It’s important to educate yourself on the penalties built into the law governing no-cause evictions. Brian Cox, a real estate and property management attorney, looks at the penalties that are part of Oregon Rent Control Senate Bill 608. As a multifamily property owner, you need to know the law to protect yourself.
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Details are important here, because if you do something wrong with regard to eviction, there are penalties built into the law. One of the penalties is up to a year after a tenant has moved out, whether you violate notices for evictions or you violate the rent increases, they can sue you.
Think about that tenant who couldn’t find replacement housing and had to trade up and spend two or three hundred a month more than they did in your unit. They can make you pay that difference. They can make you pay their attorney’s fees. You don’t want this to happen. Those are the things that clients come talk to me about.
Fixed-Term Tenancy
So that fixed-term tenancy that you have, pay attention to what you need to do if you don’t want those tenants during the first year. I’m referring to people who were in lease before February 28 this year or any of the people who move in after February 28. Now I left out the group in the middle of the existing tenancies that change. But for those folks, if you don’t do anything, their lease automatically becomes a month-to-month. You can offer them a new lease, you can’t make them move into a new lease. So you lose some of your ability, in my view, to make some of the changes that we used to recommend should occur if you want to change the terms of your lease with existing tenants, because that tenant now can just simply say the heck with you. I’m not doing that. I’m going month-to-month. And you can’t make them go, because after they have been there outside of their first year of tenancy, you can’t give them a no-cause eviction notice in most situations.
If you have a tenant who is under a lease now, or if you have a tenant who was under a month-to-month and you didn’t give him a notice, they’re going to stay and you’re no longer able to give them a no-cause notice. But if you have new tenants coming in or if you have tenants under existing leases, you get to live together for a year before you decide whether you want to get married or not. And those are the folks you want to decide whether you want to keep them. If you don’t want to keep them, give them notices. Of course, I am operating from the premise that our rental properties are income producing. They are investments and the best way we earn income from those investments is by keeping them occupied. This idea that landlords want to kick tenants out is bizarre to me because very few landlords want to kick their tenants out.
If you need a real estate attorney, contact Brian Cox.
If you want to learn more about the impact of Oregon Senate Bill 608, visit Pacwest Commercial Real Estate’s Oregon Rent Control Central for the latest information.
Disclaimer
Due to the complex nature of these changes, Landlords should contact an attorney with any questions or clarification of Oregon Rent Control SB 608.
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