then the final question they ask before you even sign the lease because we asked people tell us later I had no idea the unit wasn't rent controlled.
Moni Law: So know this. It's not rent controlled if it's a single family home. Most single family homes, unless it's five bedrooms or more on separate leases, that's a rooming house.
Moni Law: But most single family homes, condos, and new construction are not rent controlled. So there's no limit on the rent increase for the year's renewal.
Moni Law: It could be more than 2% or less that rent control units are. So ask yourself that are asked us, you can call our office about that next. Next slide.
Moni Law: So you want to read the entire agreement. A lot of people tell us after the fact. "I didn't read that." Notice that, you probably should have, because now you can get evicted because you're violating a term in the lease you didn't read.
Moni Law: So, do read the entire agreement. Check the lease for this other little tricky thing called an automatically renewing lease. It's so tricky that another law was passed to make sure people don't get snookered by this. It has to be an eight size font bold, underneath your signature.
Moni Law: And conspicuous location on the agreement, but it basically says that if you don't
Moni Law: Renew by certain time,  basically, it's assumed that you've renewed. So people get stuck in these leases that are going on for a whole 'nother year even though they didn't know that was automatically triggered
Moni Law: by this provision in the lease. Also check for any unlawful provisions, it can't say you can't have kids, it can't say you can't have your spouse.
Moni Law: Can't say that you never get your security deposit back. Things that are illegal, they can't put in there. If they do strike it out.
Moni Law: If it prohibits subletting, they're allowed to do that so
Moni Law: read that closely. Again, if you sublet without permission or even sublet at all to some say extremely strong language no subletting period. That means no subletting period.
Moni Law: And if you do, then you can get evicted for it and then you want to ask, "When can rent be raised?" It's usually the first of the year, after a full calendar year passing. So if you moved in this year in 2020, your first rent increase won't be until January 2022, if it's a rent control unit.
Moni Law: The lease is by whatever the lease date if it's in a new building or single family home or condo. Do a move in inspection
Moni Law: Before you move in and document the condition. So make sure you let the landlord know in advance, a hole in the wall in the kitchen, it's not yours of making; it's somebody else who did it. Otherwise they might charge you later. So just make it real clear what the condition the unit is in when you moved in.
Moni Law: Whoops, I just slid over the slide to see myself now. Whoops. Where did it go? Okay.
Moni Law: Next slide please.
Moni Law: So this is about security deposits. So a security deposit is all the money that's collected at the beginning of your tenancy, except the first month's rent.
Moni Law: So some landlords say very confusingly, and I suggest that they never do this because it is confusing.
Moni Law: Is they'll say first and last month's rent and security deposit and then the tenant will say, I already paid my last month's rent and so they could take it.
Moni Law: So last month's rent is part of the security deposit because it's part of the rent. If you don't pay it, they can take it out of your security deposit.
Moni Law: But look at your lease because some of them are very clear. It'll even say there was no pre-paid rent on this last month. You pay every month and then there's two months
Moni Law: for unfurnished units. So if your rent is $2,000, they could charge you $4,000 in security deposit.
Moni Law: Plus your $2,000 of the first month's rent. So you can be charged $6,000 in advance essentially. It has to be fully refundable. The full deposit technically refundable unless they have legal grounds to deduct; which we'll go over in a second.
Moni Law: And finally, they can't increase it during your tenancy for rent control units anyway, except
Moni Law: pet deposit. If you decide you want Fido and they agree, Fido's going to be probably $500, $300 - they charge a few hundred dollars, usually to cover damage to the dog might create - so otherwise you cannot increase the security deposit in a rent controlled unit. Next slide please.
Moni Law: What they can use your security deposit for is the unpaid rent. So if you get behind a month or two or three, that's going to be taken out of the security deposit. Damage to your unit beyond normal wear and tear. That's always a question of fact, where,what is wear and tear, what's normal
Moni Law: So be really clear that if it's just a scuff mark - probably not - but if you scratch the floor, put a hole in the wall or something beyond normal wear and tear.
Moni Law: And then, and damage is also your guests, or friends, or family, or anybody who damages the unit under your tenancy, you know, you can be liable under your security deposit for that.
Moni Law: Then the third area that they can deduct is for cleaning to bring it to the condition you moved in. I have a lot of Cal students and their parents say they take like hours to clean the place when they moved in. Make sure you document that.
Moni Law: Because you have to bring it back to the unit condition you were delivered to you, so video if you have to for the condition if it's really bad and definitely you know sweep, wipe down, clean, but deep cleaning isn't going to be required unless they gave it to you at deep cleaning level.
Moni Law: And just so you know too. In some of the new buildings, they have will automatically charges cleaning deposit withdrawal anyway. They'll charge you like $200 or $300 because they do a deep shampoo and deep clean.
Moni Law: Then best practices for
Moni Law: this process. Let's see at the bottom of the screen. I don't know if I see it all. See here oh there we are.
Moni Law: You want to give you a 30 day notice to the landlord that you're vacating and provide new address where you can receive your security deposit.
Moni Law: And we have a sample letter, by the way. So the really good news on all of this, that's just like ooo we're covering a lot of territory.
Moni Law: It's on our website, so you don't have to take a note or you have this slide deck. But you can also go to our website, there's a sample letter for your 30 day notice
Moni Law: and your new address. You want to make sure you clean it and repair damage. So the walkthrough inspection that you can do at the end and you're taking photos, the landlord is supposed to give you a chance two weeks prior to your moving out.
