Apartment remodeling can lead to LA renters losing their homes. The City Council just voted to stop these ‘renovictions’

For many renters in Los Angeles, apartment renovations are no cause for celebration. Instead of getting a brand new kitchen or bathroom, tenants know they’ll often be getting an eviction.

But on Tuesday, the L.A. City Council decided to push back on these “renovictions.”

The council voted 11-0 to get rid of a local provision allowing landlords to evict tenants in cases where “substantial remodel” work will take more than 30 days. Instead, landlords could soon be required to temporarily relocate tenants and let them return after renovations are complete.

Reaction to the vote

Tenant advocates cheered the decision. They argued landlords often use remodeling plans as a pretext for getting rid of long-term tenants in order to dramatically raise rents for the next occupants.

Landlord advocates said the city’s aging housing stock needs repair, and requiring landlords to maintain tenancies during lengthy remodeling will put property owners in financial straits.

“It would constructively prohibit existing mom-and-pop owners from conducting needed major system repairs by prohibiting increasing rents to cover these substantial costs, and as a result, drive more naturally occurring affordable housing off the market," David Kaishchyan with the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles said during the City Council meeting’s public comment period.

Who is covered by the new protections

Protections against eviction due to renovation work already exist for most of the city’s renters because they're covered by L.A. rent control, which provides a host of eviction safeguards. The City Council passed rules against “renoviction” for these tenants in 2005.

But those protections have so far not been extended to the rest of the city’s tenants. They are not covered by local rent control provisions because they live in buildings constructed after the legal cut-off in 1978.

Tenant advocates said more than 200 L.A. households have faced eviction due to remodeling plans in the last 18 months.

Long-term renters in Echo Park face uncertain future

Lourdes Mata and her family are one of those households. New owners took over their 8-unit building in Echo Park two years ago, she said, and they have since tried to evict the tenants over renovation plans — so far, unsuccessfully.

“For me, it was difficult to go through this because I’ve never been in court,” Mata said in Spanish. She said she believes the landlord’s ultimate goal is to “get us out of here, change up the apartment and raise the rent.”

Mata said her family has been paying $880 per month for their two-bedroom apartment. She said they moved in 35 years ago, and their previous landlord never raised their rent much.

Under a statewide law capping rent hikes, Mata’s landlord cannot raise her rent more than 8.9% this year. But if her unit becomes vacant, her landlord could legally raise the rent to market rate. Mata said another refurbished unit in the building was recently advertised at $3,500 per month.

“It would be very, very difficult for us to rent an apartment like that,” said Mata, 59. She said she and her husband, 63, are both no longer able to work.

What happens next

L.A. already has a program for landlords who intend to carry out extensive repairs without evicting tenants. The city’s Tenant Habitability Program outlines the responsibilities of landlords to relocate tenants during renovation work.

West L.A. tenants in a recent high-profile eviction case successfully argued they shouldn’t be evicted from the Barrington Plaza high-rise apartment complex over plans to install fire sprinklers. They said their landlord could have instead temporarily relocated them through the Tenant Habitability Program.

Tuesday’s vote instructs the city’s housing department to come back to the full City Council with plans for ensuring that renters can maintain their tenancy during renovations. That could mean requiring that landlords subject to the new eviction limits participate in the Tenant Habitability Program, but any such decision will require a second vote by the full council.

Why it matters for the city’s climate goals

Environment advocates said these protections will be crucial in coming years as the city moves to require gas appliances be replaced with electric ones. Some have raised fears that plans to “decarbonize” buildings could give landlords a reason to remove tenants.

Morgan Goodwin, director of the Sierra Club’s chapter in L.A. and Orange counties, wrote in a letter to the City Council ahead of the vote: “As we pursue critical electrification and energy-efficiency upgrades in the fight against climate change, we must ensure that these efforts do not lead to tenant displacement.”

However, landlords complain that the city’s existing relocation requirements can be onerous. They said the city is slow to process applications for rent increases from property owners who have incurred huge renovation costs.

Fred Sutton, spokesperson for the California Apartment Association, wrote in a letter to the City Council: “It is critical that the city avoids adopting programs or processes that do not work as intended, especially when some older buildings are in urgent need of rehabilitation.”