Los Angeles County will soon require landlords in unincorporated parts of the county to keep their rental units 82 degrees or below to protect vulnerable tenants from the impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n
Supervisors said Tuesday that the law<\/a>, which passed 4-0, was necessary to combat heat-related deaths, which have increased across the nation. Supervisor Kathryn Barger was not present for the vote.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we continue to face warmer summers, the ordinance is meant to provide relief to our unincorporated residents and to protect them from the dangers of extreme heat in their homes,\u201d said Supervisor Hilda Solis, who pushed for staff to start drafting the law<\/a> last year. <\/p>\n The law<\/a> is set to take effect next month, but it will not be enforced until Jan. 2027, though landlords can ask for an extension. Both old and newly constructed rental units will need to comply.<\/p>\n Landlords with fewer properties will have additional time. Supervisor Janice Hahn introduced an amendment so that landlords who own 10 units or less will be able to keep just one room at 82 degrees or lower until 2032.<\/p>\n Officials said deadly heat waves, which have become more frequent<\/a> and intense across the state, presented a clear public health emergency for the county.<\/p>\n \u201cCommunities across Los Angeles County in my district, especially in the San Fernando Valley, are experiencing previously unimaginable temperatures,\u201d said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. \u201cWoodland Hills alone has recorded 121 degrees<\/a>. This is unthinkable.\u201d<\/p>\n In Phoenix<\/a>, landlords are required to keep units with air conditioning at 82 degrees or below. In Clark County<\/a>, Nev., units can\u2019t go above 85 degrees. In Palm Springs, units need to have air conditioning and can\u2019t go above 80 degrees.<\/p>\n Officials said the new law will be enforced through complaints, so tenants can call the county if they believe the temperature in their unit is too high. An inspector with the county\u2019s Department of Public Health would then be dispatched to inspect the unit. Barbara Ferrer, the head of the department, said the goal was to get the homes as cool as possible without issuing a fine.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way forward, frankly, isn\u2019t going to be to rely on that authority to issue citations,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be to educate folks.\u201d<\/p>\n County officials said they were encouraging landlords to cool down units through \u201cpassive,\u201d environmentally-friendly methods other than air conditioners. That could include blackout curtains, reflective roofing and triple-paned windows<\/p>\n Fred Sutton, with the California Apartment Assn., said he was concerned that, by requiring every room to be at a certain temperature, landlords could be penalized if just one room got too hot.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could have your bedrooms, living room, and dining room actively cooled, but the kitchen is not actively cooled and gets to 83 degrees,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are creating really tough scenarios in a building that\u2019s totally adequately cooled.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles County will soon require landlords in unincorporated parts of the county to keep their rental units…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[9898,1582,276,75785,3059,23512,3040,316,2961,9103,224,2444,5337,75784,1408,75787,75783,9099,15475,75786],"class_list":{"0":"post-122341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-air-conditioning","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-clear-public-health-emergency","12":"tag-county","13":"tag-degree","14":"tag-department","15":"tag-home","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-landlord","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-new-law","22":"tag-official","23":"tag-reflective-roofing","24":"tag-rental-unit","25":"tag-room","26":"tag-temperature","27":"tag-vulnerable-tenant"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114979205557479643","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}