I own a house in Fairfax that is too large for just me, and my business has recently dried up and my income has shrunk to nearly nothing (I'm over 65). I thought it would be a good idea to rent out my house, contributing to available housing and also, hopefully, bring in enough money to live on. A friend offered a house he owns that is unoccupied to me to stay for free, so it was a wonderful opportunity to help myself and the community. I had planned to ask rent significantly below market rent.
After I moved out of my house, once it was completely empty and clean and ready to show, I started hearing what I thought were rumors about the Fairfax Rent Control/Just Cause Eviction ordinances and the hardships and challenges it presents to homeowners. After a little digging (which I admittedly should have done before I moved), I realized just how onerous, unfair, punitive, and personally invasive these new ordinances are to homeowners. As others have said, the rules truly give tenants more rights to the property than the owner (some of the rules are ridiculous and simply mean-spirited). Clearly, the Fairfax Town Council believes that by sheer virtue of owning property, a person is not only extremely wealthy, but a greedy swine as well.
I am not wealthy, I make under $30K annually. I have no pension, IRA, brokerage accounts, or retirement, and very little savings. Whoever is able to pay rent for my house (or any 3 BR/2.5BA house in Marin County), would have to make at least double, if not triple, my income; they would need to be far wealthier than I am. I’m fine with that, but to be forced to practically make them (total strangers) “co-owners” of my family home (that's been in my family since 1972), against my will and without my consent, is so crazy I just have no words. I feel I dodged a bullet by finding this out prior to renting it. I am right now arranging to move back to my Fairfax house (which has sat empty for the last four months). I will never go near the rental market again, unless these oppressive and nonsensical ordinances are repealed.
I’ve been considering moving out of state in the next few years, and I would like to keep the house until I know I’m happy in another place, but I would rather leave the house empty than get tangled up in this Fairfax calamity. Many of the clauses in the ordinances don’t even seem to benefit tenants in any way, I believe they were included only to punish homeowners for being homeowners. I think this current Council is out of control, and have stepped far beyond the scope of their authority. They seemingly have no one to answer to, and have a dangerous agenda that is totally one-sided. I’m very sad to see what’s happening to Fairfax, it used to be a wonderful place to live.
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