New Permanent Tenant Protections in Los Angeles?
What Were Tenant Protections in L.A. Before?
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Los Angeles used the state of emergency to pass an eviction moratorium, among other protections. Those protections ensured that evictions did not rise while people were being displaced from work because of the pandemic. The state of emergency is set to expire, but supporters of the protections argued that they should be permanently adopted due to fears of a rise in evictions and homelessness.
What Permanent Tenant Protections did the City Council Adopt?
The L.A. City Council adopted 3 major permanent tenant protections:
1. An expansion of “just cause” eviction protections to more tenants
2. A provision of relocation assistance for tenants facing rent hikes
3. A month-long grace period on eviction if tenants owe less than a month’s rent
Permanent Tenant Protection #1: Just Cause
The council adopted a rule that tenants could only be evicted for just cause. Just cause could be failing to pay rent or violating lease terms. Before, tenants in rent-controlled units or units covered by a state law were already protected. Now, almost 400,000 more units will be under the same protection because apartment buildings built after 1978 were not protected.
Permanent Tenant Protection #2: Relocation assistance
Another measure that the council adopted was requiring landlords to pay relocation assistance to tenants who have to move from units because their rent is raised more than 10%. The same provision is required if the rent increases by the Consumer Price Index plus 5%. This protects tenants from price gouging, where landlords try to exploit the fact that moving is difficult to extract more profits. Landlords must pay three times the market rent as well as $1,411 to assist with relocation.
Permanent Tenant Protection #3:
A final protection that the council passed allows tenants to avoid eviction for a month if they owe less than a month’s worth of rent.
Impact of Eviction Increases
Because the protections were in place during the pandemic, the city staved off a huge number of evictions. However, the landscape is changing. The volume of eviction filling has come near pre-pandemic levels, indicating that there would be a wave of evictions as the COVID-era protections expire. This was set to worsen Los Angeles’ homelessness problem and contribute to numerous related public health crises.
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Disclaimer
The purpose of this post is for information only, this is not legal advice.