Calm down Los Angeles! (rent control and AirBnB)

Calm down Los Angeles! (rent control and AirBnB)

Real Estate Coach · Venice Beach, CA · Member since 2012 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes

In the span of 48 hours or less, I find out: LA county just upped rent control from 3% to 4%, and they just banned the better part of ALL vacation rentals- AirBnB, VRBO, short-term period, etc.- for investment properties, and capped owner-occupied property rentals to a certain number of days per year.

4% works well for me as a landlord, bad for me as a renter. And I had just been pondering whether I should AirBnB one of the units in my Venice duplex rather than get another long-term tenant, but now I have my answer for that.

Is it just me or did LA County just go wild with housing rules overnight? (just when I thought we skirted the rent control drama in the last election)

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  • Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 62 posts · 20 votes
    7y

    Per the HCIDLA the allowable rent increase is tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). All this means that rent can only be increased 3% - 10% every year for rent control units. This year (July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020) rent can be increased 4%. 

    Regarding Airbnb, the homesharing ordinance was announced about 7 months ago which effectively bans short term rentals in LA on July 1st, 2019. At the moment it's unknown how they're going to monitor it and if what they do will actually prevent people from running Airbnbs. 

    To answer your question I would say LA did not go wild with housing rules overnight, they've been going wild for years!

  • Real Estate Coach · Venice Beach, CA · Member since 2012 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    7y
    Originally posted by @Archie Robb:

    Per the HCIDLA the allowable rent increase is tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). All this means that rent can only be increased 3% - 10% every year for rent control units. This year (July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020) rent can be increased 4%. 

    Regarding Airbnb, the homesharing ordinance was announced about 7 months ago which effectively bans short term rentals in LA on July 1st, 2019. At the moment it's unknown how they're going to monitor it and if what they do will actually prevent people from running Airbnbs. 

    To answer your question I would say LA did not go wild with housing rules overnight, they've been going wild for years!

    That's fair, and more accurate, yes. I think I was so focused watching Santa Monica go overboard that I wasn't pay as much attention to everyone else. I knew the AirBnB bit was in work, just didn't know they actually passed it. Will be interesting to see what happens, yes. And see if people fight it hard enough to reverse it somehow. And rent control, yes, but it's been 3% for so long that it feels wild that it's now changed.

  • Property Manager · Member since 2019 · 3 posts · 2 votes
    7y

    I read that if the landlord does not pay the meter for the unit (gas electric) then they can not raise it to 4%. 

    There is a rat out number to police STRs in LA and someone has a full time job enforcing the units starting 11/1. 

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