Los Angeles is known for having strong tenant protections. The city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO), which applies to nearly 70% of all rental housing, limits the percentage that rent can be raised in a given year. It generally protects tenants from the most extreme forms of rent gouging once they are already living in a unit. Additionally, tenants living in RSO properties are protected from most no-fault evictions. In other words, landlords of these units cannot simply decide they want to end a tenant’s lease “just because” — they must provide a sound, legal reason for an eviction.
With these protections, one might assume that long-term Los Angeles tenants are relatively safe from displacement. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
Although city law protects against most no-fault evictions, a 1985 California state law called the Ellis Act provides a carve-out that landlords can use to evict tenants living in RSOs if the landlord is “exiting the rental business” and intends to permanently remove those units from the rental market. According to the law, they can do this by demolishing the building or converting it to condominiums or tenancy-in-common (TIC) units. If the building is not demolished, the units must remain off the rental market for two years…