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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Four Los Angeles City Council members introduced a motion Wednesday seeking to improve the city's housing inspection capabilities to ensure timely and quality repairs for renters, and to encourage tenants and landlords to fully participate in the process.
The motion from council members Nithya Raman, Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Heather Hutt would instruct the Los Angeles Housing Department and other relevant departments to report back with recommendations to address limitations of the current Systematic Code Enforcement Program and complaint-based inspections.
City staff would conduct public outreach and take into consideration opinions from various groups, such as tenant advocacy groups, landlords and community organizations.
Under the housing inspection program, City Code Enforcement inspects rental units designated as Tier 1 every four years and properties designated as Tier 2 every two years.
The program is intended to ensure rental housing is safe and healthy for tenants, and to prevent landlords from using violations as a reason for removing tenants from their homes. Code enforcement officers also perform inspections when tenants make complaints.
Officials say the program lacks certain accountability measures. In some cases, tenants wait weeks or even months for repairs because of inadequate documentation of code violations.
In addition, the program allows for broad discretion to give landlords extensions to respond to repairs or other complaints.
"Patterns of inadequate repairs, harassment and opaque guidelines within the current SCEP and complaint-based inspections also highlight the need for broader application of Tenant Habitability Plans," the motion reads.
If tenants needs to be temporarily relocated due to necessary repairs or renovations such as re-piping, seismic retrofitting, substantial alterations and re-wiring, a landlord would need to file Tenant Habitability Plans with the Housing Department, which provides a plan for mitigating impacts to tenants, and rehousing them if necessary.
According to the motion, many types of repairs could displace tenants for unknown periods of time, but not trigger the filing of Tenant Habitability Plans, which council members seek to address.
Additionally, the council members want to implement a petition process for rent adjustment as an incentive to make landlords make repairs.
In cities with rent control such as Santa Monica, Alameda and San Francisco, officials have allowed tenants to file petitions for a decrease in rent based on the condition of the unit, or decreases in services.
Tenants could file several petitions without needing to prove that the entire property is uninhabitable to receive a decrease in their rent if a landlord fails to make repairs.
Landlords would be able to increase the rent to its original value once repairs were made.
Currently, the Rent Adjustment Commission Regulations oversee petitions for decreases in services but not for the condition of a unit, except for petitions through the Rent Escrow Account program.
"The city should explore these policies and practices used successfully in other cities in order to encourage timely and quality repair and to encourage tenants and landlords to fully participate in the SCEP and complaint-based inspections process," the motion reads.