The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has filed criminal charges against the owners of a rent-controlled apartment building in the Fairfax district, alleging that they evicted tenants and converted the units to short-term rentals on Airbnb.Hysteria! Too bad there's no free market in real estate.
Owners of three other properties are facing civil suits that they illegally operated rent-controlled buildings as hotels.
It marks the first time City Atty. Mike Feuer has prosecuted landlords on suspicion of operating illegal short-term rentals and is meant to send a signal to other landlords breaking city laws at a time when L.A. is facing an affordable-housing crisis.
“Given that shortage of affordable housing, illegally converting rental units to hotels or short-rentals has got to stop,” Feuer said at a news conference Monday. “My office is going to intervene to preserve rent-stabilized units and restore those units when we allege they’ve been unlawfully taken off the market.”
Monday, June 20, 2016
L.A. apartment owners charged with evicting tenants, then renting their units via Airbnb
The L.A. Times reports:
