COVID Claiming L.A. City Tenant Leaves Owner with a Huge Mess…and No Money!
All of us have heard the stories of supposed COVID-stricken renters who dishonestly claim they cannot pay their rent, and when they are finally “vacated,” they leave us with a big mess and literally thousands of dollars in damages on top of thousands of dollars in past due rent.
In this particular case, the tenant stopped paying rent in April 2022, right at the beginning of the pandemic and the imposition of the emergency measures by the City of Los Angeles, the State of California, and other jurisdictions. The “rent-thief” continued living without paying rent as a “squatter” for 30 months until being evicted on September 28, 2022, and at that point owed the property owner more than $30,000, before taking into consideration the significant clean-up and repairs necessary to re-rent the unit, and before factoring in legal costs. Obviously, the owner was able to secure an eviction under the City of Los Angeles’ overzealous eviction moratorium because the tenant was lying – seems obvious after having gone 30-months without paying a “dime” on rent!
In a statement provided by the property manager, “This was how we found the apartment after evicting this tenant in the City of Los Angeles – who did not pay us any money since April 2020, he never applied for rental assistance although both the owner and our management office tried to do so. No money was ever received from the State rent assistance program for this tenant. We are now in the process of boxing up the unit because we must hold his personal belongings for 30 days before we can dispose of the items – we are up to 50 boxes and still boxing.”
Attention Los Angeles City Council – this is the mess you left us to deal with, yet all you do is sit there and listen to unfounded stories about landlord harassment of tenants, which since your anti-tenant harassment ordinance was passed, not one such claim has been proven or even prosecuted by the city!
Finally, on October 4, 2022, the City Council recommended ending the moratorium on evictions effective January 31, 2023, and ending the moratorium on rent increases on January 31, 2024. With the termination of the moratoriums, the Los Angeles City Council has promised to consider and pass numerous other punishing regulations restricting tenant screening practices and imposing “just cause” eviction protections on properties not currently subject to the city’s rent stabilization ordinance. We can only sit and wait for the “next shoe to drop.”