In Los Angeles' subprime rental market, where tenants and landlords regularly go to war For housing disputes, tenants have filed more than 115,000 complaints with the city's Housing Department since 2013.
Now, a new board shows the worst offenders.
Called the Top 100 Troubled Rental Properties, the new tool launched by City Comptroller Kenneth Mejía shows the properties with the most cases of housing violations, as well as their owners. Mejia said he wanted to pressure homeowners to comply with the law and pressure the city to punish those who don't.
“This project comes at a time when tenants are reporting harassment and illegal evictions that violate the city's Rent Stabilization Ordinance, Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance, and Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance, but very few of the complaints end up leading to strict enforcement or real accountability,” he said in a statement.
The dashboard includes a search engine to find violations linked to specific addresses, as well as a map showing more than 44,000 properties with complaints against them. It documents 55,018 illegal evictions, 38,876 illegal rent increases, 32,015 complaints for reduction of services and 24,179 cases of harassment.
The main offender was Hillside Villa Apartments, a 124-unit complex in Chinatown where residents alleged 300% rent increases after pandemic-era rent protections expired. In 2024, the city make a deal to provide $15 million in subsidized rent. The complex had 192 violation cases.
Barrington Plaza took second place. In 2023, the owners of the massive 712-unit Westside complex tried to evict all residents to install fire sprinklers and safety improvements. The property had 166 cases.
AVA Toluca Hills Apartments came in third, although its placement on the list is due in part to the high number of rentals. The 1,150-unit complex near Universal Studios had 113 violations, including harassment, unregistered units and failure to pay relocation services for tenants evicted without fault.
“There has never before been an easy way to search for years of violations by address,” Mejia said. “Everyone deserves safe, stable and decent housing.”
