The City and Housing Department make mistakes on a daily basis. When their error is brought to the surface, it doesn't matter, the LAHD still keep a property in REAP, fines landlords and files liens against the property. They City is amune to law suits -- taking no responsability for their actions. Without notice they put my property in REAP for not have an electrical permit. As it turns out, I had the permit but they still fined me, file a lien and gave tenants rent reductions. They admitted their mistake when they had no choice, but failed to return collected fee's. I had to employ an attorney and file a law suit before the controller sent a partial refund. Don't beileve a word they say. Housing told me they have no record of any isssues wih my property, then they put the property in REAP without notice a month later. Thy are incompentent, don't know their own rules an lie when every they want. They mayor was little help, the City attorney refused to return calls, reply to message or respond to letters. At the end of the day I stand to loose $100,000 because the City General Manager didn't know a possible single exterior violations is not ground to put a property into REAP. The Hearing officer said he had the authority to remove my property from REAP, then changed his mind and told us he had to have the City Counsel vote to remove the property after an outreach contract provied a positive report, permittted motion sensor light isn't a hazard.

We are now going through the same thing. Incompetent workers and lies. So far we have spent around 100K to fix these alleged violations. The inspectors haven't a clue as to what they are doing, they are arrogant and rude. 

When you call the REAP/UMP all you get is a voice mail. We have left several messages to no avail and mailed in request for refunds to apply to operating cost. Yet nothing has been answered.

If anyone else has the same situation I suggest we start a "Class Action Law Suit" on behalf of every property owner who has been treated unfairly by the City of Los Angeles LAHD REAP in this same situation.

This is unjust and a big money maker for the City. Of course the mayor isn't going to help, he is a part of the problem.  

I am a tenant whose unit is in REAP and I feel the program is working as it should. 

When I initially filed the complaint for repairs to my unit, the owner thought he could perform as little work as possible, and hopefully pass inspection.  Eight months and four inspections later with only 50% of the cited repairs performed, the owner and myself received notice that the case was to be sent to a REAP hearing.   At the hearing, both I and the owner spoke, with the end result being my unit accepted into REAP.  I now send my rental payments to the REAP office.   

The owner simply refused to deal with the severity of the situation, and felt the city was being too harsh.  It has now been a total of 18 months from my initial complaint and 6 months in REAP with about 75% of the cited repairs performed.  And thankfully the city is holding firm on the remaining 25% of the needed repairs.   The wheels of justice sometimes turns slow, but in my case, it did turn....

Lastly, the LAHD could improve its services, by being better informed of their own housing laws and ordinances.  And their phone lines are atrocious.  I have left several messages with no return calls.  I had to complain to the mayor's office to obtain action for my case

I too am a tenant whose apartment is in REAP (3 ½ months), and I must state that I am very grateful for it.

First I do not have to deal with the hassle of angry and vengeful landlords (married team); cause even mailing the rent became a hassle (certified mail, signature confirmation etc.).  I now mail rent using a simple .41 cent stamped envelope to the REAP office and they process the rent money right away.  No more lying by the landlord that he/she did not receive rent via mailing.  Other than making repairs (and he has other workers for that), I now interact with him only occasionally, and my overall health has  improved significantly (reduced high blood pressure etc.).  My landlord has behaved so "deceitfully" towards me that it would fill several pages of this blog.

Second because the owners fixed repairs so slowly (about 13 months), I received a 30% reduction in rent by the REAP hearing office!  As a tenant I was surprised by that action and the landlord too.  He never ever thought LAHD would do that even though it was clearly stated to him by the city inspectors and in writing as a possible outcome of the case.    

Third with the extra savings in rent, I am now using the money to take formal training classes in the hopes of getting a promotion & greater salary at my job! 

By filing a complaint with the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD), I honestly thought the city had little or no power to affect real and lasting changes, but I was wrong!!    The LAHD is taking a pro-active approach towards building owners who won't fix up their property.  Gone are the days when a property owner thinks he/she can do what ever they please with their units & tenants!  Kudo's to the LAHD.  My building owners are deeply regretting their actions that eventually placed their property into REAP.    

Before this, I never heard of REAP, but thank God many of the cities rules, ordinances, laws etc. can now be accessed via the Los Angeles City website.  As a tenant I became more informed and pro-active in my dealings with my landlord and various city officials.   Knowledge can be a beautiful thing and I thank God every day for being at my side.

My statement is being made about the unscrupulous, deadbeat landlords, not the honest, upstanding professional landlords.  And they know who they are.....

As the previous posters stated, there is certainly room for improvement in the Los Angeles Housing Dept (LAHD).  Sometimes the field inspectors would say one thing, and then another inspector says something different.  And if you can speak to a REAP representative within a weeks time, count yourself lucky.  You must leave several messages before someone will return your call.  Go down to the LAHD in person at the Wilshire Office, and you will have to be aggressive in speaking to someone, as you will see and hear a lot of employees casually talking non-business concerns.  And sometimes the supervisors can be very rude.  Because of some of the conflicting information given by various LAHD departments, I researched and found information right on LAHD's web site.  There is plenty to research, just Google "City of Los Angeles" to get to their official web site and from there you can locate the various departments.    

But I have to acknowledge this:  LAHD informed me at every step of the process by mail and occasionally phone contact.  I was notified when an inspector was coming and I was also notified in writing about the general manager's hearing.   But I was angry when the results of the hearing reduced my tenant's rents.  I feel this REAP is definitely "punitive" towards landlords in general.  I will never state this publicly, but secretly I was so angry at my tenants for getting reduced rents that I slowed up making the repairs but quickly realized I was only hurting myself.  I am now working in earnest with the city to get my property out of REAP. 

To all building owners under RSO:  Try never to let your properties fall into REAP as you will get worn down by all the aggravation it takes to remove them from the program! 

Dear informed Tenant. You wrote : Lastly, the LAHD could improve its services, by being better informed of their own housing laws and ordinances.  And their phone lines are atrocious.  I have left several messages with no return calls.  I had to complain to the mayor's office to obtain action for my case

Yet you also stated: I am a tenant whose unit is in REAP and I feel the program is working as it should.

Seems like a contradiction to me. Anyway, you won't always be a renter and when your on the other side of the fence you wil lthik differently. Don't get me wrong,.. Slumlords should be dealt with. But the city goes after anybody and everybody justly and unjustly. With prices/mortgages where they are these withheld funds can force people into foreclosure... and by the time the city figures out they were wrong its too late and somebodys life savings is wiped out.     

Does anybody have any recommendations on what is the best way to deal with the LAHD. We just got a letter from them and I'm not sure how to handel the situation so we get a results. 

As for recommendations, I am in the property management business.  Whether it is a property manager, an attorney, or some other representative, you need to find someone who is willing to consistently make phone calls and make in-person drop-ins at LAHD's offices.  REAP is a form of punishment and LA will make you bend over backwards before releasing you.

My advice...resolve the violations quickly and be on the offensive with a barrage of letters/emails/drop-ins with LAHD proving your swift resolution.  Become a pest to LAHD and they may just let you out early...

We are a disabled couple (tenants), the only ones in our 44-unit complex. Our building has fallen into such disrepair with brown water, lead paint and asbestos in the laundry room (that's just for starters)that apparently City Housing has said "the place is too far gone". We just had our third and final? SCEP inspection day before yesterday. I heard the Inspector tell the maintenance guy, that also assaulted my husband in a drunken state and broke into our unit, that Housing was unable to enforce any of their own rules because of the lack of manpower, funds or authority and the owner knows this, that's why she does nothing and hits everyone up with illegal rent hikes twice a year. The owner whom we are unable to contact even though according to state law shes to be available, decided to "lost your rental payments since January, you are delinquent in your rent". She ordered our rents refused, forcing us, already on a shoestring budget, to send rent certified mail, signature card which she refuses to sign every month, this is a Civil Code Violation too. We tried to get a TRO to protect ourselves, the judge refused us. We're terrified of being in our own unit,  coming or going. We've tried endlessly to find an attorney to help us, it seems that the City is overrun with housing issues and no one will agree to help us. Our bathroom sink is ready to fall out of the wall, the bathroom wall heater burned out during an inspection, the bathroom vent's ball bering went out during an inspection made a horrible racket, they saw the tub...they witnessed all this stuff and wouldn't write it up. At one point we went without water for 28 hours, nothing happened. These are all violations of the Health and Safety Code, Penal Code, Breach of Contract, etc... The City Attorney is truly no help, "it's all civil, take it to small claims court" he says, ditto the Mayor, all hot air. Politics above human life according to the City. We need to go into REAP. We even sent a plea letter to Senators Boxer, Feinstein and Rep. Waxman that went nowhere. The next step is a complaint to the Attorney General complete with water analysis report and pictures. Our health is in significant decline because of the constant stress, I could go on and on but all other renters know the injustice of this. This has been going on for two and a half years for us. Maybe it will all end June 3 with the vote on 98.  Fourteen Million CA renters UNITE, beware of how the proposition is worded and how it is presented on the ballot, it's very easy to mis-mark it. There is no respect for good tenants or state law.  Does anyone need a good, law-abiding property Manager and Maintenance team?