Moni Law: That there's a problem here or there and in that walk through they've identified what those issues are so that you can do the repairs, much cheaper than they're going to charge you for. Right? They'll charge you
Moni Law: by the contractor comes in charges you $200 to do something you can spend $20 to fix. So try your best to do the repairs and get it identified in advance of moving out two weeks before.
Moni Law: That's also on our website. Sample letter for that.
Moni Law: Next slide please.
Moni Law: Group living arrangements are common and a big deal for students.
Moni Law: So the first bullet is about the original occupant is defined as follows: So it's somebody who actually signed the lease; so the original leaseholder. It's also a subtenant who remains in the unit. So if Anna's staying there after you know I moved out and Anna's still there.
Moni Law: She's the subtenant. But you're still, you're an original tenant now that I moved out. So as soon as the original person who signed the lease - that was me, I left -
Moni Law: Okay, Anna you're now subtenant. But no, now you're an original occupant which now triggers the Costa Hawkins that we talked about earlier.
Moni Law: You get a 60 day notice, usually that you're rent's going to go up 30% or whatever they decide it's going to be because they're allowed to set it and then they tell us what your rent is and they file a form with us.
Moni Law: And then anybody who moved into the unit within 30 days of the lease signing. So if I sign the lease on August 1st and somebody moved in August 15
Moni Law:  A lot of students are coming back in the middle of the month, even though they didn't sign the lease, they're also considered an original tenant with protections of that rent that was set on August 1st for me and whoever moved and within 30 days with the landlord's approval, of course.
Moni Law: Then we're master tenant issue. We want to make sure you know about - it's common in group living arrangement is they're like, the landlord - the term is actually sub landlord.
Moni Law: And there's a sub-tenant. So most landlords don't want to take money from a sub-tenant, but they'll take it from the master tenant instead. And they interact mainly with the master tenant who's their tenant, the sub tenant is the master tenant's tenants. They're like the landlord.
Moni Law: Some sub-tenants rent from the master tenant - then the rent has to also have an important rule is proportional rent. We have cases in our hearings where
Moni Law: If I'm being charged three times the rent and Anna's room is like twice as big as mine. That's not fair. So you can actually petition for a rent adjustment because it should be proportional to space and amenities. But if I'm
Moni Law: If I have a hot tub and a part of a deck and then they're amenities, it could be increased. And there's also some offset if the master tenants doing extra work like maintaining the building.
Moni Law: And taking the checks, they might have a rent reduction. So that's the proportional adjustment kind of rule with sub tenants and master tenants. Next slide.
Moni Law: So here are the good causes for eviction. I think this is my last slide. And we only have like, I'm going fast. Am I going too fast or is this the right speed?
Moni Law: How do you think Anna. Are we doing good?
Moni Law: Anybody fall asleep or
Moni Law: Go, I need a cup of coffee to keep up like what's going on. Okay, here we go. It's my last slide.
Moni Law: And I'm going to skip over I think to Michelle after this one.
Moni Law: Maybe one more. So the landlord's can't just evict you, for any reason, in Berkeley, there's good causes required to be evicted. So anybody lives in Oakland, there's a similar
Moni Law: "just causes" is what they call it. You have to be evicted for a specific reason. The reason is in the Berkeley law outlined here. It's non payment of rent is a common one.
Moni Law: Violation of material substantial lease terms. So don't do that.
Moni Law: You cause a damage to a unit you that you've refused to do repairs. I had somebody who accidentally left the water on, bummer because it flooded the whole lower unit and there was like thousands of dollars of damage.
Moni Law: So do get insurance. A side note, it's not required to usually although some places will say that, it's not a bad idea. We can't tell people what to do, but just FYI. If you don't have insurance, sometimes you could be really out
Moni Law: Especially if there's a fire or other things happen to you, you lose everything. But if there's damage you don't pay, you can be evicted if you don't.
Moni Law: If you refuse to do the repairs or make a payment plan to do the repairs.
Moni Law: Also if you refuse to sign a substantially identical lease, so that the end of your lease is coming up and then they give you a new lease and it's pretty much the same substantially. So if you refuse to sign it,
Moni Law: they could have evict you for that. They have to give you a notice to cure for opportunity to sign it.
Moni Law: Other areas, nuisance. So people are having parties every night and as 10 police reports and neighbors are calling and all kinds of mischief and nonsense. They can be evicted for that. This could also be for
Moni Law: smells or will drugs, smell, sometimes, but like, yes, smells and a nuisance and sound, but mainly sound are the common ones.
Moni Law: And then if you refuse the landlord lawful access that's gonna be 24 hour notice they have to give you in writing that is for needed or agree to repair or to show the unit to someone
Moni Law: If you refuse and they gave you 24 hour notice in advance, that could be grounds for eviction. Premium properties, I just saw these today, they also charge you for the fee if someone has to come back again.
Moni Law: So, be wary of what your leases and the state laws, you gotta let them in if they gave you 24 hour notice you can be evicted. If you don't
Moni Law: One of the other ones that's happening a lot, just because everyone loves Berkeley and wants to move here and they buy a property. If they buy the property and there's Cal  parents that buy properties to so their CAL students can move into it. So might be one of those situations.
Moni Law: And if someone is the unfortunate one that's being moved out, they have to be given a fit within at least a year.
Moni Law: Relocation payment and 60 day notice and the owner move in is very technical. I'm not going to go into all the details. We just know if you're living in a unit and the owner buys the property and they say they want your unit, called the rent board because we can give you advice of your rights as a tenant.
