Landlord-Tenant

California Bed Bug Class Action Lawyer on Bed Bugs in Section 8 Housing

August 11, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

According to LA Weekly and State Assemblyman Nazarian (D, San Fernando Valley), eradicating bed bugs can cost anywhere from $400 to several thousand dollars. This is a heavy burden for anyone, but it can seem astronomical to lower-income renters. Our San Francisco bed bug lawyer stands ready to help renters afflicted with bed bugs in section 8 housing when landlords fail to live up to their legal duties. We are also prepared to file bed bug class actions on behalf of tenant groups in either Section 8 or traditional rental units.

Special Rules on Bed Bugs in Section 8 Housing

In April 2012, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) issued Notice H2012-05. Notice 2012-5 is intended to clarify the best practices for preventing and controlling infestations in HUD insured and assisted multifamily properties. HUD suggests that owners and management agents (“O/As”) develop and implement an Integrated Pest Management Plan (“IPM”) that focuses on prevention as a primary tool in the bed bug battle. Although it is presented as a suggestion rather than a requirement, the Notice recommends that O/As train staff on bed bug identification, take ongoing steps to prevent infestation, engage and educate resident on bed bug issues, and provide orientation materials to both staff and residents regarding bed bugs. Tenants are urged to cooperate by maintaining living environments that help prevent infestations including avoiding unreasonable clutter that can provide hiding spaces for insects.

A Discussion of Electrical Fires from Your Santa Rosa Fire Injury Law Firm

August 7, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Every day the news seems to get more and more frightening as wildfires consume so much of our lovely state. Our thoughts are with those who’ve been impacted by the fires and our thanks go out to all the men and women working to keep Californians safe and limit property damage. While wildfires are, with good reason, the top fire-related headline at the moment, it is important to remember that other types of fires are always a concern. As people in Guerneville and the surrounding areas were reminded this week, electrical fires are a real threat. When an electrical fire causes injuries or death and the blaze can be traced to the negligence or wrongdoing of a person or entity, our Santa Rosa fire injury lawyer is prepared to fight for those affected using civil personal injury and/or wrongful death law.

Blaze that Consumed Shop in Guerneville Blamed on Electrical Transformer

The Press Democrat reports that a fire destroyed much of the Odd Fellows Recreation Club’s store located on the 13500 block of Riverside Drive. The store is part of Odd Fellows Park, a private, limited-admission facility east of Guerneville encompassing 317 acres with campsites and a Russian River beach. Fire broke out around 9:30 P.M. on Tuesday night and by 11 P.M. flames had gutted much of the structure. Firefighters from at least seven fire agencies worked to extinguish the blaze which may have been ignited by a blown electrical transformer. The paper does not mention any injuries, although it does not specifically state no injuries occurred.

Northern California Tenants’ Lawyer Looks at Short-Term Rentals in San Francisco

July 15, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Late last week, a friend of our San Francisco landlord/tenant law firm e-mailed us an article he’d seen on Curbed LA, the Los Angeles portion of a real estate and neighborhood news website. The article suggests that landlords in L.A. could fetch up to twice as much money on the short-term market (such as via Airbnb) than they can make via a traditional long-term rental. He asked us: “Could the same thing happen in San Francisco? Should renters be worried?” We thought that the reality and the legality of short-term rentals in San Francisco might be on more than one renter’s mind (and therefore a great blog topic!), especially given the well-publicized increase in rental prices in the Bay Area in recent years.

Airbnb and the Short-Term Rental Concept

For those unfamiliar with the company, Airbnb is a locally based company that touts itself as a community marketplace connecting people looking for a place to stay with people who have space to spare. The site covers more than 34,000 cities and allows people to rent a wide-range of spaces with many spaces offering nightly, weekly, and monthly rates. While it is certainly the most popular, Airbnb is just one company serving the growing demand for short-term rentals.

