All Forum Posts by: KJ L.

@Brandon Foster Check out this thread

Thanks for your response! We've been asking our eviction lawyer about suing the city  of Los Angeles for regulatory overreach with some of the new laws regarding rent control and the airbnb regulations. Did landlords in NY sue the city or use other means (other than burning the buildings) to fight rent control? 

Lol Maybe no one has done it? 

@Brandon Foster @Seth Borman Ha I'm still waiting for responses. 

Hey BP, 

So I live in Los Angeles, land of Rent Control.. There are rent control buildings that have hit the market and they sit for a really long time because either the seller doesnt want to the reduce the price enough to cover the cost of eviction (usually $30k per unit) or buyers want the property delivered vacant which drags out the RE transaction process.  In South Los Angeles, there are once-beautiful craftsman style duplexes and triplexes that resemble a large single family home (units are on top of each other and not side by side) and there are two of these down the street from us. 

My understanding of rent control is that you can you evict tenants to remove properties from the rental market in California via Ellis Act. After doing some researching this is what I've found: 

The “Ellis Act” is a state law which says that landlords have the unconditional right to evict tenants to “go out of business.” For an Ellis eviction, the landlord must remove all of the units in the building from the rental market, i.e., the landlord must evict all the tenants and cannot single out one tenant (for example, with low rent) and/or remove just one unit out of several from the rental market. The Ellis Act is included in the just causes for eviction under the Rent Ordinance.

Ellis Act evictions are for the purpose of going out of the rental business. Ellis evictions are used to convert rental units to condominiums, using loopholes in the condo law. Also, Ellis evictions are used to convert multi-unit buildings into single family homes.

So here is my question: Has anyone in Los Angeles or in California used Ellis Act to evict/remove a multifamily property to convert into a rehabbed SFR to sell or occupy? Has anyone conducted Ellis Act to convert the property into condos? Can you describe the process and/or timeline? Thanks in advance!

Barbara Craig Attorney in San Pedro is GREAT! 

Although there are rules established in LA regarding max occupancy, we've actually tried to report an occupancy violation (almost 22 people living in a duplex -_-) however the city declined to take any action. They told us that they are not enforcing those restrictions because of the housing shortage -______-. So based on that experience, I would suggest if youre going to move forward with your plan, make the property livable and pleasant so students wont attempt to report you (even though the city is apparently doing nothing). Also check the zoning on the house, if there are 10 bedrooms, it sounds like the property is large enough to be zoned for more than SFR. Check Zimas for details.

@Brandon Foster

@Brandon Foster

@Rick Albert You can also search Biggerpockets.com/events to find local meetups and other events.