If you live in a rent-controlled apartment in the city of Los Angeles, your landlord will not be able to raise your rent for at least another year.
In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the mayor paused rent increases in rent-controlled buildings. But the freeze was due to expire 60 days after the end of a local emergency period that he declared back in March. The Los Angeles City Council voted today to extend the freeze for 12 months past the that expiration.
“When this emergency passes, millions of Angelenos will be left with more debt and fewer job opportunities,” said councilmember David Ryu, who has pushed for the extension. “The least we can do is ensure that they don’t face a rent increase while they’re trying to get back on their feet.”
The local emergency period does not have a stated expiration, so there’s no specific end date yet for the freeze, says a Ryu spokesperson.
Seven out of 10 renters live in units that are rent-controlled, according to the housing department (the official is term “rent-stabilized”). The rent stabilization law covers 624,000 apartments, townhomes, and other units in 118,000 buildings across the city.
Units that are not rent stabilized will not be impacted by the freeze, meaning landlords can hike rent in those units in accordance with leases and California’s new rent control law. City leaders have said that state law prevents them from stopping landlords from raising rents at buildings that are not rent-controlled. That state law is called Costa Hawkins, and there is a movement to repeal it.
In rent-controlled units, property owners are typically allowed to raise rents annually by an amount determined by the city, usually it’s about 4 percent. That’s now on hold.
Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles executive director Daniel Yukelson has called the freeze unfair. He says it benefits renters who might not be facing financial hardships right now.
“Property owners are not public ATMs,” Yukelson said in a statement. “At what point does the city of Los Angeles provide any level of assistance to mom-and-pop property owners in danger of permanently losing their livelihoods? We deserve help just like all other citizens of our city.”
Tenant advocates, on the other hand, say the freeze, while “good,” doesn’t go nearly far enough.
The temporary fix doesn’t do much to address the fact that many people are going to have trouble making their rent at its current rate too, says Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival.
“It’s far from what we truly need,” says Gross, who wants to see a full eviction moratorium and a total rent and mortgage freeze.
Comments
Rent freeze, eh? So the mayor can single handedly invalidate an existing law? I can almost guarantee he is not freezing rents out of any real concern for tenants. Garcetti is known for having both hands in developers’ pockets and his nose up their asses. Any Mom ’n Pop owner gets contacted by brokers and developers every day with offers to buy their buildings, by letter, by phone, by text, even by worming their way into their Facebook pages. This is just another way of trying to "encourage" these owners of small buildings to sell their properties to developers in order to monetize the lots occupied by the older buildings by squeezing more apartments onto them.
By lahope on 03.30.20 6:53pm
"Property Owners are not Public ATM’s"
TRUE!
By Ravid Dyu on 03.30.20 7:11pm
Wow. Laying it on a little heavy Curbed?
By LosFeliz$ean on 03.30.20 7:36pm
Garcetti loves his new illegal powers.
By myislandXP on 03.30.20 8:27pm
If they can’t raise the rent in Los Angeles, then what about the other cities in California?
By Topaz113 on 03.30.20 8:34pm
Although its a bad timing, the maxinum RSO rent increase aren’t going to make or break a household.
Landlords need to be way more organized like tenants and constantly write and call the mayor, council members, county supervisors, and governors.
So, stop wasting time on Curbed and do something productive. One less comment can be an email or a call.
By Constituents on 03.31.20 12:07am
Tenants are all over Twitter pushing for rent freezes, moratoriums, rent forgiveness, 12 month repayment. And it’s working.
By Constituents on 03.31.20 12:11am
Good.
By Partymuscles on 03.31.20 10:19am
The most productive thing a landlord could do, if there are any unconstitutional rent forgiveness programs, overly onerous moratoriums on evictions and collecting back rents or widespread "rent strikes", would be to stop paying property taxes and utility bills — DWP ain’t gonna shut off anyone’s water or power, but they will miss getting the payments from landlords. I’m not saying all landlords should do this now; I’m saying to do it if any of the italicized items above come to pass.
Let your representatives know that’s your plan. Then maybe the state and local governments will think more about the landlords, who aren’t all rich.