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My 10 unit building has been in REAP for the past 7 months. 

Briefly, I have been living in my unit for the past 12 years and the original owner who was within 10 years of paying off the entire mortgage ($18,000), suddenly became ill with his properties now handled by his five grandkids thru conservatorship (all between age 34-41).  Long story short, the original owner passed away, and when the grandkids saw how much equity was in the property, they immediately started taking out loans against the property for the purchase of many things “without” using it to repair the property and now the property has fallen into a state of general disrepair.  They now want to evict all the tenants and double the rent to help pay off a note that is now over $500,000. 

The other tenants were too afraid to speak up, so I made the initial complaint to LAHD, made certain I was present at each inspection, attended the general manager’s hearing (alone) and after 6 failed inspections the LAHD General Manager’s decision was to place the property into REAP with a 40% reduction in rent!  The process up to this point was very slow, time consuming and labor intensive (at least 16 months) because the city needs to give the owner’s time to make repairs. 

The grandkids have turned their anger towards me and have tried to evict me three times, but I prayed to the Lord above for help, and fought and won.  Like the previous posters stated, you must take the time and research the LAHD & the City of LA’s web site for the information needed to take the steps to force building owners to repair their properties.   After filing the complaint then be prepared to “FIGHT LIKE HELL.”  

Don’t be surprised or frustrated if you have to do most of the work alone (even though all the tenants will benefit from your hard labor).  On a monthly basis, I kept in touch with each inspector, their supervisor & other city officials via email, phone and occasionally as a walk-in at LAHD.  Doing this kept me in the loop on the case status and provided me information on all upcoming inspections.  I also attended the general manager’s hearing to present photos of my unit and explain my concerns as a tenant (the owners were very surprised by that action because they planned to lie and say I damaged the unit).  I kept a typed written log of all repair related concerns and all interactions I had with the owners and the city officials by day, month & year.   

About 10 months into the case, hostilities between the grandkids reached a point that every time they entered my unit, they started an argument with me that would send my blood pressure through the roof, but a couple of phone calls to the police stopped that behavior.  To my surprise the police informed me two of them already had felonies for stealing!  But the felonies alarmed my family, and now several members call or drop by my unit nearly everyday just to check up on me.     

I also installed 2 hidden cameras in my unit.  Once the owners knew they were there, it also deterred them from entering my unit un-announced.  This forced them to abide by the law of providing a 24 hour written notice before entering. 

When they tried to collect illegal rent increases, I simply ignored the increase and paid the percentage allowed under the RSO ruling.  I included a copy of the RSO ruling that showed the allowable amount inside the rent envelope and also posted a copy on a bulletin board for the other tenants.      

Before the property was in REAP, I opened a free checking account for the rent alone and “never” touched the money even if the owners didn’t cash the checks.  Sometimes the owners would refuse my rent sent by certified mail.   When the owners tried to falsely evict me for non payment of rent I proved to the court otherwise by showing copies of all refused rents by the owners.  In the State of California there is an allowance for a “repair and deduct” that tenants can use, but don’t use it.  Many of the superior court judges own properties too and they do not look kindly upon this action.  I know this sounds harsh, but many judges do not like the RSO’s regulations either. 

After the property is in REAP paying the rent is a breeze as you can mail the rent directly to REAP with “NO” hassles (no spending extra money for certified mail etc.)   and my 40% decrease in rent allowed me to pay off all my credit card debts ($700 x 40% = $280 savings).   All my efforts were worth it for this sweetener alone!!!

