Zacks Bull & Bear of the Day Highlights: UDR, Inc., Hartford...

How Can UDR Be "Bull of the Day" When 15% of Its Revenue is Florating Away As We Speak?

Investigation of UDR Operating Procedures in Orange County, CA: UDR USES LIQUIDATED DAMAGES CLAUSES IN THEIR LEASE AS A WAY OF COLLECTING DOUBLE RENT ON APARTMENTS

Orange County, CA, represents 15% of UDR's annual revenue (or ~$75 million). UDR is not in a bull position. Don't be caught with your pants down gentlemen. A liquidated damages clause in a Lease establishes in advance the monetary damages the tenant will owe if they breach the Lease.

Two reasons why CA outlawed these clauses for residential lease agreements:(1)The Courts were seeing Landlords perverting the true purpose of a liquidated damages clause. It's only to be used when it's impossible to determine the harm that could result from a breach of the contract. ITS NOT impossible for UDR to determine the harm that could result from a breach of their Lease! They know (within a reasonable variable) how long it takes to fill a vacancy as it is a critical part of their sales projections since 1972.

UDR wants its tenants to believe that so they can cash in on double rent. If it took UDR 68 days to fill a vacancy, they would have been gone long ago. UDR’s own 10-Q (3/31/09) state it owns 4,067 apartments in the OC market with an average occupancy rate of 94.4%.(See: http://biz.yahoo.com/e/090511/udr10-q.html .)

So, at any given time in the OC market of 14 properties, only 204 apts, are vacant. In order for UDR to maintain a 95% occupancy rate, it must fill its vacancies w/in 18 days!

(2)
The Courts were ALSO seeing Landlords (like UDR) using liquidated damages as a penalty provision which is a no-no. The law states,“Where a liquidated damages clause is seen as a penalty rather than an effort to agree upon a reasonable amount of estimated damages, the clause will not be enforceable.”

UDR's Lease: In the event this Lease is terminated early due to Resident’s breach, Resident shall pay Landlord the sum of $______(2-1/4 times the monthly rent due hereunder) as liquidated damages to cover Landlord’s resulting lost rent and additional reletting costs. In accordance with California Civil Code section 1671, Resident and Landlord agree that it is impractical and impossible to determine what Landlord’s actual lost rent and additional reletting costs will be if the Lease is terminated, because it cannot be predicted when during the Lease term resident may breach, what the rental market conditions will be at that time, and how long the Premises may stay vacant despite Landlord’s good faith efforts to relet the same.

Come on! We're pushing to force UDR to reimburse every penny it has ever stolen from a tenant under this clause. We're also informing the SEC of this and many other illegal tactics UDR uses to intentionally create a scenario in their Lease whereby they are earning illegal revenue, like selling water without being a utility.

Bad Biz Finder
http://badbizfinder.wordpress.com

Erin you should be an expert at UDR's lease - you signed one. You also failed to pay your rent which why you were evicted.

You didn't pay your house payment and your house got forclosed on and what do you do? Go after the people who tried to help you because there's no way it could ever be your fault that you quit sending money to your bank to pay for the home you were living in, right?

You didnt pay your car payment either and guess what? Your car got repo'ed and what do you do about it? You blame UDR. That's right, it's UDRs fault you didnt pay the bank for the car you were driving.

Then you top it off by getting evicted for not paying rent on the apartment you were living in and what is your response to that? That's right, blame UDR again.

You write a bunch of stuff about how crappy the apartment was (which is weird because you faught so hard to stay in it), how the lease was illegal (which you didnt seem to notice when you signed it) and about how you are some kind of "consumer advocate" fighting the entire system in CA, from the Attorney General, to the BAR, the Better Business Bureau, all the way down to the County Commisioner. The only thing you are right about so far is the fact that you've lost every single one of the battles you've tried to start so far. Everything else that you spew out is complete and total bullshit.

You should be focusing on getting a real job, paying your bills and getting the child you lost back. You know, your daughter whom you lost because you are a drug addict? Remember her? If you put half the effort into fixing yourself that you put into posting all this crap on the internet, you would win mother of the year.

As it stands now, you are nothing more than a sad, crazy, lonely failure in every single facet of your "life". Turn your damn computer off, find a damn job and pay your damn bills.