Moni Law: That you don't always have to move. The person might just be buying the property as a rental property or income property, but if they want it to move in, there are some special rules that apply to that.
Moni Law: And Ellis Act is something where
Moni Law: That can cause someone to evict is a little more complicated, too. But it basically takes the whole property off the market, they're not going to be in the rental business anymore and Ellis is the name of the state legislator, who it is named after. Berkeley has extra protections. But if you're there,
Moni Law: you're not seniors, so there will be the four month notice,
Moni Law: I mean one year notice. You get relocation payment and basically you have to move because they're taking the units off the market for a number of years.
Moni Law: That's the basic overview of it. It's a lot more to it. And the final point is demolition, which is rare, but I hear that the UC
Moni Law: Which is not a red control building, though, but they're looking to demolish a couple units that have tenants in them.
Moni Law: So Berkeley wants to protect tenants from not losing their housing. So there's an ordinance called the Demolition Ordinance and if they demolish your rent control unit, they have to replace it.
Moni Law: Generally is the rule, and also they discourage people from demolishing buildings, unless they're
Moni Law: Not up to code or something, but not just to build a fancy new building that's protecting existing rent control units is what our charges to do under the State law that was passed in 1980. Voters passed into law and the rent control laws, I think is the next slide yours, Michelle?
Moni Law: What page run
Michele Byrnes: It is now me
Okay.
Moni Law: Good.
Michele Byrnes: Hey, thanks Moni. So hi everyone I'm Michelle Byrnes also with the rent board and
Michele Byrnes: so I was now going to talk about some specific things related to being a tenant. Now, during these extraordinary circumstances of
Michele Byrnes: COVID-19 and I saw that some of the questions that were submitted in advance related directly to this so
Michele Byrnes: I will try to touch on those. But at the end, certainly people can ask questions as well so
Michele Byrnes: Couple of things to be aware of is that right now. So there's an emergency response ordinance that was passed by the Berkeley city council.
Michele Byrnes: And one of the primary components is that it prohibits most evictions in Berkeley.
Michele Byrnes: So like Moni just said, most units. Most tenant units, you only can be evicted for good cause. But right now, during the local state of emergency, you actually cannot be evicted in most cases.
Michele Byrnes: So you only can be for the Ellis Act, as Moni discussed, or if it's necessary for the health and safety of residents, but the health and safety of residents does not include whether a tenant has a real or suspected case of COVID 19 so it has to be something different than that.
Michele Byrnes: So there are also specific protections, both at the local and state level. If you can, if you find yourself unable to pay the full rent as a result of COVID 19
Michele Byrnes: So your responsibility as a tenant is to notify your landlord as soon as possible, and within seven days of rent being do and it should be in writing and that's the governor's executive order that that requires that
Michele Byrnes: We do have a template form on our website for notifying your landlord if you're not able to pay the full rent. Other people, I think it also you can actually do it via email. if you would like to. But you have several options.
Michele Byrnes: It's also important that you provide documentation about why you're not able to pay rent. So, or at least at the beginning to collect documentation, because you may be asked for it later.
Michele Byrnes: And when it is requested, you have to provide it, either within 45 days of the landlord's request or 30 days after the local state of emergency is lifted, whichever is later.
Michele Byrnes: And when we say local we're talking about Berkeley because Berkeley has its own public health department. So the City of Berkeley has its own state of emergency right now.
Michele Byrnes: And then, any sort of documentation that you provide it the landlord's request, they have to keep in confidence.
Michele Byrnes: And this final note here is just that if you end up getting any sort of grant money then that directly reduces the amount of money that you owe to to the landlord.
Michele Byrnes: So let's talk about what it would be considered a covered reason for delaying how much rent you can pay. So even if you can pay any portion of your rent, but not all of it, you should do so and just make sure that you notify your landlord of how much you'll be able to pay
Michele Byrnes: The covered reasons for delay payment of rent. This is in the emergency ordinance at the city level.
Michele Byrnes: Is if it's the result of a material decrease in your income and that decrease was caused by the impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic, or the government response to the pandemic. So some examples of covered reasons would be if you were laid off from your job or your hours were reduced
Michele Byrnes: It's just caregiving responsibilities, if you have substantial material out of pocket medical expenses.
Michele Byrnes: Or if you have a number, if the number of tenants is tends to be the most relevant to students, is that if a number of tenants in your household is reduced.
Michele Byrnes: As a result of COVID 19. And one question that we get a lot of is, "Okay, well, what if one of my roommates just didn't return because of the school was closed?"
Michele Byrnes: And that's, does that count as a covered reason. And the answer is
Michele Byrnes: It's ultimately going to be decided in court. We can't give a definitive answer. But that would be the kind of case that you could try to make.
Michele Byrnes: So for example, if it's you and two roommates and you pay you know about a third of rent and then neither have your roommates return because
Michele Byrnes: Classes are online and they decided the expense doesn't make sense or they're not able to cover the expense and then you suddenly have this apartment,
Michele Byrnes: then you would want to make sure to notify your landlord right away, that you can only cover a third of the rent and that you your roommates have not returned as a result of COVID 19
Michele Byrnes: And again, ultimately, it's going to be up to the courts to decide if that's a valid reason but that's that's going to be one of the things you would. That's one of the arguments that you could make
Michele Byrnes: In terms of whether rent is owed, you do if you're not able to pay the full rent, you will have up to 12 months after the local state of emergency has expired,
Michele Byrnes: To pay the full rent. And then after that point that any unpaid overdue rent becomes a consumer debt. So it's not you cannot be evicted for that unpaid rent. That is a crude during the state of emergency.
