Los Angeles County Moratorium Current Update (February 2022)

23 Feb Los Angeles County Moratorium Current Update (February 2022)

As an update to the Los Angeles County Moratorium, on January 25, 2022, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors elected to extend the eviction moratorium as it relates to residential tenancies with the ultimate intention of phasing it out in three stages which would end by June 30, 2023. The vote on January 25 only implemented the first two phases, Phases 1 and 2 which are set to expire at the end of 2022.

Commercial Eviction Restrictions Expire
The biggest news was that the restriction protecting Commercial tenants from eviction will expire on January 31, 2022. This means that rent must be paid as usual on February 1, 2022. The moratorium does still require certain procedures for providing notices to commercial tenants. It also allows tenants who owe rent from March 2020 through January 2022 six months to a year to repay the rent (depending on the number of employees the tenant employs and whether the tenant complied with notice requirements). Those tenancies that had expired and are on a month-to-month basis, may now be terminated with a 30-day notice to quit.

Residential No-Fault Evictions
Protections for No-Fault evictions on residential units (evictions where the cause of termination is due to “no fault” of the tenant – i.e., removal from the rental market, selling the property vacant, substantial remodel/demolition, etc…) are set to expire at the end of the year, December 31, 2022.

Owner Move-In
Currently, the moratorium does allow for a landlord to terminate a tenancy for an owner move-in pursuant to the rules adopted by the County’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance, but with two added restrictions: 1) the property must have been purchased prior to June 30, 2021, and 2) the tenants could not have suffered any financial hardship due to CoVID-19. These two added restrictions will expire on May 31, 2022.

Effective June 1, 2022, and running through December 31, 2022, an owner may elect to terminate a month-to-month tenancy to move in provided that:

1) The owner occupies the premises for 36 consecutive months
2) If the Tenant is any one of the following, then the owner (or person moving in) must match these criteria “like for like”:
a. Tenant is elderly (over the age of 62)
b. Tenant is low income
c. Tenant is disabled
d. Tenant is terminally ill
3) Landlord provides relocation assistance pursuant to the County’s RSO (ranges from $7,654 to $21,411 depending on the makeup of tenants and bedroom count)

The owner move-in restrictions listed above will expire along with the other No-Fault restrictions on December 31, 2022.

Residential Non-Payment of Rent Protections
Until March 31, 2022, the protections for tenants regarding non-payment of rent are governed by the State’s moratorium (AB 832). Some municipalities in Los Angeles contend that their own moratoria preempt the State’s, however, the County cedes this protection to the State until March 31, 2022, when it is set to expire. (LA CITY has different rules)

Upon expiration of the State’s moratorium, effective April 1, 2022, and going through December 31, 2022, no tenant shall be evicted for non-payment of rent provided that the tenant has notified the landlord of a COVID related hardship no later than 7 days after the rent is due. This will then allow the tenant up to one year to repay the rent after the protection expires. However, starting June 1, 2022, tenants who are making more than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) will not be eligible for these protections.

Residential Nuisance
Protections from eviction for certain violations of a lease agreement, namely unauthorized occupants or pets, or from certain nuisances (where such violations or nuisances are related to the CoVID-19 emergency) shall expire at the end of the year, December 31, 2022.

Denial of Entry
Effective June 1, 2022, tenants shall no longer be protected from eviction if they deny entry to their landlords (unless such entry constitutes harassment).

Rent Freeze
The moratorium on rent increases shall remain in effect throughout the county through December 31, 2022. This only applies to those properties which lie within the unincorporated areas of LA County subject to the existing RSO.

However, the city government offices we spoke with have confirmed they are continuing to follow the original LA County Moratorium (2020) with respect to the increasing of tenant rents.  While incorporated cities certainly have the option to invoke rent increases, the ones we spoke with and listed below have reconfirmed their intent to follow the moratorium restrictions which specifically apply to unincorporated cities and apply them to their own incorporated city. 

CITIES CONTACTED

1. Baldwin Park
2. Covina
3. El Monte
4. Gardena
5. Long Beach
6. Monrovia
7. Pasadena
8. Pomona
9. San Dimas

 
See the below chart from the County of Los Angeles for additional details: