City Council to Make Renters Split Earthquake Retrofitting Costs With Landlords

Tenants and landlords of earthquake-vulnerable buildings would split seismic retrofitting costs under ordinance amendments tentatively approved today by the Los Angeles City Council.

A city law adopted last year requires that seismic retrofits be made to properties considered to be at risk of collapsing, but did not address whether costs could be shared.

The council took a step today toward clarifying how retrofitting expenses should be handled, voting 14-0 in favor of having tenants and landlords share the cost 50-50. While tenants would pay half of the total retrofitting costs, landlords would be required to cap the pass-through costs at $38 per month, under the amendments.

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The City Attorney will bring back the ordinance language for a vote at a later meeting.

The retrofitting mandate targets brittle, concrete buildings and soft- story structures with weak first floors that were built prior to when earthquake building codes were adopted in the late 1970s.

City officials estimate there are 13,500 “soft-story” buildings -- which are commonly multi-story apartments with tuck-under parking spaces -- and an estimated 1,500 brittle concrete buildings in the city that may need to comply.

City News Service; Wikimedia Commons