LA & NY landlords - where does compliance live in your week?

Question

A landlord called me yesterday with a question I had to say no to.

He asked if the software I build handles LA compliance.

It doesn't. It tracks rent. That's all it does.

But I keep thinking about why he asked.

He wasn't shopping for features. He was tired. In his telling, LA is out to trip up landlords. Regulate them out of profitability. Fine them until ownership is impossible.

And it's not just LA. New York looks the same now.

I don't think he's the only one who feels that.

Here's where I land unsure. Compliance is a real pain - RSO registration, LAHD deadlines, just-cause rules, and every city writes its own version. Software that gets rent wrong costs you a month. Software that gets compliance wrong costs you a lawsuit.

So should rent software touch compliance at all? Or is that a separate job for somebody else?

If you own units in LA or NY, I'm asking honestly: where does compliance live in your week right now?

Leo Stein · Answer

Yisroel, from the Southern California management side, compliance lives in two places for us: on a calendar and in a per-unit file. Rent tracking alone won't catch it. The calendar holds every date that has consequences: rent-increase notices, lease-end and renewal windows, deposit return deadlines after move-out, and any local registration dates. The per-unit file records which rules apply to that specific unit: whether it's covered by the statewide rent cap or a local ordinance, which notices were served and when, the move-in and move-out photos, and the deposit amount. The pain your caller described is real, because each city layers its own rules on top of state law. My honest view is that software should flag dates and store documents. Deciding what a rule means for a unit should stay with the owner, a manager who tracks it daily, and an attorney when needed. Not legal advice. For CA owners, the California Apartment Association's forms and updates are a good baseline. Feel free to message me if you want to compare systems.

LA & NY landlords - where does compliance live in your week?

1 Reply