Seven months after LA fires, landlords will be ordered to clean smoke-damaged Altadena homes

More than seven months after the Eaton Fire left thousands displaced from their homes, Los Angeles County health officials said this week that landlords who have not adequately cleaned toxic ash in their Altadena rental properties will face inspections and orders to comply.

The notice published Tuesday on the Department of Public Health’s website said the county presumes that housing located in Altadena was affected by the fire and needs to be cleaned.

“Landlords must remediate hazardous ash, soot and smoke damage from rental housing properties and units and maintain rental housing units in a safe and habitable condition,” the notice states.

This new guidance comes after renters sued the Department of Public Health in May, alleging the county had systematically failed to enforce tenants’ right to habitable housing in the wake of the Eaton Fire.

Katie Clark — an organizer with the Altadena Tenants Union, which she helped create shortly after the Eaton Fire — said she believes the clarification is the result of renters banding together and pushing the county to uphold their rights.

“It's something that honestly should have happened immediately after the fire,” Clark said. “But better late than never.”

LAist asked the Department of Public Health about the timing of the notice. A spokesperson said the county does not comment on pending litigation.

Department officials told LAist that if a landlord fails to comply with an order to clean their building, they could be called into an "administrative hearing where fines and other remedies may be ordered."

Still unable to return home

Leora Mosman’s Altadena apartment on Lake Avenue survived the fire in January, but adjacent buildings were destroyed. She said she called the county months after the fire about the lack of remediation in her unit, but never got a response or inspection.

“There's really been no action from the county to communicate to renters what their rights are and what the responsibilities of landlords are to make units habitable,” Mosman said. “It became super clear to us that we were really going to be on our own.”

For a while, Mosman and her partner lived in hotels after the fire. When their insurance money ran out, they moved to an apartment in Glendale. They still hope to return to Altadena, but Mosman said it’s unclear if the damage in their apartment has been remediated sufficiently.

Mosman said her landlord notified her that a company had carried out unspecified “structural cleaning” in July. But Mosman said tenants there have not seen testing results for lead or other harmful substances.

LAist contacted the building’s property manager to ask for further details, but did not hear back.

Mosman said the county’s notice gives her hope about returning to her home safely.

“We're planning to go ahead and file complaints and ask for an inspection,” Mosman said. She added that she wants “some certainty around what remediation has actually happened, and confirmation that the units are habitable.”

Landlords want ‘case-by-case’ enforcement

Many landlords have already had their properties cleaned professionally. After initially stating that tenants were responsible for cleaning the interiors of their units, officials with the city of L.A.’s Housing Department clarified that landlords were required to remediate their properties.

But some landlords still have not removed fire-related ash and soot from their buildings. Tenants of those units either continue to live in temporary housing, Clark said, or they have returned to apartments they know could be toxic.

“What we're hearing from everybody is that it is August, support is running out, money is running out, and people don't have a lot of choices,” Clark said.

Landlord advocates said they agree that property owners must provide safe, habitable housing to their tenants. But they expressed concern about how the county’s enforcement will play out.

Fred Sutton, a spokesperson for the California Apartment Association, said in an email to LAist that "because these conditions can vary widely, these issues should be assessed on a case-by-case basis, both to address real hazards and to determine when a perceived concern does not present an actual risk.”

What about renters and landlords in Pasadena?

The city of Pasadena was also sued by renters over alleged lack of enforcement around fire remediation in rental housing. Health officials there initially told renters that ash from the Eaton Fire was toxic, but that tenants would have to take landlords to court if they wanted it cleaned because the city’s building code did not specifically address the term “ash.”

Pasadena spokesperson Lisa Derderian told LAist the city has published a guide to cleaning up housing units after a wildfire.

“The city provides these cleaning guidelines to owners and tenants at every inspection related to complaints of ash, soot, or smoke,” Derderian said.

However, the city’s guide does not specify who is responsible for carrying out remediation work.

How to file a complaint

In contrast to Pasadena’s approach, Clark said L.A. County’s new guidance is “reasonable” and “makes a lot of sense.”

“We're hopeful that the city of Pasadena also feels that way,” Clark said. “But to date, I haven't heard that there's been any movement.”

For now, the lawsuits against the county and Pasadena are ongoing.

Altadena renters can visit this website for more information on the county’s remediation enforcement. If they want to file a complaint or ask for an inspection, they can call the county’s Department of Public Health at (888) 700-9995 (select option 3) or send an email to DPH-RHHP@ph.lacounty.gov.