Nearly all residential units in the City of West Hollywood are covered by the eviction section of the Ordinance, whether the units are rent-stabilized or not. The Ordinance restricts tenant evictions to certain causes:

• Nonpayment of rent;
• Creating a nuisance or using a rental unit for illegal purposes;
• Subleasing without the landlord's permission;
• Failure to provide the landlord with reasonable access;
• Violating written terms of tenancy with certain exceptions under the Ordinance (see below);
• Failure to renew a lease if given proper notice to renew before the lease-term expires and the lease has gone month-to-month.
• Termination of employment for an on-site manager or other employee who was given the unit as part of his or her employment and was not a tenant on the same property prior to employment.

Whenever a landlord files an eviction action against a tenant, it is necessary to send a copy of the Summons and Complaint to the Rent Stabilization and Housing Department within five (5) days of service upon the tenant. Please consult the Ordinance for details on eviction regulations.

Tenants who have rent-paying roommates should be warned: you are subject to the same limits on asking your roommate to leave as your landlord's limits on terminating your tenancy. If you are considering having a roommate, be sure to screen roommates carefully and establish written terms of tenancy before they move-in. Click here for more information on roommates under the Ordinance.

Tenants may also be relocated through no fault of their own for a landlord or relative to occupy the unit, for repairs ordered for health or safety reasons, following foreclosure, or when the property is being removed from the rental market. Read more.

Occupants Allowed in Addition to the Lease/Rental Agreement

Tenants may be vulnerable to eviction if they have more people living with them than their lease specifies. However, the Ordinance provides that one person in addition to those permitted in the lease may live with a tenant if it is their spouse, domestic partner, child, grandchild, parent, grandparent, brother or sister. The tenant must notify the landlord in writing about the additional person and state the nature of the relationship.

These relatives do not have a claim to continue as tenants when the last tenant on the original lease moves out unless the relative has lived with the tenant for more than a year and the tenant has died or become incapacitated. Otherwise, the relatives need to move-out at the time the tenant vacates or the landlord may treat the unit as vacant and demand a credit check, new lease, increased rent and new security deposit from the relatives.

The tenant may also have a full-time live-in assistant for medical purposes certified by the tenant's physician as one additional occupant. The live-in assistant must move out of the unit when the tenant vacates it - no matter why the tenant vacates the unit.

Pets Allowed for Seniors and Disabled Despite No-Pet Clauses

Tenants may be subject to eviction if they violate the "no pets" clauses of their lease unless:

• they are over 65, disabled, or living with HIV/AIDS and live on single-family or multi-family properties;
• have no more two domestic pets (dogs, cats or birds) not weighing more than 35 pounds each;
• the pets are not causing any nuisances on the property;
• landlords may ask for a pet deposit of up to 25% of the existing security deposit as long as the full amount of deposits does not violate the limits of the California Civil Code for the unit.

Condominiums are not covered by these exceptions to lease conditions. Condominium tenants should obtain the landlord's permission to keep a pet on the premises before obtaining one.

For more information about the just-cause evictions and restrictions in the Ordinance, you may contact Rent Stabilization at (323) 848-6450.