COVID-19 NOTICE
COVID-19 NOTICE
[Update 12/3/2020]
In response to Governor Newsom's Regional Stay At Home Order, California West will be implementing the following measures in addition to previous safety precautions as soon as the Order applies to the Southern California region:
100% Masking Requirement. Staff must wear a mask at all times, even when alone at their personal workspace.
Closed Lobbies. Our lobbies will be closed to the public. However, our entry doors will remain open to allow ventilation and distanced communication for the distanced exchange of items such as keys or documents.
Vacant Showings Only. We will show vacant properties only. This will be done by checking out keys.
Maintenance. Tenants must wear a mask if they wish to be at home while we perform maintenance work. We will be prioritizing essential work only and will postpone non-essential work, especially if it requires entering someone's home.
Communications. Communication will be via phone and email whenever possible. Face-to-face communication is strongly disfavored and will be avoided whenever possible.
[Update 6/1/2020]
We are resuming our showings on June 1st/2020. Under the circumstances, we will be limiting the number of people attending the showing. Please contact our office to know when a showing will be happening and to sign up for that showing.
Here is the guidelines we are using at this time:
- You will be required to wear a mask by the time of your arrival through the entire showing.
- We will ask you to use hand sanitizer at arrival. We will have hand sanitizer available to everyone.
- Practice of Social Distancing between you and others, keeping at least a 6 ft distance between each other.
- Only one person at a time plus our staff member will be allowed inside the unit.
- Not touching anything inside the unit, including knobs, cabinets, surfaces, etc.
You will be asked to sign a Showing Agreement prior to the showing and bring it with you, hand it to our staff member present at the showing location. To view the agreement, please use the link below, and click on COVID-19 Showing Agreement:
https://www.california-west.com/renter_resources.php
To view a unit, please call our office at 805-543-9119.
Thank you for your cooperation.
[Update 5/14/2020]
California West is receiving questions from Cal Poly students and their parents regarding our policy for what happens if the University chooses to adopt online only classes in Fall 2020. As always, our policy is to defer to the decisions of the property owners whom we represent and so if you have a specific question about a specific property then we will need to address that with the property owner in question. That said, we do have some general observations about the current situation and we are advising our clients in accordance with these observations.
On May 13, 2020, Cal Poly University's President Jeffrey Armstrong issued a statement in which he recommends to students that "if your health and personal situation permits and you are able to be flexible, please plan to return to San Luis Obispo in the last week of August if you live off campus or the first week of September if you live on campus." (https://coronavirus.calpoly.edu/campus-updates.) In his notice, President Armstrong also set forth three different planning scenarios with an emphasis on the fact that Cal Poly's "mission as a comprehensive polytechnic university is accomplished, in part, by hands-on, experiential learning experiences that we refer to as Learn by Doing. Therefore, it is important that we provide options for in-person learning opportunities when possible."
At California West our mission is to effectively and efficiently manage residential real estate assets for our clients. We believe that San Luis Obispo is a wonderful place to live and that Cal Poly is a fantastic University whose Learn By Doing approach is unique and valuable. We will encourage our student renters to stay in town even if Cal Poly chooses to go entirely virtual in Fall 2020 because circumstances may change that allow non-virtual instruction at some point. Also, sheltering in place in San Luis Obispo is a perfectly viable option even if classes are conducted virtually.
Nevertheless, we recognize that there may be some students who must leave town but who have committed to a long term lease with us. When that happens, our response will be to encourage such persons to either find a replacement renter who can turn an application into our office for approval or to turn in keys to our office so that we may attempt to find a replacement renter on their behalf. We want to be clear with everyone that the leases we enter into with renters are firm and eveyone should understand and consider that before commiting to a long term lease. If you are uncertain, then please do not enter into a lease with us because our clients will rely upon that commitment from you and, among other things, will stop advertising the property to other prospective renters.
[Update 3/20/2020]
The County of San Luis Obispo and the State of California have issued orders instructing residents to stay at home except to obtain and provide essential services. As an essential service provider, California West remains open on a limited basis during this crisis. Our physical offices are closed to the public but we are still answering phones, responding to e-mails, and receiving mail and deliveries.
Please continue reporting emergency situations to us by telephone or e-mail. Our maintenance staff is operating on a reduced basis and will be responding to emergencies at occupied units and will be working one person at a time to prepare vacant units for occupancy. For everyone's health and safety we will not be responding to non-emergencies in occupied units. If you do require emergency maintenance work in an occupied unit then we will ask that you quarantine yourself in a separate room while our maintenance person is attending to whatever needs to be done at your unit.
During this crisis for the health and safety of our accounting staff we are encouraging residents to pay rent electronically through our online portal. There is no fee if you pay by eCheck. If you have not yet setup an online portal then please call or e-mail our office and we will send you information on how that is done.
If you are having trouble paying rent because of lost wages then please notify us immediately so that we may try to work with you and whomever owns the property where you reside to establish some sort of payment plan that works for everyone. We also encourage you to explore options with regard to collecting unemployment insurance and obtaining financial as may become available. Some of those options are explained at the following website: https://www.edd.ca.gov/about_edd/coronavirus-2019.htm.
We will continue making sure that the properties we manage are safe and secure during this crisis and we appreciate your help and support during these difficult times.