Need Help Collecting Rent? Call 9-1-1

It is a sign of the times. Tough economic times. Renters are not paying their rent, housing providers are in a panic and frustrated by unbalanced regulations such as the many eviction moratoriums and proposals to forgive rent. Renters are out of work while owners are very concerned about meeting ongoing financial obligations, and everyone is at risk of being inflicted with COVID-19, the deadly Coronavirus.

This past month, the Los Angeles Police Department reported that it is now responding to almost three times as many disputes between landlords and tenants as it was just two months ago. Stay-at-home orders have closed virtually everything except for essential businesses in Los Angeles. Waiters, bartenders, personal trainers, barbers, shopkeepers, and hundreds of thousands of other workers and been put out of work and left without regular income for what will likely be a period of a few to many more months. The City of Los Angeles, with its already expensive housing costs of any city in the nation and unbalanced tenant protection regulations has caused friction between housing providers and the renters that are given shelter.

On April 1st’s rent due date, the Los Angeles Police Department was called upon to “Protect and Serve” by responding to over 100 calls about renter-landlord disputes, which by far, is the highest volume of such calls it received all year. During the first ten days of April, the daily average of calls to the police was 56, or more than double the March daily average of 22 per day; and a February daily average of just 19 per day.