Bay Area Injury Attorney on the Rights of Balcony Collapse Victims

June 17, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

For many apartment dwellers, a balcony is their version of a backyard providing a chance to enjoy a sunny day or cool evening and functioning as an extension of their home. Both occupants and visitors should be able to enjoy a balcony with confidence in its stability. Sadly, as we were reminded this week, balcony and deck collapses are a very real danger. San Francisco balcony collapse lawyer Greg Brod is prepared to use California law to help injured victims and grieving families following devastating balcony collapse tragedies.

Berkeley Balcony Collapse Kills Six, Injures Seven

In the early hours of Tuesday June 16, a balcony collapsed in downtown Berkeley claiming at least six lives and leaving seven others injured. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the collapse occurred at Liberty Gardens, a four-story apartment building on Kittredge Street near Shattuck Avenue. The victims were attending a birthday celebration when the balcony of a top-floor apartment detached from the building and sent partygoers tumbling. Most of those attending the party were Irish students participating in work-study programs.

New Laws, Old Foes: Recent Legislation Involving Bed Bugs

May 12, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Bed bugs have long plagued humans. A recent Salon article points to evidence of bed bugs in an Egyptian archeological site dating between 1352 and 1336 B.C., suspected bed bug infestations in ninth century Iraq, and possible references to the pests in ancient Jewish and Islamic texts. Nonetheless, even old problems may call for new solutions that take into account the realities of modern life. Our San Francisco bed bug lawyer monitors changes to bed bug laws in California and across the nation, following news that can help us represent people who are dealing with a bed bug invasion because of someone else’s negligence.

Proposed California Landlord/Tenant Law Would Clarify Bed Bug Responsibilities

At the state and local level, particularly in the Bay Area, California is known for protecting residential renters. Currently, a number of different laws can be used to help tenants whose landlords contributed to a bed bug problem and/or failed to take appropriate responsibility for keeping the property vermin-free. As the LA Weekly reported on Friday, State Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian has crafted a bill aimed at clarifying the responsibilities of both landlords and tenants when bed bugs infest residential rentals. Assembly Bill 551 would:

California Supreme Court Protects Tenants, Strengthens Rent Control

May 5, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

“Almost no one is moving to San Francisco to save money.” We love our region, but the opening line in recent Associated Press article, carried by U.S. News & World Report, is a truth Bay Area residents feel in their tightening wallets. Research by real estate data firm Zillow found that city rents jumped 15% over the past year with the average home rent hitting $3,129 in March. This cost makes tenant protections, including rent control, even more important, especially for long-term city residents. Our San Francisco tenants’ attorney is glad to share the news that the Supreme Court of California has helped strengthen those protections.

The Facts: Landlord Nearly Doubles Tenant’s Rent

As the San Francisco Chronicle reported, last Wednesday the state’s highest court unanimously declined to review a First District Court of Appeal decision handed down in January. In doing so, the court allows the appellate decision favoring a San Francisco tenant to stand. Brian Govender has lived at 999 First Street, close to Alamo Square, since November 2003. At the time, Govender was only 13 and not named in the lease. His parents moved out in August 2012 and owner Mosser Companies moved to raise the monthly rent from $1,681.75 to $3,295.

California Bed Bug Lawyer on Why Landlords Must Take the Lead in Bed Bug Extermination

April 24, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

A bed bug is only about the size of an apple seed and, while an initial bite often goes unnoticed, repeated bites can cause itchy welts that get worse with continued exposure. A single female can lay 540 eggs(!!) in her 6 to 12 month lifetime, so missing even one or two bugs can give the pests the upper hand. In residential rentals, landlords/owners bear primary responsibility for combating bed bugs – it makes sense and, pursuant to a wide-range of rules and regulations, it is the law. Our San Francisco bed bug lawyer helps renters when landlords fail to live up to this obligation.

