Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

California landlord. We have not raised rent in our senior mobile home park since march 2020...when the pandemic started. We do send out the 3mo notice....but......we have not collected on it. Now.....can we as landlords get back from each tenant what their RENT WOULD HAVE BEEN if they paid the increase or no???

Example: #50 rent in May 2020 was $500mo....we sent her rent increase notices 3mo in advance but didnt collect on those increases.....so now Nov 2021 she is still at $500mo but should be at for example $600mo.....can we appeal somewhere to get the $100 back that she did not pay due to us NOT BEING Allowed to raise rents...or no??? please advise....I say we cant do anything about any of that......my co worker insists we can....we are in california...LA COUNTY.


Asked on 11/07/21, 7:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You will have to check LA County's pandemic emergency ordinances, but if they are like most urban counties the tenant has up to two years to pay any unpaid rent accumulated during the pandemic, from the date the "state of emergency" ends. Each county and some cities have their own "state of emergency." Many but not all have conformed to the state-wide definition. I don't think any county can end it sooner than the state. Whether they can extend it is unclear, but in any case it is not over yet, so your tenants have two years plus whatever time it takes for the state of emergency to be declared over to pay the additional rent. If you want to collect it, I recommend making sure each of them knows the rule and that you work with them to come up with an individual payment plan so there are no surprises or defaults.

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Answered on 11/09/21, 9:47 am


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