Michele Byrnes: However, if let's say the state of emergency ends and then you don't pay rent the following month, then you could be affected.
Michele Byrnes: So you want to pay as much rent as you can and pay your back rent as soon as you can. And then, within 12 months.
Michele Byrnes: And then after the state of emergency is lifted, you have to pay that next month's rent on time in and fall. Another thing that's important to note is that late fees are currently prohibited.
Michele Byrnes: And it says, both during and after the local state of emergency. So what that means is any sort of late fee. If you are late on your rent during the state of emergency.
Michele Byrnes: You cannot be charged late fees now, nor can you be charged late
Michele Byrnes: Fees on that delayed rent that occured during the state of emergency.
Michele Byrnes: So next I want to talk about lease breaking. We've been getting a flood of calls about least breaking understandably because a lot of people are deciding that it doesn't make sense for them to
Michele Byrnes: Move it to their units at all, or that they need to move out of their units before the end of their lease. So there is a new  intersection between state and local law, and this is something that's important
Michele Byrnes: to explain because there's been a fair amount of misunderstanding about it. So there is a new local law, that's Berkeley Municipal Code 13.7 8.017 and that specifically says that student tenants impacted by
Michele Byrnes: COVID 19 can terminate their leases without penalty with 30 days notice
Michele Byrnes: The primary distinction here, though, is when it says without penalty, that does not mean if there will not be any sort of financial consequence. It means that the landlord cannot just charge you a flat fee because you broke your lease. So let's say for example that you need to move out
Michele Byrnes: at the end of September, but your lease goes through January or through the end of December.
Michele Byrnes: And you need to break it because of COVID 19 you're going to have to leave Berkeley and break your lease.
Michele Byrnes: You'd want to give 30 days notice now and then the landlord cannot just say, well, because it's really inconvenient for me. I need you to pay
Michele Byrnes: I need you to pay me $1,000 to get out of release that would be considered a penalty, and that would not be allowed.
Michele Byrnes: However, what the landlord can do is follow state law, which is Civil Code 19 51.2 and that says that a landlord can seek any rent that is still owed to them
Michele Byrnes: left on the lease. So in this case, let's say you move out at the end of September, you would still owe rent for October, November and December.
Michele Byrnes: Unless the landlord can find a new tenant to move in, the landlord is responsible for taking steps to mitigate damages and trying to find a replacement tenant. And if they're not able to, then the tenant on the lease very well may be held financially responsible for that.
Michele Byrnes: One other nuance to be aware of is that tenants and landlords can can mutually agree to end the lease.
Michele Byrnes: So they could come up basically where the tenant kind of buys themselves out of the lease and they can negotiate a term
Michele Byrnes: allowing that. You know if they pay a certain fee, it wouldn't be a penalty. Basically saying, "Hey, I'm going to pay one month rent or why don't you keep my deposit and then I'm going to leave without any sort of liabilities." And that is allowed under the local ordinance.
Michele Byrnes: So I want to talk about having landlords enter your unit during shelter in place. That includes showing rental units for sale or for rent, as well as entering to do repairs.
Michele Byrnes: So let's first talk about showing units, because that especially if you're breaking a lease and you need to leave, and then they need to rewrite your unit. They're going to want to show it.
Michele Byrnes: You want to make sure to be aware of your rights. So there's this Shelter-in-Place order has specific guidance around showing residential units.
Michele Byrnes: And it says that it should be a virtual showing if at all possible. And then if it's not feasible, then it has specific guidelines.
Michele Byrnes: What it does not do is break out what is feasible and what is not feasible. So typically what we encourage tenants to do is to really work with their landlord to arrange for a virtual showing and that
Michele Byrnes: may include, you know, one day someone coming in to do a video recording or to take photographs, but then that would,
Michele Byrnes: when the tenant is not present, but then that would mean you would not have people coming in and out of the unit for open houses.
Michele Byrnes: If, if an in person, showing isn't feasible, then they can be conducted by appointment. When the resident or the occupant is not present.
Michele Byrnes: You can have one person showing the unit and then two people who are from the same household that are visiting the unit. And if you have questions about enforcement you'd want to call the main city customer service line or there's also a COVID 19
Michele Byrnes: email address now.
Michele Byrnes: So, the other question related to this comes around making repairs and or doing inspections. A landlord is going to be allowed, with 24 hours written notice, to enter the unit to do necessary or agreed upon repairs.
Michele Byrnes: But then, there's the balance right now of people's feeling of safety and wanting to make sure that they're
Michele Byrnes: complying with shelter in place and that they're keeping maintaining social distance and not wanting to have people enter their unit. So
Michele Byrnes: what we encourage here is if your landlord wants to do a repair, you want to make sure that it is considered necessary.
Michele Byrnes: And then make sure that they're going to be complying with all the guidelines, where you have the capacity to leave the unit while they're. That they will be coming in with masks.
Michele Byrnes: And again, that it's in necessary repair.
Michele Byrnes: And again, the thing to keep in mind is, if you do not agree with them entering the unit, you want to make sure to put that in writing and explain the reason.
Michele Byrnes: And potentially offer to try to negotiate a virtual showing. For example, if they think that, you know, something needs to be replaced. You could potentially try to arrange something over video to show them what the issues are.
Michele Byrnes: I also want to make sure people are aware of these housing retention grants that are available through the city and
Michele Byrnes: the Eviction Defense Center has some funding available. So if you find yourself unable to pay rent and you're at an imminent risk of losing your house, you can apply for a housing retention grant and all the information is posted on the city's website there.
