The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA), a non-profit group representing rental property operators, has filed a lawsuit in California's Superior Court seeking to overturn tenant protections that Los Angeles expanded and made permanent last month to replace a pandemic-era eviction moratorium.

At the end of January, the City Council enacted an expanded set of universal "just-cause" tenant protections, including forcing landlords to provide relocation assistance to tenants who are facing steep rent hikes and prohibiting evictions of tenants who owe less than a certain amount of rent.

Tenants in rent-stabilized units or units covered under a separate state law already have just-cause protection. The new law expands just-cause protections to tenants in 396,000 units in Los Angeles. An exception was carved out for short-term leases, with just-cause protection kicking in at the end of a tenant's first lease or after 12 months, whichever comes first.