A couple of units on my floor just got Ellis Act papers on the door, and the manager is already talking like the whole building is going condo. I am not looking to move. I like Atwater, I know the faces at the coffee shop, and this rent is the one number I can still make work.
Nobody handed me a notice, but the hallway story is that the rest of us are next. If you stayed through this, what actually happens to the people who did not get the letter yet? Can we sit still until something official shows up?
On my side of it, Ellis is not a rent hike, it is the owner taking units out of the rental business, and the city filing is unit by unit. If your name is not on a notice, you still have a tenancy. Email the office tonight and ask whether your apartment is on the withdrawal list, and do not sign a buyout in the hallway.
Treat the hallway story as a rumor until you see your own paperwork. Ellis in LA is a city filing, and the people who got the notice are the ones on the clock, usually 120 days. If you are not on that list, do not pack. Ask for it in writing, keep paying, and if they slide a cash for keys offer under the door, take that to Stay Housed LA before you sign anything.
I would call Stay Housed LA in the morning and ask them to look at the notice your neighbors got, because the relocation money changes if someone is low income or has been there a long time. I know I would be too nice in that hallway and sign something. Keep every email, keep paying on time, and do not move your stuff out just to be helpful.
I would not move a single box until my own name is on a letter. Hallway panic is how they get cheap buyouts, and I have lived in K-town long enough to wait for paper.
The useful part is the paperwork, not the rumor. If your neighbors have Ellis notices, those papers should say the date they filed and which units are being withdrawn. Yours is either on that list or it is not. If it is not, you still have a tenancy, and a condo conversion is a second city process, it does not silently cancel everyone else.
Go to LAHD, photograph the notice if they let you, and ask whether your unit number is on the filing. 120 days is the usual clock for people who were served, a year if they qualify as senior or disabled. Until your name is on it, stay put and keep the receipts.