After the property is released from REAP, for at least 6 months to a year, there are additional rules that property owners must abide by so read the REAP regulations carefully.   

If you have a computer with internet access at home, begin by typing LAHD (Los Angeles Housing Dept.) into the Google search engine where you will find a wealth of knowledge on Rent Control and even filing a complaint.  If no computer at home then obtain free access via your local library. 

I just wrote the above comments but I did not make all the extra spaces.  I guess using the Firefox Browser is different from the Internet Explorer.  Sorry.

There are a lot of good comments and suggestions here, but one thing that has not been addressed is that property owners now want to abolish the Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) in its entirety and return to the days when they can behave however they want towards their tenants. 

One of the main reasons for wanting to abolish the RSO is because as of April 17, 2007 the Tenant Relocation Assistance dollar threshold has been raised to between $6,810 to $17,080 for "No Fault Evictions."   Owners do not want to pay this type of money to relocate a tenant, so to evade paying the money; owners will try the following:

1)  Try to evict a tenant using the "12 Legal Reasons for Eviction in Los Angeles."  This means tenants are at "Fault" and owners won't have to pay relocation assistance.  

2)  Abolish the RSO in its entirety.    

It is imperative that all tenants read the upcoming propositions 98 & 99 and vote appropriately.  Even if property owners lose on this ballot, they are going to continue trying to abolish the RSO.  At "ALL" times tenants should be on guard for future propositions placed on the voting ballots that will negatively affect them. 

Hooray tenants!  We have forcefully defeated the Prop 98 initiative.  This Proposition was very "deceitful" in that it mixed "eminent domain" with ending "rent control," two completely separate issues and designed to confuse the voters.   But we were not fooled, and we will remain  vigilant for any future attacks....

Some of the comments here are correct, many are not. My wife and I have over 25 years together in this business. The woman who said she can get nothing accomplished with LAHD, is doing nothing to get it done. LAHD will typically respond in 24 hours to a tenant's complaint about a landlord, and owners are being placed in REAP constantly. So ma'am, you need to get off your butt and start doing something other than complaining.

Many tenants fail to do one thing, calling your landlord about issues is just the first step. You wait 3 days after the initial telephone complaint, and then write a letter and mail it certified, return receipt, to the responsible party. Telephone calls, and in-person conversations, cannot be proved in court, they are hearsay only. If your landlord only repairs some of the issues, you must write another letter outlining the remaining issues.

The next step is contacting a tenant watchgroup, (there are many in LA), and get their help on paperwork and legal avenues. I have faced many of these folks in court and some of them are very sharp.

To Marcus and everyone else that thinks Rent Control is their savior. Rent control is the very reason why rents are so high in LA people, wake up!!!!! For over 15 years now, very few people have been moving out of the rent control buildings. This creates a false low vacancy rate. All the non-rent control buildings are then free to charge much higher rents than they would have, had the false low vacancy rate not been created in the first place, by rent control.

The law of supply and demand is still the king. If some moron was charging rents, that were way too high, his building would be empty if we had no rent control. LA should be at a 5-7% vacancy rate for rentals, which would be considered very healthy. Instead we were at a 1-2% vacancy rate for years prior to 2007. Marina Del Rey and Venice have had the highest vacancy rates in the LA area for many years Why? It costs too much!!!!

Secondly, the crime rate in LA would drop by over 50% if rent control were abolished. Less than 25% of all nuisance rent control evictions are won in LA. Unless a court has convicted a tenant of a crime, the court will not hear your motion to evict based on what you, or your manager, or your landlord say. A non-rent control eviction in LA costs no more than $800 in legal fees on average. A nuisance rent control eviction starts at $2,000. So the next time your jerk neighbor is pulling the same old stuff, and they make it a living hell where you live, don't blame us for not throwing them out. You've still got rent control!  

Please contact me if you are an owner and having a problem with the LA Housing Department, Rent Escrow Account Program.  I am gathering plaintiffs for a class action suit.  (323) 660-2932 or email me.

I wrote the comment about a class action suit against the LA Housing Deparment, but forgot to include my email:

Carol_Knapp@hotmail.com or (323) 660-2932