You know election season is heating up when you start seeing lawn signs — everywhere.
Tensions are running high in many races. In some cases, those tensions are playing out between landlords and tenants who disagree on key issues facing California voters this November.
Take the hotly contested statewide proposition on expanding rent control. One LAist reader asked:
My landlord put up an election-related sign in the yard of the single-family home I rent (the sign says “Vote No on Prop 33”). Do I have any say in whether I want the sign to be there or not?
The short answer is… There are no laws in California stopping landlords from placing signs outside properties they own, even in the yard of a single-family home where the tenants don’t support the message.
This is the answer LAist got after reaching out to real estate experts, tenant advocates and landlord groups. We also talked to the campaigns for and against Prop. 33. They all agreed that a landlord can place a campaign sign in the yard of their tenants’ home. This is true not just for local and state issues, but even in this highly contentious presidential race.
One possible solution: Check your lease
Javier Beltran, deputy director of the L.A.-based Housing Rights Center, said the only exception might be found in the fine print of a lease.
“There may be something in their lease, not specific to political signage, but at least to change in the character of the yard,” Beltran said.
If a lease specifically says tenants have full use of the yard, or are responsible for its maintenance, that could give tenants grounds to remove the sign.
“That may be…
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