Los Angeles has the highest percentage of renters of any major US metro area at 53.1 percent, according to the most recent Census data. And how many of those renters know their rights as tenants, the basics or the more obscure? There are online repositories of important tenant info, of course: a comprehensive (sometimes overwhelmingly so) site for the city’s Housing and Community Investment Department, for instance, and for many fair housing and tenant advocacy groups like the Housing Rights Center. But we’ve spoken to the experts at both of those groups to put together this quick and easy primer on a few rights that apply to all tenants, regardless of whether their rental is rent-controlled or not.

1. Los Angeles has a lot of illegal units that could possibly be legalized. Regardless, people living in and paying rent on illegally converted units still have the same protections that any other tenant would have. So if you’re living in one of these units, your landlord can’t just tell you to hit the road; they have to go through the whole eviction rigmarole—nice and legal-like, because you are their tenant, illegal or not, and they have to treat you like one.

The Housing Rights Center advises that renters always write checks for their rent and put a note in the memo along the lines of “rent for [address],” and/or get a receipt every time, so that there’s a paper trail that can establish tenancy if necessary down the line. (Not a bad habit to get into, even if you do not suspect that you live in an illegally converted garage.)

2. Speaking of being treated like a tenant, tenants have a right to livable, non-slum units, and landlords are required to maintain rentals in habitable condition. A livable unit is one in which, among other things, doors and windows are not broken; the roof and walls keep out water; plumbing works and dispenses hot and cold water; there is the necessary equipment to allow heat and gas to be effectively used in the unit; there’s an electrical system and wiring that’s in solid working order; there are no rodents or vermin running free in the building/unit or on the grounds; and where there are floors, stairs, and stairway railings that are in working condition. (There are more legal qualifications, but this is the gist.) “Basically, tenants have a right not to live in slum housing,” a rep for the Housing Rights Center says.

3. If a unit is not habitable, the landlord is supposed to remedy it immediately, but technically they’re also forbidden from collecting rent for that unit. Obviously, it’s pretty uncommon for a landlord to say “Hey, sorry these roaches are colonizing your apartment. Don’t worry about rent this month,” but that does not mean that tenants should forego paying rent on their own initiative. The Housing Rights Center says that, unfortunately, a tenant’s best recourse in a situation like this is to continue paying rent. (There are also suggested ways to lodge complaints with your landlord, which we’ll get into in a minute.) Keeping up with the rent allows the tenant to continue to have the upper hand, to always be able to point to the fact that in the landlord-tenant compact, they’re holding up their end of the bargain.

4. You’ve got a problem with your apartment and your landlord is not doing anything about it. Maybe you’ve got more mice than An American Tale: Fievel Goes West or there’s a hole in your ceiling that creates an unwanted water feature in your living room. Tell your landlord verbally. Tell your landlord again. If you feel like you’re not being heard, put it in writing, and make sure that letter explicitly states what the problem is, how long it’s been going on, and whether or not it’s been previously discussed with the landlord. Put a date on that letter. Take pictures of the problem, and timestamp ’em all. Create documentation that could theoretically be used to show that your landlord was well aware that there was a problem. Hopefully, there won’t be a need to use it—ideally, somewhere in the process, the problem gets fixed—but if it doesn’t there’s plenty to share with the appropriate city department when you call to drop a dime on your landlord. (The HCID has some information here about where to direct inspection requests.) They’ll issue the landlord a letter telling them to fix the issues fast.

5. But let’s say the problem doesn’t get fixed, even after a 60-day notice is issued to your landlord by the city. Unfortunately, both the HCID and HRC seem to agree in that the best thing you can probably do is sue your landlord for the rent you paid while you were living in a gross place.

6. Quick quiz: when can your landlord come into your unit? Turns out (unless you invite them), there aren’t a lot of circumstances under which he or she can just come on in. In an emergency (or “when the tenant has moved out or has abandoned the rental unit”), the landlord can come in without any notice at all. But your landlord has to give you 24-hours notice to give potential new tenants a tour, to come in to make repairs or improvements, or to let in the workers who are making those improvements, and then they may only enter during normal business hours.

7. It’s pretty much a given that tenants have to give a security deposit to their landlords. They are entitled to get that money back, or to be given an itemized list explaining what was taken out of the security deposit (back rent, money for repairs to the unit) and a dollar amount for each item on the list. That money should be back in your hands within 21 days of vacating the unit.

8. Rent-controlled tenants are also entitled to interest on their deposit. The rate changes every year and it’s not much (this year’s rate is .12 percent), but it’s something. Tenants of non-rent-controlled units are not entitled to interest.

9. Housing prices in LA have gotten way more expensive at a scary-fast rate, and LA has the biggest gap of any major US city between what people make and what people pay in rent. But how often can a landlord raise your rent, legally? If you live in a non-rent-controlled unit and you have a lease, your rent can’t be increased until the lease is up (unless the lease includes provisions for rent increases). Non-rent-controlled units that are rented month-to-month can be increased whenever, provided that the landlord gives the appropriate written notice a minimum of 30 days beforehand for rent increases of 10 percent or less, and a minimum of 60 days for increases greater than 10 percent. Rent-controlled housing can only have rent increases once a year, and then the rent can only go up by a certain percentage (between 3 and 8 percent).

10. One of the big advantages of living in an apartment that is rent-controlled is your protection against no-fault evictions (situations in which you, the tenant, didn’t do anything wrong). If you live in a rent-controlled apartment, there are 14 reasons, listed here, for which you may be evicted. If you do not live in a rent-controlled apartment, you can be evicted for any reason at all, whether or not you pissed off your landlord.

More information on the rights of tenants is available through the Housing and Community Investment Department’s website. For those with rent-control, there is a whole collection of “bulletins” that address some of the more common issues that those renters have. The Housing Rights Center is also an excellent resource for all types of renters and offers regular walk-in clinics at various LA locations.

From: http://la.curbed.com/