Bernson Seeks Change in Rules on Rent Hikes
The Los Angeles City Council asked the city attorney’s office on Tuesday to draft an ordinance that would require apartment and mobile home park owners to roll back rent hikes levied to cover repair costs, once the cost of the work has been recouped from tenants.
The ordinance, suggested by City Councilman Hal Bernson, stems from a case in Sylmar, where residents of the Tahitian Mobile Home Park on Cobalt Street continued to pay raised rents after workers fixed a perimeter wall that suffered earthquake damage, Bernson said.
Such situations, Bernson said, amount to a permanent rent increase for landlords.
“They’re not entitled to it,” Bernson said. “It’s only fair that the tenants don’t have to keep paying.”
The councilman, who represents the northwest Valley, said he first heard about the Sylmar case last week.
A representative of the mobile home park could not be reached Tuesday.
Bernson also called upon the Mobile Home Park Rent Stabilization Commission, which oversees mobile home rental rules in the city, to investigate the Sylmar matter.
In suggesting the city amend its rental agreement rules, Bernson said he remained particularly concerned about protecting the rights of senior citizen tenants living on fixed incomes.
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