City of Monterey adopts voluntary rental guidelines

The Monterey City Council is trying to garner support from area property managers for voluntary rental guidelines they adopted this month. Some renters doubt their managers will follow them, since the recommendations are 100 percent voluntary.

A. G. Davi Property Management is one of six property management groups that are currently on board with the city’s guidelines.

“The guidelines are very important for everyone in the community because it kind of sets a bar where a tenant knows, look, I’m going to have a rent increase coming up, because we’re always so scared of that, we kind of know what’s the maximum it could possibly be,” Owner of A. G. Davi Property Management owner Anthony Davi said.

Renters KION spoke with are skeptical of the city’s plan and don’t think it does enough.

“Unless there’s one big property manager that takes a step in the right direction, at this point, it’s all about money, and the property managers that I’ve rented from, they don’t really care,” said Monterey renter Lenai.

Locals want the city to create laws around rent control as they said prices are out of control.

The average rent in Monterey is $2,037 according to internet rental listing website Rent Cafe. It’s much higher than the national average of around $1,400.

“I think it’d be great to have a law on the books about rent control, otherwise people aren’t going to follow it or they’re going to find ways around it,” Monterey renter Crystal Rakes said.

In a statement to KION, City Councilor Tyller Williamson said, “I think there’s going to be some opportunities coming up to set some policies with some more teeth, but this is a good start to the conversation.”

As part of the guidelines, the city will offer free conflict resolution services to renters if renters feel property managers aren’t following the guidelines.

There are currently six property management groups that plan to abide by the city’s guidelines. Locals can go to the city’s website to find a list of them and look out for a special city logo on rental websites to know if they are on board.