Editorial News Alert: L.A. County Unanimously Passes Draconian Inspection and Rent Escrow Ordinances
At the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting on April 23, 2024, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a pair of extremist ordinances establishing outrageous fees and penalties to be imposed upon rental housing providers with multifamily properties in the unincorporates areas of Los Angeles County.
The Board of Supervisors meetings have devolved from places of high esteem when conducting important county business into an opera house with overly dramatic performances by tenant activists replete with costumes (one dressing as a cockroach) repeating well-rehearsed lines about a villainous landlord forcing them to live in squalor. The Supervisors by allowing themselves to become accomplices in the performance have been silencing all reasoning, data and logic in favor of decisions based on nothing more than emotions, scripted stories of the same unverified “harms” and their desire to be lovingly embraced by the activists. The only thing left out of this tragic opera was the orchestra but I’m sure that will be added soon as well.
The severity of this “spell” cast upon the Supervisors was exemplified by Supervisor Janice Hahn, when she made the declaration “It IS a perfect world” in response to some rational and data-based questioning by our champion, Supervisor Kathryn Barger. Unfortunately, even Supervisor Barger finally succumbed to the drama and voted in favor of the two ordinances.
It is nothing short of astounding to see our Supervisors allowing themselves to be caught up in such extremists demands which are clearly defying logic and reason by activists’ use of such common salesman tactics of creating false “urgency” to justify reckless and harmful actions that will greatly reduce the supply of rental housing for years to come as well as devastate many small multifamily owners (many of whom are seniors) already struggling to hang on after years of unpaid rent due to COVID-19 moratoriums.
Rather than uplifting these small owners who are providing naturally occurring affordable housing for renters and creating policies encouraging them to stay in business, the Supervisors once again chose to turn a blind eye to mom-and-pop owners by instituting radical, one-size-fits-all ordinances treating ALL rental housing providers as if they are slumlords and saddling them with yet a SECOND mandatory annual fee per unit for this new inspection program. These ordinances also prescribe predatory late fee penalties of 25% and 50%, respectively and require civil action penalties of a MINIMUM of $1,000 PER DAY per violation and up to $7,000 per violation. What small business owner in any industry can withstand such openly hostile and abusive treatment by their local elected officials?!
These outrageous inspection fees that are 2.5 times greater than those charged by L.A. City for a much larger program, fines and penalties are even more unjustified and inappropriate given the fact that staff openly admitted that they did not yet know the COST of the entire program. How can one set an appropriate inspection fee if one does not already have a concrete understanding of the costs?!
In a modest nod to sanity, Supervisor Holly Mitchell requested two items as report backs from staff concerning the ordinances, one of which is due in September 2024. Unfortunately, even these minor requests were met with severe and hostile resistance from Department of Consumer and Business Affairs Director, Rafael Carbajal, claiming that nothing should be done to “fix” the inherent and extreme problems contained in these ordinances for at least 5 years. Such an approach would be completely inappropriate and irresponsible! Waiting 5 years to fix obvious problems that will cause small owners to go out of business is relief 5 years too late!
Supervisor Barger, rightfully pointed out that the restaurant industry already has a sliding scale for their inspections, fees and penalties and so too should the rental housing industry to properly recognize that small businesses suffer far greater damage if a one-size-fits-all approach is used in accessing these fees and fines (as is currently contained in these two new ordinances). This could be readily established by using the restaurant industry as a template and implemented BEFORE these ordinances take effect in six months.
We urge all AAGLA members with properties in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County to immediately email and call all 5 Supervisors to demand that the report due back in September 2024 consider adopting a sliding scale for inspection fees, late fees, fines and penalties. Also, the report should re-consider the amount of the inspection fee in light of verified costs for the program and should be changed from an annually fee to one that is charged only for the specific year when the property receives an actual inspection.
This article is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions regarding your property or specific tenancies and the requirements of any local law changes described herein, please consult with an attorney.
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