Page One

To the Editor: 

Few Berkeley residents understand the injustices brought about by rent control. Consider the following actual case. 

A single mother with two children and editor of a local magazine, needs to buy and move into a house soon. Just divorced, she wants to stabilize a home for her children. She purchases a house in Berkeley occupied by tenants who have resided there for 18 months. The tenant's lease has expired. They have been aware of the sale for months. In theory, single family homes are exempt from rent and eviction controls but not in practice. A lawyer tells the tenants that in Berkeley they can prolong eviction for months. The attorney tells the buyer this and suggests she offer relocation money to secure a vacancy. When it is suggested to the attorney that this is extortion, he responds: “In Berkeley this is how it's done.” Final outcome, single mom pays thousands of dollars to move into her own home.  

I am personally familiar with numerous cases of such extortion facilitated by Berkeley rent laws. Such cases are only the tip of the iceberg. The devil is in the details. The details regarding rent control expose a system that regularly violates common sense and basic rights.  

John Koenigshofer  

Berkeley