April 7, 2025
Budget trouble at home? City of L.A. bills homeowners for fees they don’t owe
Single-family homes, condominiums and certain accessory dwelling units are not subject to local rent control, but if they are located in the City of Los Angeles and are rented, they are subject to the city’s new Just Cause Ordinance (JCO), enacted in January following the massive fires. The JCO provides tenants with additional protection from eviction.
However, LAHD’s letters and billing statements for the enforcement of the JCO fee are also going out to homeowners whose properties are not rented. According to the Housing Department’s website, “Recipients of the informational letter and billing statement will receive it if their mailing address differs from the property address in the Los Angeles Assessor Tax Collector’s database.”
Even though the city requires that “all properties rented or offered for rent must be registered annually,” homeowners who receive their mail at a post office box or other address are presumed by the city to be renting their homes.
The “informational letter” is far from friendly. It begins with the heading (in all caps and bold), “RE: JUST CAUSE ORDINANCE PROPERTY DETERMINATION NOTICE” and warns, “Failure to pay the fees by the due date will result in assessment of delinquent penalty fees and further collection activities which may result in a report to a credit reporting bureau, additional court action, or other efforts.”
Homeowners can fill out a form attesting that their home is not being rented and request an exemption from the fee, but they must request the exemption every year.
“The City of Los Angeles is probably hoping that sending scary letters will frighten a certain number of homeowners into paying a fee they don’t owe,” said Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal. “But just because the city is running a billion-dollar deficit does not mean it can collect fees on property for services that provide no benefit to the property owner, or that are not owed at all.”
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association was the sponsor of Proposition 218, an initiative constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1996, which prohibits local governments from imposing arbitrary fees on property owners and requires voter approval of tax increases.
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About the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA)
HJTA is a member-supported nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting California taxpayers and the constitutional taxpayer protections secured through citizens’ initiatives such as Proposition 13 (1978) and Proposition 218 (1996). With hundreds of thousands of members throughout California, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has offices in Sacramento and Los Angeles. More information is online at hjta.org.