Law & Reason Require Property Management to Effectively Address Bed Bug Infestations

Image by Mick E. Talbot

Northern California Flood Injury Lawyer Examines Two Flood-Related Threats: The Danger of Flooded Roads and Residential Mold

April 7, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

flood Last month, Governor Brown proposed a $1 billion water-related relief plan. In the midst of a drought of staggering proportions, many were shocked to learn that more than half of the proposed spending is earmarked for flood-control. Weather.com explains: “Funding flood-control at the height of a crippling drought seems paradoxical at first glance, but Brown connected the drought to the potential for ‘extreme weather events’….[Brown stated] ‘all of a sudden, when you’re all focused on drought, you can get massive storms that flood through these channels and overflow and cause havoc.’” Further, California is geographically diverse and sees wide ranging weather conditions at any given moment. In light of these truths, our San Francisco flood injury law firm dedicates this blog entry to discussing two of the most common flood dangers: driving during floods and residential mold after a flood.

“Turn Around, Don’t Drown” – Floods & Driving

There’s one key rule that people should keep in mind when it comes to driving during flooded conditions – don’t. The title of the National Weather Service’s (“NWS”) campaign speaks for itself: “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.” According to the NWS and the Centers for Disease Control, flooding claims more lives each year than any other form of severe weather and more than half of all flood-related drownings involve a vehicle being driven into dangerous flood waters. It only takes six inches of water to knock an average person off his/her feet and two feet of water can carry away most vehicles (many are carried away by even less). Avoiding driving in flood conditions is always the smartest choice whenever possible.

California Bedbug Lawsuits: Damages, Compensation, and Class Actions

April 1, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

It sounds like a silly rhyme — “Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” — but for an increasing number of people bedbugs have become an all-too-real nightmare. Even a brief encounter with bedbugs can leave a person in a great deal of discomfort, a feeling that is only magnified when pleas for help go unheeded. Our San Francisco bed bug lawyer helps people who have experienced this distress, including tenants whose landlords ignored their pleas for a solution. Today’s blog entry looks at one of the more recent cases of bedbugs in California and then shifts focus to bedbug lawsuits looking at the types of damages available to bedbug victims and the possibility of a bedbug class action.

Senior Living Community Facing Bedbug Infestation Residents of one senior living facility in Desert Hot Springs are among the many Californians battling a bedbug infestation. KESQ, a CBS affiliate, reports that many residents of Linda Vista Senior Residences have found themselves covered in bedbug bites. One woman said her loved ones are afraid to visit, especially after a friend and the friend’s children spent one night with her and awoke to “bumps all over.” Desert Hot Springs is investigating conditions at the community and vows to help improve conditions. The City has also issued citations to the management company based on code violations although the article does not provide details/specifics on those citations.

Management at Linda Vista has begun to take notice of the problem but residents worry their response may prove ineffective. Representatives of the management company report that a pest control company has done an initial treatment and has plans for a second application and a follow-up visit. Residents, including many disabled seniors, had to wait outside during the treatment and returned to find clutter and belongings scattered throughout their units. Some pieces of furniture were deemed too infected to treat and the company disposed of those items. While management is providing some reimbursements for items that had to be tossed out, some residents who have limited financial resources say the money isn’t enough. In the words of one community member, “I respect they are trying but that’s all they are doing is trying.”

Oakland Apartment Fire Attorney on Civilian Deaths in Residential Fires

March 24, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Many of us have sat before a burning fire and marveled at its intricacy and beauty. While fire can be fascinating, it remains one of the most powerful and dangerous forces known to man. As described below, residential fires pose a greater threat to human lives than any other type of fires. When an apartment fire death results from a blaze caused by the negligent or wrongful acts (or failure to act) of a property owner/landlord, a wrongful death suit may be appropriate. Our Oakland apartment fire attorney works with grieving families to help them recover following these terrible tragedies.

West Oakland Fire Claims Two Lives

Early Saturday morning, a fire in a West Oakland apartment building claimed two lives. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Fire Department was called to the 600 block of 24th Street at around 3 A.M. and found smoke emanating from a two-story brick building. The property involved had been an armory before being split into two apartment buildings, one on 24th and one on 23rd. Flames spread from a unit in one building to apartments in the other.