Understanding Tenant Rights
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At the Westside Tenants' Alliance, we believe in empowering tenants by understanding their rights. Tenant Rights encompass a set of laws designed to safeguard renters from exploitative practices by landlords. These rights cover essential aspects of tenancy, including:
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Habitability: Ensuring that rental units meet basic standards of safety and livability.
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Anti-harassment: Protecting tenants from intimidation or coercion by landlords.
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Rent Increases: typically per annum, unless the law allows for otherwise, maximums as they are stipulated in the ordinance governing your address.
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Proper Procedures for Notices: Establish clear guidelines for communication processes (more formally called procedures), between landlords and tenants as they pertain to notices to pay or quit, quit, permanently perform covenants or quit, including eviction service of process.
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Lease Agreements: Enforceable and non-enforceable clauses, types of duration, assumption after change of ownership, estoppel certificates, including varying rules as stipulated in one of the three rent stabilization ordinances governing various parts of LA County.
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Proper Disclosures: Requiring landlords to disclose relevant information about the rental property as mandated by local ordinances.
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Cash for Keys: Helping tenants understand the risk, what landlords fail to disclose or intentionally mislead tenants about in regards to taxation, fair buyout amounts, reporting laws, and when such solicitation is considered harassment.
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Affirmative Defenses: Failure of a landlord to deliver the implied warranties of habitability and to respect a tenants quiet enjoyment of the leased premises may be used as affirmative defense(s) in court to disqualify a landlords lawsuit against the tenant.
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First Amendment: Protecting tenants' rights to freedom of speech and assembly.
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Second Amendment: Ensuring tenants' rights related to privacy and security within their rented dwellings.
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Ellis Act: The Ellis Act is a California state law that allows landlords to exit the rental market and evict tenants if the landlord intends to either demolish the rental property or withdraw it from the rental market entirely. This law was enacted in 1985 as a response to the increasing number of landlords who wanted to leave the rental business due to various reasons such as retirement, financial difficulties, or changing investment strategies.
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While these rights provide a broad framework, the specifics can vary depending on local laws and regulations. For instance, ordinances in the City of Los Angeles and its Unincorporated Areas may offer different levels of protection for tenants.
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We offer tenants rights workshops tailored to you and your neighbors specific property location, providing in-depth information that can empower you to assert your rights confidently. Our workshops, which typically last anywhere from one to three hours, cover various topics related to tenant rights and responsibilities as they are stated within federal and state laws and local ordinances.
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Understanding your rights is crucial not only for your empowerment as a tenant but also for the preservation of fair and just housing practices in Los Angeles. Reach out to us for a one-on-one consultation to discuss your rights and how to enforce them. Don't wait until your living situation deteriorates or matters escalate unnecessarily to court. Call us now!