Apartment Operators Sue to Block Tenant Protections in Los Angeles

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.

AAGLA said in its court filing it is seeking to overturn the new law’s requirement of a financial threshold of past due rent (equal to one month’s fair-market rent) to be met prior to initiating eviction proceedings.

The lawsuit also seeks block a measure that forces rental housing providers to pay substantial penalties if rents increase on housing legally exempt from either local or state rent stabilization rules exceed a specific percentage. The group ask the court to grant a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order preventing the measures from being enacted.

In November, a judge tossed out a federal lawsuit filed by a developer who said his real estate companies should have been compensated for losses they incurred as a result of emergency tenant protections approved in Los Angeles following the outbreak of COVID-19.

In his 15-page ruling, US District Judge Dean Pregerson said the city’s 2020 ordinance, which barred landlords from removing tenants who were unable to pay rent because of COVID-19, did not constitute a “taking” of private property as defined by federal law.

According to court filings by the City, about 76% of multifamily rental units in the City are subject to eviction protections, and the expansion of “just cause” protections impacted an additional 138K households.

AAGLA’s Executive Director, Daniel Yukelson, said in a statement this week that the new rules in Los Angeles will extend protection to the city’s “wealthiest” renters, “often those who make more income that the individuals providing them with their housing.”

“A renter living in a mansion in Bel Air is now being given protections by the City and might receive thousands of dollars in unwanted benefits,’ Yukelson said.

“Unscrupulous renters can string out legally owed rent payments for months or even years in some cases by short-paying rent in increments of $50, $100 or more per month, and rental property owners will be left holding the bag with little or no recourse whatsoever,” the AAGLA director said.

“To make matters worse, once any portion of unpaid rent is past due more than 12-months, there are very few remedies under State Law to collect the aged, accumulated rental debt,” Yukelson added.

Cheryl Turner, a Los Angeles-based attorney who is president of the AAGLA board of directors, said in a statement that the new law in Los Angeles is superseded by a state law, known as the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which exempts rental units including newer construction, single family homes and condominiums from rent stabilization,

Turner also said the city’s extension of eviction protections is superseded by state law that allows owners to serve 3-day notices and initiate legal proceedings to quickly recover rent owed after the due date to pay rent has passed.

“The City’s ordinance has clearly created a scenario where renters, not the property owners, can effectively establish the amount of rent they wish to pay,” Turner said.