I am a family owned owner in Los Angeles. I only have 12 units, which is not much compared to large corporations that have thousands of properties. I don't make a living as a landlord. In fact, I only make about $100 a month for a unit with a mortgage of several thousand dollars.
For the past five years, I have felt attacked by elected officials in Los Angeles and wonder how long I will be able to afford to own a rental property in Los Angeles. If the attitude of elected officials toward the city's landlords doesn't change, small landlords like me will leave, and the city will be left with only corporate landlords (and slum landlords) who don't care about rent laws or well-being conditions. being their tenants.
I firmly believe in tenants' rights. It is true that many landlords treat their tenants poorly. If they didn't, we wouldn't need tenants' rights laws. Additionally, I believe in rent control: families should not have their rent increased by 10% or 20% in a year. However, in the name of preventing homelessness, the city and county numerous have passed measures that are making it impossible for small landlords to operate and will ultimately harm vulnerable tenants.
For example, in 2023, several years after the COVID crisis began, at a time when unemployment was at historic lows and wages were rising at unprecedented rates, landlords were told they could not yet raise rent . In the end, small business owners like me accepted it as we watched all of our costs increase dramatically.
Currently, the county and city They are preparing to provide free attorneys to every person going through the eviction process, regardless of the reason. But if a tenant is being evicted for non-payment of rent, there is only one legal argument that can be made, and that is around “habitability.” If the landlord does not keep the entire unit in a habitable condition or in a safe environment with working utilities, then the tenant has the right to waive part or all of the rent.
Once the issue of habitability is ruled out, then there is no other legal reason not to pay rent. Unfortunately, in my experience, attorneys representing tenants have learned how to manipulate our court system, prolonging eviction cases. That has increased the cost of evicting a tenant who has stopped paying rent without any legal reason to $20,000 to $30,000 (and ultimately not preventing evictions). How can a small owner like me absorb that cost? The answer is that we can't.
What are the repercussions of these policies? For me, the first day of every month when rent is due is stressful. I cross my fingers and pray that my tenants pay. I have only had to evict one tenant in 10 years from a house I own. That process depleted our savings so much that we may sell that house to get back on our feet. Other small owners They lost tens of thousands of dollars when their tenants stopped paying rent during the COVID rent freeze and sold their buildings at a loss or dipped into their own savings.
Ultimately, these policies hurt tenants. Landlords like me now can't afford to take risks with tenants. That means if you don't have good credit and verifiable income, you'll probably have a very hard time finding housing these days. That usually means undocumented workers who have no credit and work for cash, or those who already have socioeconomic difficulties.
While city and county government officials work to stop homelessness, they rely on private landlords, who own the vast majority of homes here, to take on the risk of providing housing for Angelenos. But they can't ask us to risk our financial well-being and at the same time declare war on us. If policies like free lawyers for all tenants and rent freezes become the norm, small landlords like me will leave Los Angeles.
Instead, the Los Angeles City Council and the county Board of Supervisors should view people like me as partners in providing housing and give us a seat at the table. For example, the county and city could establish advisory committees composed of small property owners who could make policy recommendations and be consulted on housing-related issues. When debating issues such as rent freezes, the City Council and County Board should proactively invite family landlords to be part of the legislative process by meeting with us. And when measures are debated, we should be invited to testify at hearings. With these steps, we could work together to ensure all parties are protected and reduce harm to the city's residents and homeowners.
Joshua Kamali He is a landlord in Los Angeles. He worked for nearly 10 years in Democratic politics and policy in Washington, DC and California before becoming a nonprofit fundraiser. He now works in property development and construction and owns 12 units in Los Angeles County.
