Recently the Eureka City Council discussed whether or not to continue blocking landlords from evicting tenants who fail to pay their rent. Here's why that is a really bad idea.
Our city council should not have the power to over rule rental agreements between landlord and renter. The Council thinks they have the authority, probably because the state of California issued its own eviction moratorium earlier this year. Sorry to tell you, the Golden state doesn't have constitutional authority to make that decision either. Hopefully the court system will catch up and shut this idea down.
In life, we expect to encounter death and taxes. Paying your rent, and paying it on time is something that we should all be expected to do. If you are suffering from Wuhan Flu and are having trouble paying the rent, then you should reach out to your landlord and work it out. While it might be more tempting to hope that the Eureka City Council comes to the rescue and keeps you from having that conversation, please understand that being a good tenant means having open communication with the landlord. This is simply part of being a functional adult.
Despite what you may hear from the Radical Left, you and I do not have a right to housing. You dont have a right to a nice house or even the right to crummy house. If you had such a right, it would mean that people that own homes have some social obligation to let you live in their homes. This is America, where private property rights are sacred. What is offensive about the Eureka City Council forcing landlords to postpone the rent, is that private property rights are undermined, and that is not a precedent we want to set.
With this precedent comes the bureaucracy. Lots of it. The added paperwork will frustrate tenants looking for homes, and make the business of renting impossible for landlords. The added paperwork will lead to shuttered homes or even worse--slums, where nobody cares about the health and safety of the tenants. Eurekans know what i am talking about.
Unfortunately there has been an effort to get between tenants and landlords for many years. It began in the form of rent controls. We've talked about why rent controls don't work, as they ironically lead to shortages of living spaces, the inability of the landlord to make necessary upgrades and how rent control hurts the poorest folks the most. Sure, a few people benefit from the artificially reduced rent prices, but most people are either hurt because there are no landlords willing to rent to them or because the only properties available are artificially too high in the first place.
thankfully rent controls have been defeated at the ballot box. But since when has Sacramento cared about your vote? There was an effort earlier this year in the California assembly to mandate a 25% cut in tenant rents during the Covid19 crisis.
We have also talked about how California is nearly the worst state in the nation for big bureaucracy, income and sales taxes and in my opinion the only good policy we have left are somewhat lower property taxes. If you don't think the states' economy can get worse---think again---you mess with where people live and it will be one more reason for hard working people to relocate outside of california.