Michele Byrnes: And then another resource that is
Michele Byrnes: Very important for people to know about is the CAL Student Legal Services, where they have a great website and they have
Michele Byrnes: Especially around lease breaking right now, they can have an informational memo that gives you a lot of very detailed information about lease breaking, and then
Michele Byrnes: the City of Berkeley rent board housing counselors are available, Monday through Friday as well to answer questions and you can call us or send us emails. So with that, this is just a little bit more information about our
Michele Byrnes: website, but I'm happy to now turn it over to questions.
Moni Law: Michelle I found the list here, in the emailed questions to us.
Moni Law: Okay, I'll ask them out loud so
Moni Law: One is, "If there are tenants within Berkeley who aren't protected by just cause and they are claiming protection from the eviction moratorium can their landlord choose not to renew their fixed term lease if it expires?" I think the answer is no.
Moni Law: Landlord can't. Not sure what they mean. Not protected by just cause but they're claiming the eviction moratorium to protect them, which is broader because everybody's protected.
Moni Law: I don't know the answer, maybe. What do you think?
Moni Law: That might be one of those ask legal department questions.
Michele Byrnes: Think that in general, most evictions are going to be prohibited. So in this case, if it's someone who's let's say for example, if you don't have any eviction protections
Michele Byrnes: it would still, if they choose not to renew your lease, to have you leave, I think would likely still require an eviction. Like to actually require the termination of the lease.
Michele Byrnes: So, that would be something that if they are trying to pursue that, I would definitely talk to an attorney about it, to try to get representation, I think they probably have protections.
Yeah.
Moni Law: Oh, go ahead.
Michele Byrnes: I was gonna say, Anna also, I think had some questions that she wanted to ask us as well.
Anna Hoehenrieder: Yeah, I think those are from them. Also, I think you and Michael  asked these questions. So if you want to have any clarification or follow ups to those.
Michael Dittmer: Yeah, that's my situation I'm facing, but I was kind of curious to know.
Michael Dittmer: I'm not sure if there, I mean, I feel like most tenants in Berkeley probably are protected by just cause. It's just that, my understanding is that, if there's no just cause the expiration of a fixed term lease is not considered an eviction.
Michael Dittmer: So I'm kind of wondering what happens because like the purpose of the moratorium is to keep
Michael Dittmer: People in place, right, and like their housing so like what would
Michael Dittmer: Like, you know, does that person get to keep their housing in that situation?
Michele Byrnes: Yeah, I think.
Michele Byrnes: I think. Yes. I see what you're saying. Yeah, it's not technically considered an eviction but the reality is that if you don't renew the lease and then the tenant doesn't leave it, eviction is the final step in terms of having that person without.
Moni Law: Okay, as a matter, was it Michael? That's a good question. And what I think, I'm just looking at the thought of somebody live in the co op. So let's say you are living in one of the co ops.
Moni Law: They're not under rent control and eviction protections. They have their own set of rules, as you know, I don't know if you know how the cops work, but
Moni Law: when they're prepared to evict people, they just serve them with a notice and they do have to go to court. But they just don't have the criteria and requirements of good cause that apply.
Moni Law: So there's not self help eviction, where they could just put the person in stuff on the corner and say you're out. They do have to go to court to get an order to do that.
Moni Law: But it is just a lower threshold, they're going to have less to have to prove to do so, but they do have to go to court to get a judge's order generally.
Moni Law: Because I've seen it happen with co op students guided or CAL alums. I'm wearing my hat. Can you see me see me?
Michael Dittmer: Yeah, I have at least one friend who lived in a co op.
Moni Law: Did they go through that whole process?
Michael Dittmer:  I never heard about it. He lives in Coin. The main thing that happened when he was living there is that I think there's like a change in the management in terms of their, drug policy like a zero tolerance, because a student had
Michael Dittmer: died of an overdose. So think there was like a lot of stuff related to that when that happened, but yeah. I never lived in a co op. So I didn't follow it too much.
Moni Law: The same with residential halls and
Moni Law: Senior Citizen homes and there's certain properties student and senior homes that are not under rent controller or eviction protections. And people who live in a house with their landlord, they share kitchen or bath, there's no eviction protections there.
Moni Law: So we're these other two her also, Michael in the email to Anna where it says, "What does it mean for a tenant to demonstrate that they are impacted by COVID?"
Michael Dittmer: I yeah those are my other two as well. Yeah.
Michael Dittmer: If they're a bit longer and definitely no pressure on that. I want to give an opportunity for other people ask questions too.
Anna Hoehenrieder: We only have a couple others. So I think we could probably cover these and
Anna Hoehenrieder: a few other questions.
Michael Dittmer: One question that I had, I didn't send it to Anna, but actually, on a more pragmatic level is probably more important to me. So I know that
Michael Dittmer: what I'm wondering is like if a prospective tenant has an issue about
Michael Dittmer: let's say, so like several years ago I when I was a student I rented a property from premium properties and they charge me $100 for what they called an administrative fee
Michael Dittmer: for accepting a sub tenants, which I kind of believe would probably not fit with the restrictions on my credit application pricing and stuff like that.
Michael Dittmer: If a tenant wants to say that or wants to assert their rights that something's not quite right, or if they see something in the lease agreement that
Michael Dittmer: maybe they feel is problematic,
Michael Dittmer: what would you say is the best way for them to assert that. For example, should they go to the office should they speak to an attorney? Because I know the situation I was in is that
Michael Dittmer: I, like a lot of students, right. I mean, maybe less so in this market, but that they're pretty desperate for housing.
