Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Rent Question

L.A. has rent control; I do not know the details, but normally it freezes the amount of rent that can be charged a tenant until a new tenant moves in. Perhaps she moved in several years before you did. You situation is one of the reasons I think rent control is counter productive; tenants new to the city, who often are students or just starting out in a job and thus among the lower paid workers get charged more than long time residents who are discouraged from moving to avoid higher rents. Since the landlord's profit margin is cut down by rent control, once a apartment opens up the landlord will charge as much as he thinks he can to try to push his profit margin up to what he feels is a reasonable rate of return.

In general, assuming no rent control, at the beginning of any rental period, upon proper notice for lease renewals, the landlord can charge any tenant what ever he wants to. Race or other suspect categories can not be the basis of the difference.

Re: Rent Question

The landlord can set rents at whatever level he wants, unless you have rent control. You will want to check with the local housing authority that covers your area, as some parts of LA do have a form of rent control. It is very possible that you moved in at the height of the market - when rents were at their highest, and the other tenant moved in long ago, and even with rent increases, her rent simply hasn't gotten to the level you are at. There is nothing that says the landlord has to increase her rent to keep up with market rents, nor does he have to intentionally keep yours lower so its the same or less than someone who has been there a long time. Unless the local housing authority says there is something in this that violates a local rent control ordinance (if one even exists where you live), you have no claim against the landlord.

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