Editorial News Alert: West Hollywood Imposes One-Year Minimum Lease for ALL Residential Properties

At the West Hollywood City Council meeting on Monday, March 18^th, the Council voted unanimously to increase the minimum lease term for single-family and condominium rentals from 31 days to one (1) full year (Agenda Item 3A). 

In a clear showing of just how radical and extreme the current City Council members view housing issues, the full City Council went far above and beyond recommendations made by the City’s staff and Planning Commission that would have only increased the minimum lease term from 31 days to 60 days, but instead catapulted the minimum lease term requirements into the stratosphere at one full year.  Now homeowners with single family properties or condominiums are in the same “boat” as multi-family owners that are already required to provide a minimum, one-year lease.  This is clear and convincing evidence that it is not just multi-family owners that are under attack by tenant activists and their far-left legislators, but ALL residential property owners.

Once again AAGLA was the sole representative organization to speak out against this wrongful taking over control by the City Council of private property rights.  We argued that shorter lease terms should be allowed for owners that are trying to pay mortgages while they are out of town on business, such as owners in the entertainment industry required to leave on shoots.  We also argued that renters needed shorter term options in West Hollywood especially when loved ones are receiving needed medical care at nearby hospitals such as Cedars-Sinai.  Although the staff report acknowledged that the average stay at Cedars-Sinai is currently 25 days, the City Council ignored this fact.  To force a family to commit to a rental far longer than necessary will make staying nearby cost prohibitive.  Unfortunately these arguments fell on deaf ears as City Council members were already fixated on striping private property rights away from owners rather than balancing the interests of all community members.

Unfortunately, no homeowners or condominium owners turned out either in-person or via Zoom to speak up for themselves to protect and preserve their property rights.  This gave the City Council a clear green light to go as extreme as they wanted to, which resulted in the expansion from one month to one year as a required minimum lease term.

If owners do not get directly involved in preserving their rights by attending and sharing their personal stories, then the City Council will continue to take their silence as consent and go as extreme as their far-left fantasies take them.  We urge all AAGLA members to spread the word to homeowners that their rights are under attack and they need to join AAGLA, as members and partners, to push back against the City Council turning their private residential property into public housing/social housing.

ORDINANCE