The Concord City Council met on February 4, 2025, to discuss the application of the Residential Tenant Protection Program to rented single-family homes and condominiums, and potential changes to the Allowable Annual Rent Increase Cap. Following a staff presentation on current regulations and public testimony, the Council continued the discussion to its February 25, 2025 meeting for deliberations and a final decision.
Because Council has not yet made a decision on this matter, the City has postponed the deadline for owners of rented single-family homes and condominiums to complete rent registration forms and pay associated fees. If the Council decides to retain these properties in the Rent Registry program, a new registration deadline will be established, and property owners will be notified by mail. Note the deadline for multi-family property owners to complete their sign-ups in the rent registry and pay their fees remains February 28, 2025.
The February 25 meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chamber located at 1950 Parkside Drive. The meeting will be aired on Concord TV and live streaming will occur via Zoom and the City’s website. Public comment on the item was closed at the February 4, 2025 meeting so no new public comment will be heard at this meeting.
The last comment as to no new public comment will be heard …… gee – I wonder why …. 🙁
Because they don’t want to hear from the public. They don’t care that it’s their job to serve the whole public, not just part of it.
Actually, they had over 3 hours of public comment on it at the last meeting. The point was to limit the comments otherwise they will go on forever and ever and ever. I think 65-70 people spoke, with a 3 minute time limit, which all of them didn’t use. This is not a matter of the council not hearing the public, it IS a matter of the council not doing what the public wants though, which is flushing this whole idea down the toilet. Feel free to go to the City archives and you can watch the last meeting and all the comments. You’ll also learn that the number of rental properties in Concord is plummeting, as landlords sell their rentals and move their money elsewhere……myself included. The unintended consequence is fewer rentals driving rental rates even higher. FAFO. You can’t legislate free markets, and if you try it will blow up in your face everytime.
I couldn’t agree more. Why would anyone want to have a rental property
in Concord. Basically you buy the property and the city charges you a fee to rent it and tell you how much you can rent it for and how much you can raise the rent yearly. Plus if you want to live in it later you have to pay the rents moving cost.
A handful of vocal landlords isnt everyone. Do you see tenants (by definition the majority) asking for rent increases lol.
And isn’t it you that is finding out? You can longer depend on another mans income here so you go away?
When costs increase for rental owners and rate of return is no longer acceptable, then what? That answer is simple and we’ve seen it happen before, outright sales or multi unit condo conversions. Lump sum sales pay outs and they walk away rich.
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Twelve years of federal democrat regime’s border policies added to CA’s ” housing crisis “.
Of course they can be trusted.
My statement to the city council on 1/9/25:
I would like to comment tonight on probably the worst mistake our council made in 2024. That is the decision to include individually owned homes and condos in the scope of the rental control ordinance. This ordinance imposed costs and possession restrictions on individuals no different from large corporations like Blackstone. It assumes individual owners behave like large profit focused corporations and can keep their rentals forever. They don’t. Unlike big corporations, Individual home owners have changing life circumstances. They may need to sell. They may need to move back into their home, and when they die, their children will need to sell.
What about Grandma in the nursing home using rental income from her home to pay expenses? What about the young couple relocating due to a work opportunity who need to rent their home now, but hope to return to Concord some day?
Individual homeowners owners like you and me are no longer allowed by this ordinance to rent their homes out temporarily, even if the renter agrees to lease for a few months or a few years, Lease terminations are no longer legal under this crazy new law.
On February 25 you will have an opportunity to reconsider this decision. Councilmember Benavente, you may be the swing vote on this. council members Obringer and Hoffmeister have said this ordinance goes too far and needs to change. I am hoping council members Nakamura and Aliano see the light too, but if not, this decision will come down to you.
I would encourage you to read the ordinance carefully, especially starting on page 16, where the so-called just cause rules are defined for individual homeowners. Did you know the ordinance prevents evictions even when homeowners need to sell their homes? Imagine putting your house on the market with the tenant living in it, and having to tell the prospective new owners they will have to do the eviction, pay the high moving expenses, and hire an attorney to manage the process? It makes selling impossible and therefore it makes renting impossible.
As homeowners learn about this horrible ordinance, they are leaving there homes vacant. New tenants suffer as rental availability is being reduced and rents are being increased. Big companies like Blackstone who have permanent rentals are laughing all the way to bank. Individual home owners like you and me who may want to rent their homes out for shorter terms or may need to sell are in a world of hurt.
Thank you. Please do the right thing and replace this unjust ordinance with something that treats both tenants and individual homeowners fairly.
Mike McDermott