Council Delays Vote on Tighter Rent Control
Fearing that it could hurt tenants more than help them, the Los Angeles City Council on Friday delayed voting on a proposal to plug a loophole in the rent-control law that allows landlords to evict tenants and raise rents.
The council asked its Government Operations Committee to return with a report in 30 days recommending ways of protecting tenants from eviction for “major rehabilitation” of apartments. It also tentatively approved extending for 180 days a moratorium on evictions. The moratorium is scheduled to expire June 30.
Under a provision of the rent-control law, landlords can evict tenants and raise rents to market level if they spend an average of $10,000 a unit on major rehabilitation.
Cosmetic Changes
The provision was designed to encourage owners of substandard and unsafe buildings to improve the quality of their housing. But critics say that it has enabled landlords to spend $10,000 a unit on cosmetic improvements, such as painting and replacing drapes, to evict long-term tenants who typically pay low rents.
Leslie Lang, president of Diplomat Park Apartments Tenants’ Assn. in North Hollywood, complained to the council that the provision allows “greedy, self-serving landlords to use major rehab to destroy rent control . . . and destroy the lives of thousands of people who live in apartments.”
Warren Kessler, an attorney representing Diplomat Park, denied that the building’s owners have made only cosmetic improvements. He said the building is more than 20 years old and “needs a lot of work,” including new plumbing.
Some elderly tenants from the 120-unit North Hollywood complex who have received eviction notices attended Friday’s meeting.
Council members Ruth Galanter and Mike Woo proposed eliminating major rehabilitation as grounds for eviction.
But Barbara Zeidman, the city’s rent-control director, expressed concern that tenants could still be forced out of their units if the provision were eliminated. She cited another section of the law that allows landlords to recover the cost of “capital improvements” through rent increases.
”. . . Then tenants will end up with a unit that they can no longer afford,” Zeidman said. “They are in essence evicted . . .” without relocation benefits. Under the law, landlords who evict for major rehabilitation must pay each tenant $2,000 to $5,000.
Zeidman also expressed concern that elimination of the major rehabilitation provision could lead to the deterioration of rental housing.
Among those supporting the delay was Councilman Joel Wachs, a supporter of tenants’ rights.
“Those of us who want to continue to fight for the tenants don’t want to hurt them in the process,” he said.
According to city officials, the number of evictions for major rehabilitation had been increasing to more than 1,000 units a year until the moratorium on evictions was enacted in September.
