Is your unit exempt?
Next, you need to know if your unit is under rent control. Rent control covers all residential units EXCEPT those fitting specified categories. The two biggest exemptions are (1) single family dwellings and (2) units built after 1978. Rented condos are now exempted from rent limits [by the State law, known as the Costa-Hawkins Act], but not from eviction protections or otherwise. Other exemptions are some government funded and government operated units, dormitories, and luxury units. The single family dwelling exception means one occupancy unit alone on the entire land piece containing it. It does not include many common situations in LA that involve a house. A house in front with an illegally converted garage functioning as a second unit IS NOT exempted, because it is a two-on-a-lot. A house in front with an apartment over the garage in back IS NOT exempted. A house split into two separate units [i.e. two kitchen areas, separate bathrooms] IS NOT exempted, because it is a duplex, whether upstairs-downstairs, front-back, side by side, or a bachelor unit converted from a large bedroom or patio of the house. A tenant who has lived at least 30 days in a rooming house [large house where rooms are rented out separately] IS NOT exempted. Houses on adjacent lots joined by a "lot tie" ARE NOT exempted, because the lot tie makes them legally one lot; a house straddling two lots or shared utilities are the usual clues, but a parcel map would show the small diagonal slash along the property lie which is the lot tie.
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