Michael Dittmer: Right. And so I think there's a concern that like if you don't pay a fee or if you red line certain parts of the lease that you're just going to get told like okay, well, we'll just write to someone else or something like that. So,
Moni Law: That's a common concern.
Moni Law: Good question. So what I think I've often recommended is people cite the law and put it in writing and give it to the landlord as the first level. So before escalating, just we always say try to calm the waters here.
Moni Law: Say to the landlord, you made a mistake. I'm sorry, but my understanding is this tenant screening fee. Here's a copy
Moni Law: And it says the maximum that could be charged is $56 so that hundred dollars is inappropriate and if you give them a copy of the whole law, it actually has a section about remedies.
Moni Law: And it shows fees and penalties can be applied to the landlord. So I don't know if anyone's really enforced it, but it has some pretty powerful
Moni Law: Consequences that occurs, somebody violates that law, like they could be charged for every incident that was like $1,000 or the significant money they could be charged to
Moni Law: in court. So the small claims court attendant could take the landlord to court for the violation of that ordinance. Michael. We just lost you my answer was too boring.
Moni Law: Something else.
Michele Byrnes: I would also say that in general. Yes. Like if you send an email to us, or if you call us or when we're not in COVID land and if you come into our office, then
Michele Byrnes: that's exactly what the housing counselors will do is they'll provide you with the specific links to the law so that you can self advocate with the landlord.
Anna Hoehenrieder: Then, it looks like we have a question in the chat from Tina says. "Hi, could you go over unlawful protections, again? Does that mean the landlord cannot tell you that you can't live with a spouse/child?
Moni Law: I've had somebody do that once where they were like they have kids and we don't allow kids in our building, and like, well, that's against the law. So you can't tell people that
Moni Law: So there's familial status protections and discrimination on the basis of marital status is illegal and so
Moni Law: I have that question happen. Actually, it's funny. They weren't married and they weren't domestic partners yet, but it does allow protection of your domestic partner so
Moni Law: They applied for domestic partners certificate which they have been talking about doing forever. And then they were protected and they couldn't ban the husband from living in.
Moni Law: Who is now, not the husband with a domestic partner, who was formerly such. Tina. have you seen that situation happen and landlord.
Moni Law: Prevented somebody from having kids or spouses live with him?
Moni Law: That's rude to say like, "Johnny, you gotta live next door or  down the street. You can't live here." That's kind of absurd.
Michele Byrnes: The other thing about that is that there's a California Department of Fair Employment and Housing
Michele Byrnes: And if you're aware of that kind of, if you either face that kind of discrimination or are aware of other people, you can file a complaint directly with their office. It's very easy.
Michele Byrnes: I recently notified them about a case where an advertisement was prohibiting Section eight tenants, which is also illegal and they responded right away and you know reached out to the landlord to notify them that that's illegal and that they need to take down that prohibition.
Michele Byrnes: So yeah, there's definitely. So that's not our area of expertise, per se, but definitely you know counselors know about it as Moni just said, and it is, which is really cool.
Anna Hoehenrieder: Question I think we had earlier was, "What to do if a landlord isn't reachable anymore or they can't get their security deposit back as promised do to COVID 19. So basically if the landlord is now not reachable."
Moni Law: I actually saw that one and was curious because it might start happening, of course, more. They also sometimes, maybe they moved because they can't stay where they were. But some just hide don't really get responsive to this. So the management team or the landlord, it's in our database,
Moni Law: and they will give us sometimes and it's public information the phone
Moni Law: number their email and their address. So we always suggest people call the rent board. You could also file a petition for the rent reduction that's considered taking your rent illegally, while they keep your security  deposit. So if it's a rent controlled unit in any way
Moni Law: If the landlords not responding, file a petition at the rent board and a lower level resolution is through mediation and I often recommend people simultaneously file, the two together.
Moni Law: You can request mediation, which is informal a hearing examiner one of our staff attorneys and
Moni Law: basically negotiate some resolution, hopefully, but landlord doesn't have to agree to mediation if you file a petition for hearing,
Moni Law: The hearings going to happen whether they want to participate or not. And it could be found that the landlord's liable for X amount of security deposit be returned
Moni Law: but the only caveat is we don't have the legal ability to garnish their
Moni Law: income or put a line on the property for a security deposit, but you could use the hearing decision to go and small claims court to enforce it.
Moni Law: Or you can also just go straight to small claims court. So you have two options, try to get your security deposit back through the rent board or go to small claims court, which is now in Hayward
Moni Law: once court start opening again. And now that information is also on our security deposit web page on our website.
Moni Law: Including the forums. So yeah, call us fist so we could probably tell you how to find the landlord hopefully.
Anna Hoehenrieder: And does anyone else have any questions they want to ask?
Tina Li: Wait, sorry, I missed the last part, you said to call the rent board. Is that just the number on the slide right now.
Moni Law: Yes 9817368 Uh huh.
Moni Law: That's our main line.
Tina Li: Okay, thank you.
You're welcome
Moni Law: Seems one other question about overlap. But I don't really know. Berkeley tends to be more protective than other laws. They said, "What if there's a conflict between Alameda County the City Law?
Moni Law: Yeah. Was that your question, Michael?
Michael Dittmer: Yes, my question was a little bit more on the moratorium line. So like let's say there's a situation where either the city or the county. Let's say gives a tenant a greater or more generous repayment period for back to your rent on the moratorium.
Michael Dittmer: Like, is there a way of determining which one to tenant should go with?
