Lawsuit Filed in Federal Court Against the City of Beverly Hills to Protect Privacy of Tenants and Rental Property Owners by Challenging the City's Rent Registry

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) has filed a lawsuit against the City of Beverly Hills on behalf of apartment tenants and owners.  The lawsuit, filed in Federal Court, seeks relief from the City's Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) that requires a rental registry, and disclosure of sensitive and confidential data about tenants and their apartments.  Also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit is Orit Blau, a longtime Beverly Hills resident and small, "mom and pop" apartment owner. 

On January 24 and February 21, 2017, the City adopted revised rent stabilization regulations that required apartment owners to provide the government with sensitive information, including monthly rental amounts paid by tenants, unit numbers, utility payments and onsite parking availability among other things.  The AAGLA lawsuit alleges that this information is being obtained by the City without the consent of tenants or apartment owners, or through court order and is; therefore, in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting unlawful searches and seizures.  AAGLA has pending a similar lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles.

AAGLA's President of the Board, Earle Vaughan, stated: "The City of Beverly Hills' tenant rental registry is clearly unconstitutional in that it represents a de facto registry of residents and rents without any sort of due process.  The City of Beverly Hills is conducting an ongoing 'fishing expedition" without reasonable suspicion and has discarded any and all probable cause standards in its efforts to gather what amounts to confidential data about renters."

AAGLA's Executive Director, Daniel Yukelson, stated: "The City would be better served by obtaining this confidential information directly from the tenants themselves, should they wish to offer it, rather than imposing this onerous rental registry on income property owners."

Yukelson added: "The City of Beverly Hills has undertaken a vicious campaign against small residential income property owners by forcing them to comply with burdensome administrative reporting requirements.  The Tenant Rental Registry is just one aspect of the City's high cost, rent stabilization infrastructure, which at last count has added nearly a dozen new rent stabilization employees to the City's already bloated headcount, and is costing taxpayers of the City upwards of two million dollars a year."  Yukelson further added: "Immediately following the passage of the City's ill-conceived RSO, rental rates for single, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units in the City increased to all-time highs.  For the ten years prior to passage of RSO, monthly rental rates increased only 1.5% to 2.4% on average. Following the passage of the RSO, however, monthly rental rates spiked to the then allowable maximum of three percent."

AAGLA is represented by attorney Frank A. Weiser of Los Angeles who won a similar lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles in Patel vs. City of Los Angeles (135 S. Ct. 2443 (2015)).  In the Patel case, the United States Supreme Court held that the City's practice of compelling motel and hotel operators to make their registry of guests available for government inspection is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.  Mr. Weiser stated: "Other municipalities will likely adopt these invasive policies unless a constitutional legal challenge such as this lawsuit is undertaken on behalf of small residential income property owners."    

The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles is Southern California's leading advocate for affordable, quality housing on behalf of rental housing providers.  Founded more than 100 years ago, AAGLA's mission is to serve the interests of multifamily owners, managers, developers and suppliers with services and activities to maintain a high level of professionalism in the multifamily housing industry. AAGLA directly advocates for the rental housing industry locally in the city, county, state and federal government to better serve the rental housing needs of the public in a just and fair manner.

SOURCE Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles