Can New Owners Occupy Rent-Control Units?
QUESTION: My two brothers and I would like to buy a four-unit apartment house in Los Angeles. It’s covered by L.A. City’s rent control law. The problem is that the only way we could afford to buy the building would be to live in three of the units.
Here’s the question. If we buy the building, can we evict three of the tenants to live there ourselves, and rent the fourth unit out?
ANSWER: As long as the owners of the property are not a corporation or partnership, co-owners of a rent-controlled property are each entitled to occupy one of its units. Therefore, the answer is “yes.” However, you had better be able to prove “good faith,” meaning that the evictions are not motivated by an attempt to avoid or circumvent rent control.
Of course, the tenants are all entitled to relocation assistance. Seniors, the handicapped, or renters with minor children get $5,000 per unit. Others get $2,000.
Dispute Over Security Deposit Refund Rights
Q: I recently vacated my apartment unit in Granada Hills on a holiday right before the weekend. The administrative offices of the management company were closed on the holiday until the following Monday. I returned the keys and garage door opener on Tuesday, the second day the administrative offices were reopened after the holiday.
Here’s the problem. The manager deducted rent money through the day I returned the keys. The manager says I should have dropped the keys and garage door opener through the mail slot on the holiday. I told him I didn’t trust doing that.
Now, I have received my security deposit refund, less the “unpaid” rent. Can I sue the manager in Small Claims Court for this unjustified rent expense and win?
A: Probably, according to Trevor Grimm, General Counsel to the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA). Grimm said, “We have to assume that the tenant gave the owner a 30-day notice to vacate, as required by Civil Code Section 1946, and it expired on the holiday. If we further assume that the tenant was out of the unit on the holiday, and the only thing that prevented him from turning over the keys to the manager at that time was the closed office, then he should win his case in Small Claims Court.”
Grimm added, “If an owner called me on the expiration date (holiday), I would tell him to go ahead and inspect the unit, based upon the notice. If the tenant is out, the tenancy is over. The failure to return keys and garage devices does not trigger damages based on an apartment’s rental value.”
Owners Responsible for ‘Rock Houses’
Q: My wife recently asked if it was true that an apartment owner in Arcadia could lose his apartment building if there were tenants there who were drug dealers. I told her that the law does not require us to play FBI or Rambo. Creeping around spying on your tenants at night or wearing electronic devices could get a landlord killed.
Imagine my surprise when I read your answer (April 29, 1990) to an Inglewood apartment owner who had drug dealers in her apartment building. You indicated that the city of Inglewood has already confiscated two apartment buildings because of drug dealers living in them. Contrary to answering the question, your response only raised many more.
Must landlords now go on “witch hunts” when some tenants allege others are drug dealers? Were these cases a result of a landlord’s suspicion, blatant indifference, or participation? I don’t support drug dealers, but I have a problem. Here it is.
Two years ago, I had an overzealous tenant report to the police that her neighbor was burning incense to cover up the smell of marijuana. I later found out that Mrs. Overzealous did not like the mumblings of her Buddhist neighbor’s morning prayers, his incense or his theological ideology. Here’s the question. Must landlords get involved in such tenant pettiness, or face confiscation?
A: You’ll be pleased to know that you needn’t play Rambo or FBI. The confiscations in Inglewood involved duplexes operating as “rock houses,” where the owners were told that drug dealing was going on, after police surveillance and arrests of drug dealers at the premises.
After being notified about the illegal activity by the Inglewood Police Department, by both phone and letter, the owners said to the police that they weren’t on “the detectives’ payroll, and that they could rent to anyone they pleased.” They also said they didn’t care how their renters got their money as long as they paid their rent.
You may also have heard about a nine-unit apartment building that was confiscated last month in Westchester. There, the owner was not only allowing drug dealers to operate, but was also selling drugs himself.
The bottom line is that you cannot “knowingly” (a decision for a judge or jury) allow drug dealers to operate on your property, particularly when they have been arrested and convicted by the courts, and you have been notified of all of this. At that point, you had better take action to evict, or face potential confiscation.
Postema is the editor of Apartment Age magazine, a publication of AAGLA, an apartment owners’ service group. Mail your questions on any aspect of apartment living to “Rentformation,” Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, 621 S. Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles 90005-3995.