Moni Law: No one, the one with more time? They may have the right to assess Supremacy Clause or state laws above city law.
Moni Law: Federal laws above state law. But if you have the most protection. It's like the floor of a particular law is what's being created. So somebody wants to go above that they're allowed to do that you just can't go below it. So if I got
Moni Law: 12 months under the Berkeley ordinance, which we do to repay, I should be entitled to obtain that, but we can't give legal advice. So we would tell you to call student legal services or eviction defense center to get legal advice about that.
Moni Law: But yeah because you wanted. That's a big question. Because if you don't do it right the landlord's coming after you for the un paid rent. But if you have a lot you put your hat on. You want to get legal advice to do that.
Moni Law: That's the best route.
Moni Law: We haven't faced that yet but September 30th is the governor's and I think Michelle right now the public health when we looked at it today, but they're changing all the time.
Moni Law: We still have two months away. So as we get closer and they still see a high peak of cases, they might extend it again.
Moni Law: So we have Berkeley, Public Health, like she said, we have our own public health that public health officer has their order, like, you know, and here's the government order here.
Moni Law: So one you're saying might get more protection than the other. And that may happen, but more than likely they're going to probably be in sync.
Moni Law: And we shall see what happens on it. Check it out at the end of August, because by then. I mean, beginning of September.
Moni Law: At the end of September and all the cases are still shooting up and there's not flattening of the curve or anything, normal, they might extend it. I think that's our thinking. Right. Michelle that the cases are still really extreme
Moni Law: They might extend the eviction moratorium. Yeah.
Michele Byrnes: Yes, that's, that's what I would anticipate. I mean, obviously we don't know for sure, but that's that's what I would anticipate
Anna Hoehenrieder: Any other questions from anyone here?
Moni Law: The last question, Michael had the answer is yes, and you must be going to law school in the future, you might go to law school. I didn't.
Know,
Michael Dittmer: I thought about it.
Moni Law: I thought so.
Michael Dittmer: Um, I, I used to be a student at CAL and I lived in Berkeley, when I was working for a couple years. I currently work in tenant landlord relations and South Bay, so
Michael Dittmer: that was part of my reason for for coming to this just because I want to learn more. We don't deal with Berkeley's jurisdiction, so
Moni Law: got it.
Moni Law: Yeah, the last question about Covid, it is that what they did demonstrated is
Moni Law: whatever reasonable information they can obtain like their positive result that says they have to COVID their job loss, their letter of
Moni Law: termination. Would a court have to determine if the document submitted a sufficient. Yes. So a lot of these cases are going to come down to the court in Alameda County Superior Court and we won't know till they get there.
Moni Law: But the best part is what we always tell people is prepare, prepare, prepare document, document, document have as much as you can submit everything that you can show the strength of your cases that you had no option but
Moni Law: and for no fault of your own but COVID, these things happened to you. And that's the only reason you didn't pay your rent you are not a slacker.
Moni Law: You paid up to that time and then boom you lost your job or your parents lost their job and were struggling and then if the judge has mercy
Moni Law: and they find and favor the tenant. That's the hope and the landlord hopes they get some kind of mercy, because they're on a rent money to but it's gonna be a lot of it I think. Are you doing legal cases are you doing workshops? So cases of Contra Costa, you said?
Michael Dittmer: Um, yeah. So we do get callers and sometimes we do have cases, although
Michael Dittmer: Because I work with South Bay jurisdiction. So they might just have like a non binding mediation kind of process as opposed to like formal rent control or
Michael Dittmer: Like just cause, for example, so it's a little bit different, but I know that, like in my case where we get a lot of people who
Michael Dittmer: would say that they'll tell their landlord like I lost my job. Like, here's an email from my manager saying I was laid off.
Michael Dittmer: but then the manager will be like this is insufficient, like, show me your bank accounts or like, show me your W2 and then that starts a, like a tug of war.
Michael Dittmer: Over like what is, you know, correct documentation or sufficient for the landlord, and then it's like, what happens at that point. I assume it's the courts.
Moni Law: Yeah.
Michael Dittmer: Depending on how the locality phrases it like I think some some cities, a little stricter and they're like, you need to submit documentation other ones are just like, all you need to do is tell your landlord and then that so.
Moni Law: Well, our emergency order specific Berkeley. So if people ever want to see it. It's on our website under the COVID link. There's a bunch of things there. And that's one of those describing what to produce
Anna Hoehenrieder: For questions ahead we just had one other of, "Where can students or other find good apartment or management teams that care about their residents. So is there a list of apartments. How would they sort through what is a good team or a good apartment record?"
Moni Law: Yelp, have people ever talked about yelping their landlords. Do they do that? People check that out, they should do that.
Moni Law: Michelle remember at one point. We're going to do some directory, but we can't give
Moni Law: We can't say yay or boo. We can't give up or down signals on any of the landlords or the clients too. We advise landlords and tenants and realtors and buyers and purchasers and sellers and
Moni Law: we're neutral. So we call ourselves Switzerland. So we're just neutral out there just administering the ordinance and telling everybody with the rights and responsibilities are. So they actually given endorsement to the good ones.
Moni Law: We can't do that. We always encourage people to read the reports and it'll probably speak for itself what other people have experienced, but we can't tell you.
Moni Law: This company that companies horrible and beware. You can come when our opening of our office. I don't know if we're going to do this, anytime soon. Michelle, when we go and our property files and somebody comes and they are like, "I want to see what's in the file.
Moni Law: from you, right? They could come and look at it at the counter.
