As Los Angeles prepares to implement the last of its tenant protection measures, some mom-and-pop landlords say they’ve had enough.
With inflation on the rise, the rental moratorium being extended until the end of March, and now with the added burden of having to pay tenants’ relocation fees in some cases, some landlords say they are facing a perfect storm that could wipe out their businesses.
“What I’m starting to see with landlords, even with my clients from the realtor side, is they’re done with L.A.—they don’t want to invest in L.A. anymore,” Rick Albert, a Los Angeles small property owner, told The Epoch Times.
With the new law requiring that landlords pay tenants’ relocation fees if they increase rent by more than 10 percent or 5 percent plus inflation, landlords are now facing an additional financial burden that could make it even harder to stay afloat.
Under the latest policy approved on Feb. 7 and taking effect in mid-March, if a one-bedroom apartment’s fair market rent is $1,750 per month, individuals opting to relocate instead of accepting such a rent increase would receive three times the apartment’s fair market rate—in this case $5,250—and an additional $1,411 in moving costs. The new rule applies to units, about 84,000, built after 2008.
Diane Robertson, founder of the Coalition of Small Rental Property Owners, told The Epoch Times that small mom-and-pop landlords already “are not able to keep up with the costs of inflation,” let alone these additional new provisions for their renters.
“[The] City Council needs to find a way to ensure preservation of the small rental housing industry here,” Robertson said. “Instead, they are putting us in a position where we simply cannot maintain the status quo.”
Albert echoed Robertson’s concerns. He said the added relocation fees as a requirement can become “a struggle” for landlords who may have to raise their rent to keep up with the demands of maintaining the property.
“The problem is, nothing else in real estate is necessarily regulated … repairs aren’t regulated,” he said.
He said the City Council may not completely understand the landlords’ point of view, since there are more tenants in Los Angeles than there are landlords.
“This is our financial well-being. This is money coming in,” Albert said. “We have bills to pay, too.”
Despite landlord concerns, some Council members dubbed the protections a win for all of Los Angeles.
“This is the last of six votes that we’ve taken on a package of renter protections that I think will be transformative for Los Angeles moving forward,” Councilwoman Nithya Raman, a lead proponent of the renters’ protections, said during the Feb. 7 council meeting.
Already in effect are new provisions approved last month protecting renters from evictions under “just cause” measures that allow tenants behind on rent to stay in apartments for a month, unless they owe more than one month’s worth of fair market rent. Another measure created a deadline for paying back unpaid rent.
The council also introduced a motion on Feb. 14 to provide tenants with a right to an attorney.
Raman, who appeared with other council members and tenant groups at a rally at city hall before that council meeting, emphasized the program aims to support tenants who are at risk of losing their housing.
Council members Katy Yaroslavsky, Bob Blumenfield, Heather Hutt, Hugo Soto-Martinez, and Eunisses Hernandez also supported the motion.
The attorney program will be funded by Measure ULA—a parcel tax on multimillion-dollar properties approved by voters during the Nov. 8 election to fund homeless housing. Ten percent of revenue collected under the measure will go toward the program.