By calzada on 03.31.20 11:58am
Add these to your phone:
Garcetti: (213) 978-1028
Newsom: (916) 445-2841
By Constituents on 03.31.20 12:45pm
Genius idea. Let’s flood the mayor and governors office with demands of free rent or self serving interests because you didn’t save/mismanaged money or are living a lifestyle you cant afford.
They’re not busy enough dealing with a global pandemic and keeping people from dying?
Be happy that you cant get evicted at the moment.
Sorry, but you are just as selfish as any landlord.
By Ravid Dyu on 03.31.20 3:30pm
Where is the county property tax extension! 3 month minimum!
By eaglearts on 03.31.20 8:22am
Fuck an extension, I want my property taxes for 2020 waived, just like the renters want their rent waived. The federal government can reimburse the state on my behalf.
By LADude on 03.31.20 9:43am
Lol peak coastal homeowner right here. Someone forgive this rich man’s taxes just as city services are going to be stressed to their maximum.
By Partymuscles on 03.31.20 10:22am
If the city illegally offers rent forgiveness and sets overly onerous moratoriums on evictions and collecting back rent, you better believe it’s fair for mom & pop landlords to stop paying the utilities and state property taxes. Let the cities and states sue in court for those back taxes and deal with the landlords’ countersuits that the government’s illegal taking of the rental income is what caused the non-payment on taxes and utilities. It would go to the Supreme Court, landlords would win and you’d have lots of folks glad there were Trump appointees who follow the law. No one who gets evicted for not paying rent, if they were eligible for any of the government assistance, is going homeless — they might have to move to a less expensive place and, in some cases, give up their luxury car lease.
Why do you think the government doesn’t just go in and take all the face masks and other PPE from the people and companies who have them? Because that would be unconditional, even when it’s a matter of life and death.
Good luck having any functioning state and city services if every landlord who had the rental income taken away illegally and unfairly doesn’t pay their property taxes and utilities. Ryu and Bonin need to understand this.
Quit trying to spin it that all landlords are rich and be honest that the worst are the tenants who will be getting government assistance, not using that to pay rent and instead pocketing the money and going on a rent strike.
Courts are closed, but they won’t be closed forever. If you choose not to pay rent when you are able, your landlord will be down there filing an eviction the day they open back up. You will lose your home, ruin your credit, and make it difficult to get any sort of decent housing in the future. A "rent strike" isn’t going to liquidate capitalism and make you a homeowner, it’s going to demolish your credit and make you homeless.
By calzada on 03.31.20 11:20am
Calzada – you should give credit to your sources and not straight up plagiarize lol , your last sentence is a direct cut and paste from an interview that was posted online . It’s a witty statement and proves a nice point but you should use quotes and not try and make it seem like your direct statement .
By Mr Balls on 03.31.20 1:52pm
Ah you’re right I did lift it because it was perfectly written. Wasn’t trying to take credit just trying to keep things short, I’m wordy enough already. My hat’s off to Nick Kasoff, a "small-time landlord" from St. Louis. I said the same thing a few days ago on Curbed his quote was from last night.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rent-strike-idea-gaining-steam-170345369.html
By calzada on 03.31.20 2:01pm
Nice !
By Mr Balls on 03.31.20 2:07pm
lol you’re a joke
By Partymuscles on 03.31.20 2:37pm
No I’m listening to POTUS who is setting it up so we can sue China for damages caused by the virus. He’s been consistently asking for stricter stay-at-home orders than DeBlazio or Cuomo.
By calzada on 03.31.20 2:39pm
Oh sure, sue China. When can we expect that money?
By Partymuscles on 03.31.20 2:59pm
The national debt is $22T, mostly owned to China. For now they can hack $6.2T off of that.
By calzada on 03.31.20 3:02pm
They only own a trillion in US debt and they won’t be forgiving a penny of it no matter how much Trump whines.
By Partymuscles on 03.31.20 3:11pm
Lots of Chinese-owned real estate in this country. Not too difficult to trace ownership back to the Chinese state in a lot of those cases.
By calzada on 03.31.20 3:26pm
That’s a good way to chill enthusiasm for investment in America I guess.
By Partymuscles on 03.31.20 3:59pm