To unearth rent status, do some digging

Question: If I own an L.A. duplex and rent out only one unit because I live in the other, am I exempt from rent control because I’m not renting out both?

Answer: The duplex may be exempt from rent control as new construction, like apartments or condos, if the first certificate of occupancy was issued after Oct. 31, 1979. Your duplex also may be exempted from rent control as a luxury rental unit if the rents were at luxury levels in 1979, as defined by the L.A. rent law.

Otherwise, the unit is probably rent controlled. Any single-family home with more than one set of tenants, or any duplex with a tenant that is not exempted from the ordinance, is under rent control.

Should renter take the money, run?

Question: I rented an apartment in Santa Monica more than 15 years ago, before the Costa-Hawkins Act, which allows apartment owners to raise rents to market levels when units become vacant and are re-rented to new renters. Instead of paying $2,000 a month for rent, which is the market level, I am paying about $500 a month.

Now I am thinking about moving. Is there an accepted and established formula for calculating a fair buyout figure for me to willingly vacate the apartment? The previous landlord offered me $20,000 a couple of years ago.

Answer: Since buying tenants out of apartments under rent control is technically illegal, there is no accepted or established formula for doing it.

As a practical matter, I have heard stories of owners and renters negotiating buyout deals. I have never heard of a renter being offered more money than that $20,000. If the offer is still available, you will have to decide whether to accept it.

A bigger increase in a few months

Question: The amount of the annual inflation rent increase under Los Angeles city rent control will go from 3% to 4% on July 1. Am I allowed to postpone my tenant’s rent increase that is due before July so I can get the 4%?

Answer: You are allowed to postpone the rent increase until July 1 and get 4% instead of 3%. Apartment owners under L.A. rent control have always had the right to serve inflation rent increases on the anniversary of their tenants’ move-in dates or thereafter. But they forfeit any rent increases for the months that they were postponed.

E-mail questions to AptlifeAAGLA@aol.com, c/o Kevin Postema, or mail to AAGLA, c/o Kevin Postema, 621 S. Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005.