LA real estate agent will pay $20K and face probation in post-Eaton Fire rent hike case

A real estate agent who calls himself “Mr La Cañada” has been sentenced after facing one of the first criminal price gouging charges filed in the wake of the fires last year in L.A. County.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday that Mike Kobeissi will face 12 months of probation, 100 days of community service, mandatory ethics training and a requirement to pay $20,000 to a disaster relief fund.

“May this announcement serve as a stern warning to those who would seek to further victimize those who have lost everything,” Bonta said in a statement. “My office is aggressively and relentlessly pursuing those who are trying to make a quick buck off someone else’s pain.”

Kobeissi’s attorney, Dale Galipo, said his client was not ultimately sentenced for violating the section of California’s penal code related to post-disaster price gouging. He was instead convicted of false advertising in a separate misdemeanor charge.

“This was an unfortunate situation,” Galipo said. “Mike did not make $1 off of this situation. And it’s unfortunate that it happened, but we were happy to get it resolved.”

The 38% rent hike that led to the sentencing

In January 2025, shortly after the fires destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades, Bonta’s office charged Kobeissi with violating the state’s ban on post-disaster price gouging.

The law prohibited raising rents by more than 10% from their advertised levels before the fire. With thousands of displaced families flooding the rental market all at once, many prospective tenants reported widespread violations of the law.

Bonta’s office said the case started when a couple who lost their home in the Eaton Fire applied to rent a property listed by Kobeissi. After they submitted their application, they were told the rent had increased 38% from the listed price. They declined to rent the property and notified the Attorney General’s Office.

LAist asked Bonta’s office why the price gouging charge was dropped, and did not receive an immediate answer.

What the agent said at the time

When LAist first reached Kobeissi for comment on the charges last year, he initially said prosecutors had it “all wrong.”

“I should be rewarded,” he told LAist at the time. “It's completely opposite, what they are claiming.”

Kobeissi will be required to submit an apology letter to the couple as part of his sentencing.

Prosecutors have charged a handful of other real estate agents and landlords for violating the ban on post-fire price gouging. It remains to be seen what sentences they might face.

Tenant advocates with a group The Rent Brigade say overall enforcement has been weak, given how few cases were filed in relation to the 18,360 listings they identified as likely violations.

L.A. County’s ban on post-fire rent gouging lasted for about 16 months before elected officials decided to end it in May.

Resources for renters

• L.A. County recovery resources