What can your Realtor do for you?
A little-known fact to the public is a well-known fact to your Realtor, occurring while we list and sell your homes is that the California Association of Realtors (CAR) and National Association of Realtors (NAR) takes contributions from their Realtor members for a legal action fund.
These funds help us monitor proposed legislation and issues related to housing and home ownership and RED ALERT their constituents for any potential bills going before the legislature which may affect your homeownership rights. Examples of things that our California Association of Realtors have called to our attention, sponsored, and helped pass and/or defeat are below:
PASSED - AB 633 (Calderon) Implementation: Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act
AB 633 preserves family wealth by providing a series of simple due process protections to ensure all parties receive their fair share of the inherited proceeds and ensure the best value for the inherited property is obtained.
PASSED – AB 2536 – Creates new standards and practices for determining reasonable fees for providing sewer and water service to a development. (You know these costs are added on your purchase price by the builder, however, if they are unreasonable, someone has to pay them anyway, usually YOU).
PASSED – SB 989 – Provides temporary relief for qualifying property owners who have applied for base year value transfer (over 55 moving within the state taking their tax base, etc), IF county assessor has not processed their application due to administrative delays.
PASSED - SB 392 (Archuleta) Mandating HOA’s Email Communications SB 392 requires HOA’s to communicate with homeowners via email, if that is the homeowner’s preferred method for communication, makes it clear that property owners, not the HOA, get to define their 2 preferred communication methods, and permits general notices to be placed on an association’s website.
DEFEATED - AB 1771 Would have imposed high taxes on homeowners for sales in the first seven years after purchase. And AB 1105 increased property and other taxes on homeowners in San Diego.
DEFEATED – These bills affecting Landlord/Tenant rights in California.
AB 2527, AB 2203 and AB 1335 – prohibiting a housing provider to use a credit report as part of the rental application process.
AB 2383 would have imposed onerous and costly requirements on small housing providers when tenants are turned down based on criminal history as the basis for the denial. (Yes, that would include pedophiles, rapist, murders, etc.) YES, they love to attack small home providers and just keep trying year after year with 12 of the 17 defeated bills related to property owner/tenant issues. A LARGE portion of these housing providers are regular folks with regular incomes, who have rentals to supplement retirement income.
AB 2170 Sponsored by CAR prohibits large mortgage entities like GSE or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from selling foreclosed homes in bulk to large Wall Street Investors and institutions. It also requires for the first 30 days that they consider and respond to bids from potential homeowners before considering any bids from investors.
Protecting your right to own private property is constantly coming under threat of these small and large attempts to chip away at your private property rights by well-intentioned and not so well-intentioned government entities (Hoa, Neighborhood, City, County, State and Federal). We must be vigilant to protect your property rights.
