Los Angeles County Municipal Code Part 2 Rehabilitation

RENT ADJUSTMENTS DUE TO REHABILITATION WORK (August 6, 1979)

I.

Definition. .....Rehabilitation or repair work done on or in a rental unit or common areas of the housing complex containing the rental unit and which work was done in order to comply with an order issued by the County Engineer, the Public Health or the Fire Departments, or to repair damage resulting from fire, earthquake, or other natural disaster.

(Ord. 2006-0040 § 35 (part), 2006.)

II.

Eligibility requirements.

Only rehabilitation work completed on or after April 1, 1978, is eligible for an extraordinary rent increase.

Any portion of the rehabilitation work completed before April 1, 1978, is ineligible for a rent increase under this category unless the landlord can prove that the work completed before April 1st was intrinsically connected with rehabilitation work that was completed on or after April 1st. (For example: if the plastering of a wall was finished on March 25th but the painter did not paint the wall until April 2nd, both the plasterer's and painter's costs would be eligible. However, if roof repairs were completed on March 29th but a new vented heater wasn't installed until April 3rd, the heater would be eligible but the roof repair would not.)

Any work performed, not mandated by the order of the County Engineer, the County Public Health Department, or the County Fire Department, or not connected with the repair of damage resulting from fire, earthquake, or other natural disaster, is ineligible under this category although it might be eligible under Capital Improvement Rent Increases. See the Capital Improvement Guidelines for further information.

(Ord. 2006-0040 § 35 (part), 2006.)

III.

Determination of extraordinary rent increase.

Rehabilitation costs must be calculated on the basis of actual cost. Cancelled checks, receipts, invoices, social security payments and W-2 forms are among the types of evidence that will be required to substantiate such costs.

Labor provided by the landlord, the landlord's family, the landlord's agent or agent's family, may be billed at a reasonable cost as part of any rehabilitation work, unless said persons are employees of the landlord, whose costs have previously been taken into account in establishing the existing rents.

Labor costs of a manager, maintenance men or other employees of the landlord may be included as a part of the rehabilitation work cost unless said costs have previously been taken into account in establishing the existing rents.

Interest on money borrowed to pay for rehabilitation work shall be included as a part of the rehabilitation work cost. In those cases where the landlord finances the rehabilitation work costs or a part thereof with his own funds, interest at the legal rate of interest set forth in Civil Code Section 1916-1 (at 7 percent as of July 1, 1979), valued over a reasonable amount of time, shall be included as a part of the rehabilitation work cost. The landlord shall have the burden of proof in establishing the reasonable amount of time over which interest shall be allowed. In determining the reasonable amount of time over which interest shall be allowed, the Rent Adjustment Panel shall be principally guided by the current practices of state and federally chartered banks and savings and loan associations.

In the event a landlord receives net compensation for any portion of the money spent on rehabilitation work (insurance, court awarded damages, federal or state subsidies, etc.), this compensation must be deducted from the cost of the rehabilitation work before amortizing the costs among the units.

In the event that the net compensation described in No. 5 above is received after the landlord receives approval for an extraordinary rent increase, but within the life of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, the landlord shall immediately reduce rents prospectively on a per-unit basis by amortizing said net compensation over a 60-month period.

In determining the Average Per Unit Rehabilitation Cost, the cost of the rehabilitation work shall be divided by the number of units affected by the work, irrespective of whether all of such units are subject to Ordinance 11950.