New California Laws of 2011
Happy New Year to everyone! The New Year will bring many changes. Some of those changes are in the form of new laws that have taken effect January 1, 2011. I will list some of the changes that affect residential real estate owners, sellers or buyers. Please search the specific proposition, regulation or statute further for the complete description. The title of the law is also a link to a summary page but please do your own research; these are summaries that I wrote based on information from the California Association of Realtor’s (CAR) Web Site. In fact since I am not a legal writer some of the summary is very similar to the information from this site, I give them the full credit of the information. I am presenting this to hopefully make you aware of some of the new changes.
CARs Web site is http://www.car.org/legal/2011-new-laws/.
Side note: Today Verizon announced they will carry the iPhone today, 1/11/11 and will ship them on 2/10/11 which is far more interesting so here is the Verizon and the iPhone link or keep reading for some of the information on the new laws:
AB 1762 Advanced fee prohibition:
Defined as a fee claimed or received by a licensed real estate agent/broker from their client (principle) before fully completing the services they were contracted to do. The law does exempt advertising of real estate or a business opportunity from the advanced fee as long as the publication/media is not owned by the broker.
AB 1373 Restrictions and disclosures on grant deed copy service:
Cracks down on the mailed advertisements sent to home owners offering to provide a copy of their grant deed or other record of title for a fee. They don’t want to mislead anyone into believing that the company making the offer is affiliated with a government agency.
SB 183 Carbon monoxide detectors; smoke detectors and water-heater bracing disclosure:
Certain seller disclosures are getting combined together; the Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS) will also include the water-heater and smoke detector disclosure. This will also enact the Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act of 2010. This means a carbon monoxide detector will need to be installed in a “dwelling unit”. So if you own rental property you will need to install a carbon monoxide detector there too. For single family homes install by July 1, 2011 and for all other types of dwelling units install by January 1, 2013.
AB 1809 Home inspection to include HERS home energy audit, if requested:
If requested by the client, a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Program energy audit may be performed. To learn more about this California Energy Commission’s regulations go to http://www.energy.ca.gov/HERS/.
SB 1087 Restitution for identity theft victims:
I really like this one, this requires a defendant that is convicted of the crime of identity theft to pay restitution to the victim. This will work just like a civil judgment does now. Not too related to real estate but I like it anyway.
SB 1411 Misdemeanor to impersonate another person on the Internet:
Any person who knowingly and without consent credibly impersonates another person through or on an Internet Web site or by other electronic means (like an email account or social network account) to harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud another person is guilty of a misdemeanor. The person can be fined up to $1,000 or imprisonment up to a year or both. Also not really real estate related but interesting.
AB 1800 Unlawful renting of residential dwelling:
Currently it is a misdemeanor for a person to claim ownership or to take possession of someone else’s residential property for the purpose of renting it to another without the owner’s consent. Now the penalties will be raised to a maximum fine of $2,500 or up to a year in prison or both.
HR 5297 Landlords to report payments of $600 or more on IRS Form 1099:
This would extend the current Form 1099 requirement to any person, landlord or small investor that receives rental income, not just the property management companies. Under the new law anyone who receives rental income from a residential or commercial property and makes annual payments of $600 or more to service providers (such as plumbers or gardeners for yard maintenance) must provide a Form 1099 for that service provider. Talk with your tax adviser.
SB 1038 Attorney-in-fact now may be liable for losses to principal’s property:
Under this new law, if the attorney-in-fact breaches a duty that is covered by the power of attorney law they could be charged with interest for any loss or depreciation in the value of the property, any profit made due to the breach, or any profit that would have accrued to the principle if the loss or profit is a result of the breach.
Prop. 13 New Construction exclusion for seismic retrofitting:
This well known California proposition prohibits tax assessors from re-evaluating new construction for property tax purposes when the point of the new construction is to seismically retrofit an existing building. This Proposition took affect June of 2010 but is still good information.
This law prohibits a lender that is holding the first deed of trust (purchase or refinance) for a dwelling of 1-4 units to demand a deficiency judgment (unpaid balance) from the trustor or mortgagor (owner) who sells the dwelling for than the remaining amount of the indebtedness due at the time of the short sale to which the lender has agreed in writing. However if the owner commits either fraud with respect to the short sale or waste with respect to the secured real property, then the lender may seek damages against the owner or any third party for fraud or waste.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_1001-1050/sb_1038_bill_20100706_chaptered.pdf
Is SB 1038 (above) sort of a general preamble and does it refer to a broader Californis statute on Power of Attorney”
r j koenig
January 12, 2011
Hello r j koenig,
Thanks for the comment, this Senate Bill relates to California’s Probate Code and the overall part is for the Power of Attorney Generally, this portion of it, section 4231, relates to attorneys-in-fact. This was an act to amend Section 4231 of, and to add Section 4231.5 to the California Probate Code. The summary I posted comes from the California Association of Realtor’s web site, http://www.car.org. To view more about this bill and this section of the bill that was amended check out this link, .
Thanks for asking and I hope this information is helpful.
Brian
realestateforoc
January 13, 2011
I’m new at replying to comments, the last sentence in my reply is the link I refer to.
realestateforoc
January 13, 2011