Seeking to protect Los Angeles renters from unscrupulous landlords, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to require landlords to tell tenants of their rental rights during so-called “cash for keys” deals.
Under the new law, landlords seeking to remove tenants from rent-controlled properties with cash offers must now draw up buyout agreements with those renters. A copy must be filed with the city.
Additionally, tenants may back out of the agreement for any reason within 30 days.
The stricter rules come amid a hot real estate market and an uptick in complaints over evictions from rent-controlled properties, which make up about 75 percent of the city’s rental housing stock.
The city’s existing Rent Stabilization Ordinance provides relocation assistance to tenants evicted for “no-fault” reasons, such as when a landlord turns a rental building into a condominium. That assistance can range from $7,900 to $19,700, depending on the age of the renter and how long he or she has lived in the unit.
But some landlords simply offer cash to renters to get them to quickly leave. Those tenants may not be getting the full amount of money afforded to them under city’s law.
Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo, who proposed the change, said immigrants and Spanish-speaking renters are particularly vulnerable to “cash for key” offers. Immigrants may come from places “where they don’t have rights,” Cedillo said, “and believe that is the same situation here.”
Carlos Aguilar, a representative for the housing group Coalition for Economic Survival, told the City Council that low-income renters are being targeted by unethical landlords.
“Many tenants don’t know their rights,” Aguilar said. “They believe they have no choice but to opt out and take the money and leave.”
The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, which represents 7,000 members, supports renters knowing their rights, said AAGLA spokesman Fred Sutton. But landlords shouldn’t have to file a copy of the buyout agreement with the city, he said.
“These are private contracts between two individuals,” Sutton said. “We are against the actual agreement being disclosed.”
Wednesday’s City Council vote instructed city attorneys to draft the new law, which will return to the council for final approval by the end of the year.
The new ordinance will likely go into effect by early next year, Cedillo’s office said.