CULVER CITY, CA — The Los Angeles Superior Court ruled against a Culver City property management company that sued the city to challenge the use of the Tenant Protection Ordinance.
Fox Hills Canterbury Co., which owns and manages the Meadows Apartment Complex on Green Valley Circle and Canterbury Drive, filed a lawsuit in February claiming it had “vested rights” and was exempt from some aspects of the Tenant Protections and Rents Control Ordinances.
Vested rights refer to rights that are so well-established that they cannot be revoked without due process.
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Fox Hills Canterbury also argued that the tenant protections amounted to inverse condemnation because it made renovations to the property more expensive. The Court found that the Tenant Protections Ordinance had no direct impact on the cost of renovations.
“[The TPO] merely imposes a financial obligation for the property owner to assist with the relocation of tenants who may be displaced by the work, and to allow them to return to their apartment units when it is completed,” officials said.
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Culver City adopted the permanent Rent Control and Tenant Protections Ordinances in September 2020 and they went into effect at the end of October 2020. The TPO provides protections to tenants related to eviction and temporary displacement.
Among other protections, tenants in Culver City are protected if faced with temporarily uninhabitable conditions, which can happen with projects that require:
If a tenant is faced with uninhabitable conditions, the landlord must provide temporary relocation and must allow the tenant to come back upon completion of work at the same rent.
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The court said Fox Hills Canterbury failed to seek rent adjustments before filing the lawsuit, which is part of the RCO’s procedure.
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