For years, the NBC4 I-Team has heard from residents across Los Angeles who say illegal rentals next to them are wreaking havoc on their lives.
“Partying, drinking, smoking, slamming doors,” said Elden Rhoads, who lives next door to an illegal short term rental inside a rent controlled apartment complex in LA.
The city’s current short term rental ordinance does not allow for home sharing in these types of buildings. She says tourists who rent the unit next to her are constantly coming and going at all hours.
“Doors slamming all day and all night. It literally shakes the windows in my apartment,” Rhoads told the I-Team.
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In 2018, the city of LA passed an ordinance to allow residents to offer their primary residences for home sharing. The ordinance requires hosts, in part, register the property with the city and post their registration numbers on public listings.
But a recent report from the advocacy group Better Neighbors LA found an average of more than 4,200 short term rentals were advertised each month and more than half failed to comply with the ordinance.
Better Neighbors LA Research and Policy Analyst, Tori Funk, tells the I-Team the city’s enforcement of these illegal rentals is weak.
“The city only issued 27 fines to hosts in the last year which amounted to $60,000 dollars but they only collected $10,000 dollars,” Funksaid.
Among their recommendations, Better Neighbors LA recommends the city stop issuing warning letters to rogue hosts and instead proceed with citations.
“If you park somewhere wrong in the city of LA, you don’t get a warning letter, you a monetary fine,” said Funk. “So it is unclear to me why people who are removing affordable housing in Los Angeles are getting so many chances.”
The I-Team asked the city of LA Planning Department to respond to the report and the recommendations like the use of fines instead of warning letters.
In a statement, a Planning Department spokesperson said in part, “City Planning continues to collaborate with other City agencies to improve stakeholder service and enforcement practices.”
