A reader reached out to WEHOonline this week after spotting a post on NextDoor. A disabled West Hollywood tenant of 15 years was asking for help. His landlord was “continually harassing and discriminating” against him, he wrote, trying to push him out. He said he’d been to dozens of lawyers, social workers, advocacy groups. Nobody would help. We confirmed the post and reached out to the resident for comment.
The reader’s question was simple: what can a tenant in that situation actually do?
West Hollywood has a law written almost exactly for this. Since most tenants have probably never heard of it here’s what I found.
What the Law Actually Says
West Hollywood Municipal Code Section 17.52.090 covers every renter in the City — rent controlled or not, new building or old, single-family home, condo, Section 8. No written lease required. Even sub-tenants are protected. The ordinance doesn’t make exceptions based on property type.
What it bars is landlord conduct done “with an intent to vex, annoy, injure, or intimidate” a tenant — withholding repairs, verbal abuse, threatening eviction without legal grounds, discriminating based on disability or medical condition. If the behavior would push a reasonable tenant out, the landlord may actually be committing a misdemeanor.
What Disabled Tenants Can Recover
When a landlord loses a harassment case, the tenant collects whichever is bigger — actual damages or $10,000 per violation. Punitive damages on top of that. Attorney fees. And if the landlord is criminally convicted, the fine runs up to $1,000 with up to six months in jail. Though jail is pretty unlikely.
I’m guessing most people who rent in WeHo don’t know the next part. West Hollywood Municipal Code Section 17.52.090(f) tacks an extra $5,000 onto every violation when the tenant being harassed is disabled. Not a one-time add-on. Per violation.
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act runs a parallel track. FEHA bars housing discrimination based on disability and requires landlords to engage in good faith when a tenant asks for accommodations. Retaliation for asserting those rights is a separate violation under California Civil Code Section 1942.5.
Protections Specific to Disabled Tenants
The ordinance also limits the grounds on which any tenant can be evicted — and for disabled tenants, a few provisions matter more than others.
A disabled tenant who needs a full-time live-in medical assistant can have that person in the unit as an additional occupant, with a physician’s certification. The landlord cannot count that person against occupancy limits in the lease.
Disabled tenants in single-family or multi-family properties — not condos — are also exempt from no-pet clauses, provided they have no more than two domestic pets under 35 pounds each and the animals aren’t causing a nuisance. The landlord can require a pet deposit of up to 25 percent of the existing security deposit, but a no-pet clause alone is not grounds for eviction.
How to File a Complaint
The process starts at the City’s Rent Stabilization Division, (323) 848-6450. Tenants who file complaints almost always represent themselves. Most don’t have or let’s be real, can afford lawyers.
A lot of tenants qualify for fee waivers based on income. A City mediator works disputes that can be settled without going further. What can’t be resolved moves to the Legal Services Division at (323) 848-6481, where a staff attorney reviews the case and decides whether to refer it to the City Prosecutor for criminal charges.
That referral usually doesn’t happen very often. Matthew Arnold shared with WEHOonline last year that the City Prosecutor had his harassment case sitting open for two years. The City, Arnold said, seemed more interested in getting his landlord to comply than in pressing the criminal charges the statute allows.
Bettzedek provides free legal help to Los Angeles tenants and can walk someone through the complaint process. bettzedek.org.
The 180-Day Rule
West Hollywood law presumes a landlord is retaliating if adverse action follows within 180 days of a tenant exercising any right under the ordinance — filing a complaint, asking for a repair, calling a City agency. The landlord then carries the burden of proving otherwise.
Whatever is happening, write it down. Save the texts, the emails, the notices. Do the common sense thing and write down dates and what was said. A paper trail is what any case is built on.
If you or someone you know is facing landlord harassment in West Hollywood, the City’s Rent Stabilization Division can be reached at (323) 848-6450. The Legal Services Division is at (323) 848-6481.
Great bit of investigative journalism, Brian Holt.
Bravo!
Owning rental property used to be a good investment. With all the laws favoring tenants I doubt it still is.
I had two uncles who each bought an apartment building as an eventual retirement income, and it worked well for them. But that was years ago in another state. I doubt that would be the case now in LA, or more specifically, in West Hollywood. I hear nightmare stories from friends here with 3 or 4 units they rent who get tenants from hell and the tenant is protected by law costing these friends a fortune.