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Dear Tenants, Landlords, and Interested Parties,
On April 16, 2024, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved two ordinances that establish a new proactive rental housing inspection program in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. The new inspection program is called the Rental Housing Habitability Program (RHHP) and inspections will begin in October 2024. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) is the primary agency responsible for administrating the RHHP and conducting the inspections.
The RHHP applies to almost all rental housing units in the unincorporated areas of the County, including single-family homes that are rented. The RHHP has a proactive process for completing a prescheduled inspection of each rental housing unit once every 4 years. In addition, Public Health will also respond to habitability complaints made by tenants. The RHHP contains an administrative compliance process that provides landlords a specified period of time to correct habitability violations cited by Public Health. For noticed violations that remain uncorrected beyond the required correction date, the RHHP includes administrative actions to incentivize correction of habitability violations, including rent reductions and the potential for placement into the County’s Rent Escrow Account Program (REAP) until all necessary repairs are made.
The Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs (DCBA) is the primary agency responsible for administrating REAP. Should a rental unit or property be ordered into REAP, DCBA will conduct outreach to tenants to advise them of the benefits of REAP, their ability to pay reduced rent into an escrow account managed by the County (DCBA), the ability to request funds from the REAP account to complete repairs to their unit, and the protections they are entitled to under the REAP ordinance and the Rent Stabilization Ordinance.
RHHP and REAP are operated on a cost recovery basis. Rental property owners will be assessed a fee of $86 per unit, per year to fund the operations of both programs. Rental property owners are authorized to pass on 50% of the per unit annual fee to their tenants. The annual fee will appear as a line item on the subject property’s property tax bill issued for 2024-25 by the Los Angeles County Treasurer – Tax Collector.
To stay up to date on developments with RHHP and REAP, please visit DPH’s RHHP website http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/about/rental-housing-habitability-program.htm.
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