It has been scheduled to be discussed by the City Council Housing Committee of Los Angeles who will pay for retrofitting of houses after Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti had proposed an earthquake- retrofitting laws in California last year.
According to latimes.com, there has been a debate whether to pass the retrofitting costs to the tenants of Los Angeles city, given that the city has apartments considered as one of the highest rents in the country. Most of apartment buildings situated in the city are old and vulnerable to strong earthquakes.
Fortunately, the authorities have decided last Wednesday that renters and landlords should shoulder the retrofitting costs equally. With the resolution, tenants will experience rent hikes for the next five to 10 years with the maximum of $38 per month increase. The city wants to retrofit at least 12,000 wooden apartments and 1,000 concrete buildings across throughout Los Angeles.
People behind the new retrofitting resolution said that cost- sharing between landlords and tenants will provide a win- win situation since both parties will benefit from the retrofitting if an earthquake strikes the area. Despite of current housing laws that enables landlords to pass the costs to the renters, increasing their rents up to $75 per month, Los Angeles authorities had come up with fairer proposal to aid families who are part of lowest- income bracket.
In a report by freenewspos.com, Councilman Gil Cedillo had promised that tenants of Los Angeles will not have to carry a "100% pass through" of costs like San Francisco's tenants who shouldered the cost of retrofitting through rent increase for the next 20 years.
Several issues have risen during the four meetings between tenant and property owner groups. Representative for landlord groups were worried that they might not be granted of loans if their properties will not be able to prove that it can provide sufficient revenue to pay off what they have borrowed for the retrofit work on their properties.
The final ruling of the cost- sharing will be discussed Wednesday afternoon and both tenants and property owners will hear from the City Council's housing committee's decision in the coming weeks.
