Lakeshore Law, PLLC

01/01/2026

Greetings, all. Effective January 1st, 2026, Lakeshore Law is merging with Bowen Hoogstra Law Offices. My new phone number is 231-726-4484, and email is [email protected]. Direct line coming soon!

10/26/2022

In two weeks, voters will select two new judges for Muskegon County's 14th Circuit Court. Lakeshore Law endorses Jenny McNeill and Matt Kacel for those positions.

06/29/2022

It could be worse. I read this morning that a federal court has upheld California's state-wide rent control and relocation assistance statute. In a nutshell, and subject to many exceptions, annual rent increases cannot exceed 5% per year, plus the local rate of inflation, but not to exceed 10%. Moreover, again subject to exceptions, a landlord who evicts a tenant without cause (for example, the termination of a month-to-month tenancy) must pay relocation assistance to the tenant. This amount varies between $8,950 and $22,350. This may explain why my daughter is currently paying $1,500/month to share a single bedroom for her internship in Burbank.

Rent control is one of the best means available to destroy housing stock. It acts as a disincentive to perform maintenance or to create new housing. Why are rents so high? A few things come to mind:

Landlords, especially small ones, lost lots of money during the eviction moratoriums of 2020-2021, as tenants realized they couldn't be evicted for nonpayment of rent. They'd like to make some of that up. Second, many landlords after being burned during the moratoriums now require better credit scores from applicants, thus reducing the "supply," so to speak, of potential tenants. Third, inflation in general, and particularly real estate, with the cost of building materials rising alongside property taxes.

Finally, the Covid Emergency Rental Assistance program ("CERA") ends tomorrow. I currently have about 40 or 50 landlord/tenant lawsuits pending. In many of them, tenants received thousands of dollars in taxpayer lump sum rent assistance back in January and February of 2022, then failed to make any voluntary payments thereafter. That party will soon end.

08/04/2021

After a two-day hiatus, it's back -- a new CDC eviction moratorium for nonpayment of rent, effective until October 3d unless extended. It applies to counties with "substantial" or "high" infection rates. A "substantial" rate is defined as 50.99-99.99 cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days in a county, or 8.00-9.99% positive test results in the last seven days divided by the number of tests. Muskegon County barely qualifies on the first test, as its case rate is currently 55.31, but not the second, as the positive rate is 7.43. Nonetheless, the case rate places Muskegon within the order's ambit. Ottawa County does not meet either test (36.67 per 100k; 5.69 positivity rate). If a county's rates drop below the "substantial" definition for 14 consecutive days, it is no longer subject to the order.

Previously sworn declarations by tenants remain valid, despite the expiration of the previous moratorium order. Look for a number of lawsuits to be filed against the CDC today, based on last month's Supreme Court and 6th Circuit Court of Appeals opinions that found the previous order to be illegal.

07/20/2021

A year or two ago, the State of Michigan set up an online court records search system, which provided very basic information on cases filed in most of the state's courts. The system was upgraded yesterday for some courts and now provides additional information, including 60th District in Muskegon County. While not perfect, it's better. Here's the link:

https://micourt.courts.michigan.gov/case-search/court/D60.

05/05/2021

A few hours ago, a federal district judge for the District of Columbia struck down the CDC's eviction moratorium. Unlike the 4 or 5 other cases where this has occurred at the district court level, this judge declined to limit its effects to the parties, thus giving it nationwide application.

02/26/2021

Yesterday a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas held that the CDC's eviction moratorium was unlawful, in that Congress lacked Constitutional authority to grant such power to a federal agency. The Court declined, however, from issuing an injunction and the order's legal effect is probably limited to the Eastern District of Texas. It will likely be appealed to the 5th Circuit. For a copy of the opinion, click here:

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01/10/2021

Phones are back in action. There's also now an Auto Attendant option to be transferred directly to Tom Andrews and Linda Schultz at Andrews Law, PLLC. All systems go.

01/06/2021

Telephone trouble here today, and 2.5 hours with Nextiva customer service has only made it worse. Please try my direct number at 231-903-4627. At least that still seems to work.