After years of planning, more rented housing in unincorporated Los Angeles County will finally get routine health inspections beginning in November, the public health department announced on Monday.
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The department will prioritize inspections of homes that have a history of repeated health and safety violations. Thirty-day inspection notices will be sent out starting in October.
What’s changing
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors began taking action in 2021 to create the Rental Housing Habitability Program (RHHP). At the time, supervisors were looking for “stronger mechanisms” to ensure landlords maintain safe and liveable homes.
The change is similar to what the city of L.A. has been doing as it sends housing inspectors out to every multifamily rental property at least once every four years. In unincorporated areas, only properties with five or more units were routinely inspected until RHHP. Other properties were inspected as complaints came in.
“Renters should not have to choose between being safe or having a roof over their heads,” said county Supervisor Holly Mitchell in the announcement. “And as a landlord, having habitable rental units is not just the right thing to do; it’s good for business.”
Under the previous program, environmental health branch director Charlene Contreras said inspections were unannounced. They’d go to a property, knock on doors, and ask whoever was home about the living…
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