Michele Byrnes: Yes, that's right. So they can come and ask to look at that. So, you know, let's say you're wanting to rent 2125 Melba and you
Michele Byrnes: you can come and look at the property file and it might have letters from tenants, for example. But yeah, we don't have, we can't give information about particular landlords or
Michele Byrnes: properties. We can't provide opinions, I should say, we can provide just the information in the property file.
Moni Law: And then other people have also been Googling folks because there are a lot of new companies coming into Berkeley buying property and creating the student housing units.
Moni Law: And kind of expensive group housing situation so they look up the company and they'll tell me all this stuff I had never heard of like this companies from Texas, or they're based out of Hong Kong or Canada and
Moni Law: these are their responses. They might have some reports that have been put out there on the internet.
Moni Law: So, just do your research is what I'd suggest.
Moni Law: Oh, and talk to your friends. Your friends will sometimes know of course, word of mouth.
Anna Hoehenrieder: Are there any other specific questions in the last few minutes?
Moni Law: And in the last few minutes. Nobody has a question. Can I ask a question?
Moni Law: What do you guys, do you guys think that the majority of your colleagues or fellow students are not coming back or is like 50% that are coming back? We're trying to gauge if it seems like a high number.
Moni Law: For me.
Moni Law: Me.
Ananya Raghavan: My friends, it seems, it's about 50% are staying at home and 50% are returning to Berkeley, but a lot of people are in the situation of they
Ananya Raghavan: just signed a lease right before the shelter in place started. So some people are trying to get out of it and having some difficulty with that are or finding a subleaser.
Ananya Raghavan: That seems to be a situation happened.
Moni Law: Thanks for that, that helps.
Moni Law: Well, the other thing. Do you guys see though that people are worried about bringing new persons in so they've been in their social bubble and everybody's safe and then I have to replace my roommate who's in France and can't get here from international students status.
Moni Law: Because we're not letting people fly.
Moni Law: And then you can't get that, you don't want to bring a new person in. Do you guys hear that too, but there's probably fill in the spots.
Ananya Raghavan: Yeah, I had the same situation.
Ananya Raghavan: Because on of my roommate was from the UK and she can come back. So we had to find another roommate, but fortunately it was our roommates cousin that ended up taking up that spot. That's fine. That was good.
Okay.
Moni Law: Michael, you had an example or you were going to say something?
Michael Dittmer: There was just one thought that I had because I also heard that if there's an emergency order from the governor that rent increases above 10% would not be allowed,
Michael Dittmer: is that what you're advising people within Berkeley, even if it's a vacancy control or just know rent control type of situation that would be, yeah.
Moni Law: Yeah, Michelle, can you take that because that's something we've talked about.
Michele Byrnes: About Yeah, basically. It's not just a 10%. So during the state of emergency
Michele Byrnes: there is limitations on the amount that rent can be raised between tenancy. So if someone moved out or new moved in. It can only be increased by a certain amount. It's just, it's not just 10% though it's a specific percentage.
Michele Byrnes: Based on HUD and I don't have it in front of me but unfortunately it tends to be higher than you would anticipate.
Michele Byrnes: So, when you look at the order. That's what I had thought originally too is it looks like, okay, it's just a 10 but you can't increase it more than 10% or that's going to be considered
Michele Byrnes: price gouging but there's a deeper analysis and if you want to send us an email afterwards, we can send you the specific calculations.
Michael Dittmer: Yeah, it'd be really helpful.
Moni Law: Anything else I have to go back and do some of those client callbacks for all those lease breakers that need to get out of their leases and don't know what they are going to do.I have like 10 emails. I think I see in my inbox from today.
Moni Law: Phone calls and emails. Thank you guys for inviting us. Oh, you're welcome. Michael and for our presenters.
Anna Hoehenrieder: Once thanks in the chat. Yeah, thank you so much from our office too.
Michele Byrnes: Thank you. It was great.
Anna Hoehenrieder: We'll be sending out this presentation to all the people who are here, since we are recording it and I also I think you've already sent me the slides as well. So we can send those separately. Right.
Moni Law: How many students are in CNR?
Anna Hoehenrieder: In the college is a whole there's about 2200 currently. So yeah, we can also talk about, we might potentially put this on our website or send this to the new students as well.
Moni Law: That's what I would hope you would do. Go Bears! Michelle and I are both Cal Alums, so Go Bears and I'm glad you guys are still in existence because I heard your department was like a going to fold and get deeply gutted or something was happening now.
Anna Hoehenrieder: We are renamed. It is a Rausser College Officially.
Moni Law: Rausser
Moni Law: Rausser. So somebody that gave money named Rausser?
Anna Hoehenrieder: There's a lot of controversy about it for sure.
Moni Law: Interesting. At least it's not a Citibank building or something.
Anna Hoehenrieder: Yeah.
Moni Law: All right, well, hang in there, guys. And thank you for inviting us again and anytime.
Michele Byrnes: Yes.
Anna Hoehenrieder: Thank you.
Michele Byrnes: Thank you so much. I hope you are ok.
Moni Law: Oh wait, can I take a screenshot?
Moni Law: To make sure of  submission. [Background noise] Okay. I can't even do it. Michelle, can you?
Anna Hoehenrieder: Here, I can send one to you that I took.
Moni Law: Oh, thanks. OK. That'd be awesome.
Moni Law: Alright, so we'd like to share with our colleagues, the things that we do out there. So thank you guys again and have a great day. And good luck in school.
Michele Byrnes: Thank you everyone.
Have a good day.
