Two apartment owner groups filed court papers Monday challenging Los Angeles County’s pandemic-related eviction moratorium, which the Board of Supervisors approved in January and provides extended protections for failure to pay rent beginning next month.
The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles and the Apartment Owners Association of California brought the still unofficial legal action in Los Angeles Superior Court, asking that preliminary and permanent injunctions be issued preventing enforcement of the renewed eviction ban as unconstitutional.
“Quite simply, the renewed eviction ban does not advance, to any degree, any legitimate public purpose,” the apartment owners state in their court papers. A representative for Los Angeles County could not be immediately reached.
Starting April 1, landlords with property in Los Angeles County will no longer be able to evict tenants claiming they are impacted by the pandemic, nor may the property owners challenge a tenant’s self-certification of financial hardship, according to the apartment owners’ court papers. After May 31, all residential tenants whose household incomes are at or below 80 percent of the area median income can continue to self-certify financial hardship, the apartment landlords state in their court papers.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ demonstrated its “crusade against landlords” by approving the renewed eviction ban on Jan. 25, 2022, even though statewide eviction ban expired in September, no lockdowns or stay-at-home orders are anticipated, and both unemployment and hospitalization rates are down, according to the apartment owners’ court papers. At the time the renewed eviction ban was approved, there had been no “flood of evictions,” according to the apartment owners, who also note in their court papers that on Friday, March 4, Los Angeles County lifted its mandate that masks be worn indoors.
“When compared to the destruction of landlords’ livelihoods at the hands of government officials and opportunistic tenants that has persisted since March 2020, the need to continue commandeering residential properties to house non-paying tenants is non-existent,” the apartment owners state in their court papers.
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Baybee Brady says
Tim. Maybe the people that definitely ARE taking advantage (because even you know it’s true..) can come hang at your pad – you know – put all that “good will” to use….
Tim Scott says
Sooooo…your solution is “make Tim fix it.” Good to know.
FWB says
Exactly why I’m not renting out my other home.
Selling instead.
Tim Scott says
How very liberal of you! A conservative always just uses the government to offset any possible risk in their investments and then howls bloody murder when their profits are taxed. Good on you!
Matt K. says
I hate what’s going on in the Antelope Valley housing market right now!
Wall Street (in the form of Blackstone, Inc.) has decided to get into the “landlord” business.
So when a home goes on the market, instead of going to a young family who desperately want to be homeowners, Wall Street brokers offer the most (often in cash) and the seller walks away.
It’s disgusting to me that we’ve allowed mega corporations like Blackstone and Zillow to come in and vacuum up the housing supply and subject everyone to housing inflation. That should be illegal.
Meanwhile, a young family gets outbid and squeezed out of the market. Often, they are either forced to remain renters or have to move out to Rosamond where they are building homes and the supply meets the demand.
Eric says
This is asinine. People have been taking advantage for way too long. What will eventually happen is landlords will continue to raise everyone rents to pay for the squatters. This is unsustainable.
Tim Scott says
“Taking advantage,” are you suggesting that these people being protected from eviction are accumulating wealth? You think the next great wave of elites are launching from the ranks of the one step from homeless?
I agree that the situation is unsustainable, but I think that goes back a whole lot further than any pandemic driven eviction ban.
Loampounder says
Total twisting of words; no one mentioned anything about accumulating wealth. Squatters claim possession over something they do not have a legal right to. If a person cannot pay rent, then that person has no right to live there.
Tim Scott says
So what do you suggest they do, kill themselves?
My point was that there is a very high probability that the guy posting about “taking advantage” probably has PLENTY of advantage himself, as probably do you and certainly I. So instead of the constant whine about how they “unfairly” get a pittance how about you go make something worthwhile out of your own blessings and just be grateful?