Rent Control

Some cities and municipalities have enacted rent control. Rent control laws generally limit how much a landlord can increase the rent, how often he can increase the rent, limit his late fees, and require him to give a reason when asking a tenant to move. Cities usually enact these ordinances because there is a shortage of housing, that in turn results in a low vacancy rate, and consequently the rental values increase to meet the demand. When combined with speculative home buying, flipping, etc. this tends to increase the rental values at a more rapid rate. Bureaucrats, in their infinite wisdom, thought that rent control should be imposed to protect the poor and downtrodden by making rent "fair."

Regardless, here in Los Angeles county, rent control is something that landlords need to understand, and something that tenants can use to their advantage to prevent eviction. Although not all of Los Angeles County is subject to Rent Control, most of Marina Del Rey is not. But cities such as Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Burbank, and Glendale are under rent control.

For example, Los Angeles enacted the Los Angeles Rent Stabilization Ordinance (LARSO) in 1978. Thus any multi-unit property built before December 1978 is subject to rent control. Multi-unit means apartments, condominiums, town homes, duplexes, two or more dwelling units on the same lot, mobile homes and mobile home pads, and rooms in a hotel, motel, rooming house or boarding house occupied by the same tenant for sixty  consecutive days or more. Anyone can check when the landlord's building was built at the Los Angeles Zoning Information and Map Access System (ZIMAS) website. The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety also provides similar information at their website.

Likewise, Santa Monica enacted rent control (SMRCCA) on April 10, 1979. So most residential buildings in Santa Monica built before April 10, 1979 are covered by rent control. Any tenant can check on the rent control status, rent levels, and amenities of his rental property by calling a Rent Control Information Coordinator at: (310) 458-8751.

If the rental unit is subject to rent control the landlord must make register his property. But this alone is not sufficient, a landlord should serve a copy of the registration on the tenant when the tenant signs the lease; post a copy of the registration a common area (like next to the mailboxes in an apartment); send a copy to each tenant once a year; and give a copy to the tenant before serving the three-day notice to pay or quit (or attach it with the three-day notice).