A landlord group in Los Angeles is taking the city to court to try to force an end to a pandemic-era rent freeze that still is in effect for the city's rent-stabilized units.

The rent freeze, which prevents rent increases on nearly three-quarters of the apartments in the city, went into effect in the early days of the pandemic and has yet to be lifted—when Los Angeles ended its COVID emergency, it began a "countdown" to end related programs like the rent freeze, according to a report In the Los Angeles Times.

Without the freeze, rents could go up annually by as much as 8%, based on the CPI. However, even with the freeze renters are facing a reckoning of sorts: thousands who got a reprieve from paying any rent at all during the pandemic are scrambling to pay their back rent.