Got a notice that my building sold and the new owner is already talking about renovating the units. How worried should I be?
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Check the RSO status first.
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My friend's building in MDR sold last year and nothing happened except new paint and a gate code. A sale alone is not an eviction.
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A sale does not touch your tenancy, the new owner takes the building with you in it and your existing lease terms intact.
Where it gets real is the renovation part. If your unit is RSO and they do permitted major work, the owner has to file a tenant habitability plan with the LA Housing Department, and you keep the right to come back at your old rent.
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If they come to you with a cash for keys offer, do not sign anything at the kitchen table. In LA a buyout has to be in writing, they have to give you the disclosure form first, and you have thirty days to cancel after you sign.
People take the first number because it sounds like a lot. Find out what your relocation amount would be anyway, then decide.
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Okay, deep breath, this happens a lot and it usually ends less dramatically than the group chat says.
First thing I would do is find out when your building was built. In the city, RSO generally covers buildings from before October 1978, and you can look your address up on the housing department site in about two minutes. That one date decides most of what happens next. The scary version is an Ellis Act filing, which is them pulling the units off the rental market entirely, and that is a very different animal from new countertops.
Keep every notice they hand you, take photos of the unit as it is now, and do not agree to anything verbally. You are in a much stronger spot than you feel today.
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That happened to me once and they increased the rent. Not saying this happens to everyone, but it’s not unlikely. Wishing you a better outcome.
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I am not 100% sure anymore, but I believe it was around 300 dollars a month.
I think the letter back then stated a 15% increase.
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