INGLEWOOD – The city of Inglewood adopted its rent control ordinance in 2021 which provided residents with some relief from excessive rent increases and evictions.
After the City announced the approval of the NFL stadium, rents in some areas of Inglewood began to skyrocket and some residents were forced out of their apartments because the City had no tenant protections in place.
The City created a temporary rent control ordinance that expired in December 2019 so a permanent ordinance was put in place five months later.
Ordinance No. 21-09 was adopted on May 10, 2021, but does not appear on the Housing Protection Department’s section of the City’s website.
According to the Inglewood Municipal Code Chapter 8, Article 9, under Section 8-120. Findings and Definitions the City has unilaterally made the decision to change the definition of rent.
The City and its consultants changed the definition of rent to include pass-through fees in order for landlords to recoup registration fees and capital improvement project related fees.
According to state law, “A landlord shall provide written notice of a pass-through cost to tenants in accordance with Cal. Civil Code § 827. 2. An approved pass-through cost is not considered rent.”
A review of rent control ordinances in the City’s of Culver City and Santa Ana, who are charter city’s like Inglewood, clearly state to their landlords and tenants that fees are NOT rent.
CULVER CITY
Rent or Rents shall mean the sum of all periodic payments and all nonmonetary consideration demanded or received by a Landlord from a Tenant for the use or occupancy of a Rental Unit, including Tenant’s access to and use of Housing Services. Rent includes, without limitation, the fair market value of goods accepted, labor performed, or services rendered.
Rent Control & Tenant Protection Measures
SANTA ANA
“Rent” means all periodic compensation, including all non-monetary consideration, that a Tenant provides to a Landlord concerning the use or occupancy of a Rental Unit, including any amount included in the Rent for utilities (unless separately billed to the Tenant by the utility company), parking, storage, pets or for any other fee or charge associated with the Tenancy for the use or occupancy of a Rental Unit and related Housing Services. Rent includes, without limitation, the fair market value of goods accepted, labor performed, or services rendered. With respect to Mobilehomes and Mobilehome Spaces in Mobilehome Parks, any regulations of rent, fees, and costs included within the Mobilehome Residency Law, Civil Code section 798, et seq., shall be incorporated into the definition of Rent, as applicable.
Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance – English
After speaking with landlords around the City, there were concerns that tenants wouldn’t pay the additional fees leaving landlords holding the bag and so someone made the decision to allow Inglewood landlords to disguise fees as rent. This loophole allows a landlord to circumvent rent increase caps and also provides justification for eviction of non-paid “rent”.
LANDLORDS CAN NOT EVICT TENANTS FOR NON-PAYMENT OF FEES and since they know that, how did they convince the mayor and council to create an ordinance that appears to violate state law?
Why did this come up? The City’s street vending ordinance.
The City created an ordinance regulating street vending which is allowed under state law. Charter city’s have the right to create its own ordinance regulating the activity but can not conflict with state law.
State laws decriminalized street vending in 2019 under Senate Bill 946 and in 2023 Senate Bill 972 modified the state’s Retail Food Code to streamline public health permitting and licensing for sidewalk food vendors.
“Current enforcement tools used by the code enforcement division are administrative citations, parking citations, recovering abandoned carts, and impounding vehicles,” said Tucker. “The biggest piece to this would be creating no-vending buffer zones around entertainment venues, schools, and other sensitive uses [previously identified as the Inglewood Park Cemetery (IPC) and hospitals].”
The department requested a 1,000-foot buffer zone which ignores the legal opinion from the city attorney’s office.
According to publicly available documents for the Permits & Licenses Committee, street vendors are beginning to submit applications for street vending permits at locations that fall within the “buffer zone” that was adopted last year which prevents vendors from operating around certain venues around the City.
The applicants are seeking to operate in front of IPC (Florence Ave. side) and another in front of Forum Liquor which is located at the corner of Prairie and Buckthorn and directly across from the Kia Forum and SoFi Stadium.
Instead of the committee outright denying the applicants for being in the buffer zone, their applications are “continued” which delays any action from taking place.
The Inglewood City Clerk’s office has denied releasing the applications under multiple CA Public Records Act requests.
Former City Attorney Ken Campos cautioned the mayor and council from creating the buffer zone around certain venues, particularly those within the Sports and Entertainment District, due to conflicts with state law and a recently settled lawsuit filed on the matter against the City of Los Angeles, but they proceeded.
“There’s approx. two to three other cities that are currently being sued or are in court for their boundary limits,” said Campos. “The one in the city of Los Angeles is at 500 feet and they are being challenged because of the state law.”
“The city of LA did no study, similarly to Inglewood having no study, as to the basis as to the restriction of 500 or 1,000 feet,” said Campos. “So, unless the city of LA is able to prove as to whether there are any health or safety violation issues, the courts are probably going to find in favor of the cart vendors.”
The city of Los Angeles eventually settled with the street vendors in July which repeals exclusionary vending bans across the city near swap meets, farmers’ markets, schools and temporary events. The city is also expected to cancel all citations issued for vending in those areas and provide full refunds to vendors for any fines paid. Vendors are still excluded from operating around major sporting venues.
Why is Inglewood creating ordinances that are in conflict with state law? How much will this cost taxpayers?
1 Comment
Why would the City create a law which violates state law ?
That must be a rhetorical …
This administration shredded use of force documents just before state law went into effect that public have access, this same administration shredded the petition requesting a vote of the residents to see if we wanted a stadium. This same administration allows the Mayor to use a city vehicle for personal use.
One current councilmember holds two elected positions (others who did the same were forced to give up one of the two).
This administration chose to establish campaign contribution limits higher than any state or other local cities 100,000 vs 5,000.
Basically this administration acts as if they are above the law, and their lawyers (also campaign donors) are happy as can be that residents keep their compensation checks rolling in.