Rent Contol
July 28th, 2008 by AptBldgTraderRent Control refers to laws that limit the amount of rents and the amounts that rents can be increased in any year. There is no statewide rent control law in the United States, instead rent control laws and regulationss are passed by individual cities. Most of the cities with rent control are located in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and California.
Rent control laws don’t just concern rent limits or rent increases. They also deal with the landlord’s responsibility to make repairs, lease renewals, evictions, and special rules for groups like senior citizens.
Over a dozen California cities have some form of rent control law. These cities include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Santa Monica and San Jose. In addition, about 100 cities and counties have laws limiting the rent mobile home park owners may charge people who lease space in their park. Altogether, about one million California households live in rent-controlled apartments or mobile home parks. While the provisions of these rent control laws vary, they typically restrict the amount of money by which a landlord (or park owner) may increase a tenant’s rent each year. If a tenant moves out of a housing unit or mobile home park, property owners may reset rents to market rates. Once the unit or space is rented again, however, rent control laws restrict the rate of future rent increases.
The city of Los Angeles has 626,600 rent-controlled residential units. Rent control law in Los Angeles applies to buildings that were constructed before October 1, 1978 and on mobile home parks whose operating permits were issued before February 10, 1986.