Council OKs Plan to Withhold Rents on Slum Properties

Taking its strongest action to date against slumlords who refuse to repair their buildings, the City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that could withhold rent payments from owners until they clean up their properties.

Under the new measure, tenants living in severely deteriorated buildings could have the option, if the council votes to put their apartments into a “rent escrow account program,” of paying rents to a special bank account maintained by the city, rather than to their landlords.

“What we’re trying to do with this ordinance is take the mother’s milk of slumlordism away. That is the rent check,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky who, with Councilwoman Gloria Molina, introduced the ordinance last year.

Called ‘Draconian’

Barbara Zeidman, director of the rent stabilization division of the Community Development Department, called the new law a “somewhat Draconian, somewhat harsh system.” But she said it is “only directed at bad landlords” who refuse to correct extremely serious problems, such as leaking roofs or lack of running water.

“It is not directed at non-aesthetically pleasing conditions,” Zeidman added, such as “a person who does not like the carpet, or paint which is dingy or old.”

Only 200 to 300 buildings, out of an estimated 180,000 apartment houses in the city, are likely to be in bad enough condition today to qualify for the program, Art Johnson, assistant director of the Building and Safety Department’s bureau of community safety, said.

“It’s a very small percentage,” he said.

The program would go into effect only after a landlord repeatedly failed to comply with citations issued by building and safety, fire or health officials, who would then report the problem to the Community Development Department.

A review process will follow, with hearings and appeals that could take more than six months. If the owner still does not repair the property, the City Council must then vote to place it in the program.

Once tenants are paying rents into the city account, owners can get the money only when repairs are completed or they prove that they need the money to correct the problems. The city would retain $50 per month per apartment unit for administrative costs.

The ordinance also prevents owners of rent-controlled buildings from charging rent increases after making repairs, if those same deficiencies had led to placement in the rent escrow account program.

Widely Supported

The ordinance was widely supported by tenant activists, although Mary Lou Villar of the Legal Aid Foundation’s East Los Angeles office said “the process is too lengthy.”

One landlord, Carol Knapp, told the council that the new ordinance is “a self-righteous little law” that failed to take into account the role of “slum tenants” in deteriorated buildings. A school psychologist who owns three buildings in Los Angeles, she said one of her properties had cockroaches, even though “I pay an exterminator.”

But tenants either do not prepare their apartments for spraying or refuse to let the exterminator in, she said, adding: “No one owns a vacuum cleaner. They don’t care about roaches. Why should I?”

In another action Wednesday, the council voted to extend for six months a moratorium preventing landlords from evicting tenants in rent-controlled apartments in order to perform “major rehabilitation.” Such evictions are allowed under the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, if owners plan to spend more than $10,000 per unit.

A sharp increase in evictions last year led to the moratorium. New rules governing such evictions have been expected as part of an overall City Council review of the rent stabilization ordinance this year. But that review has been stalled in the council’s Government Operations Committee.

Councilman Michael Woo, who heads that committee, told the council that more time is needed because of “slip-ups . . . with scheduling of meetings.”

Larry Gross of the Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenants rights group, supported the moratorium’s extension.

But he added: “This matter, along with the entire rent control review, should be dealt with before April, before the elections. Voters should know where the council stands on these issues.”