Menlo Park Takes Steps to Equalize the Bargaining Position of Tenants and Landlords

In February 2019, the City Council of Menlo Park will meet to determine if they should pass a proposed ordinance, the Tenant Relocation Assistance ordinance. In late 2016, Menlo Park passed a 12-month lease ordinance "finding that tenants have a right to a written lease and that a contractual relationship with a landlord may offer some needed assurances of stability and minimize displacement of tenants in a rental housing market affording tenants few and increasingly expensive options."

Indeed, the heart of the landlord tenant relationship is the lease agreement and while oral contracts may be binding, proving the terms of the agreement are much more difficult than when the terms are memorialized in a writing.