Press Release: Housing Providers Urged to Work With Tenants to Establish COVID Rent Repayment Plans

Housing Providers Urged to Work With Tenants to Establish COVID Rent Repayment Plans

Statement from Daniel Yukelson, Executive Director, Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 3, 2023: The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) has urged its members and rental housing providers throughout the Greater Los Angeles Area to exercise restraint in their collection efforts of COVID rental debt accruing prior to the termination of various state and local emergency declarations. This issue has risen to the forefront following the recent, August 1st deadline imposed upon renters in the City of Los Angeles requiring repayment of unpaid COVID rental debt in arrears from March 2020 through September 2021. A second deadline, February 1, 2024, requires repayment of the balance of unpaid COVID rental debt from October 2021 through March 2023.

Throughout the pandemic and still ongoing, rental housing providers have continued working with their renters to ensure they remain in housing despite not receiving full rent payments, providing help with rental assistance applications under the “Housing is Key” program, and offering renters payment plans and forgiving portions of rental debt.

Daniel Yukelson, Executive Director of AAGLA, stated: “We urge rental housing providers to continue working with renters and to carefully weigh available options for collecting COVID rent debt due on August 1st. Housing providers should make best efforts to work with renters, particularly those who had been updating and communicating their situation all along the way, and who also had been making efforts to remit payment of portions of rent debt owed.” Yukelson further stated, “I know many rental housing providers, particularly those in the Los Angeles Area, are in severe financial distress following periods of so-called temporary COVID moratoriums when collecting legally owed rent became challenging or impossible, and also while many were prohibited from increasing rent despite extreme inflationary pressures and tremendous ‘across the board’ cost increases. Housing providers should seek the best possible outcome when attempting to collect unpaid rent given their unique situation; however, the approach undertaken may not always necessitate expensive and protracted court proceedings.”

Founded in 1917, the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles seeks to promote the highest levels of professionalism within the multifamily rental housing industry. It provides a wide array of services and benefits that meet the needs of rental housing providers of all sizes, including educational seminars and member events, expert operational advice, and an extensive library of forms needed to successfully own and manage rental properties. The Association also serves as a powerful advocate and lobbyist for rental housing providers at the local, county, state, and federal levels of government. For more information, go to: www.aagla.org.