LEGAL AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT OF BUSINESS I; BACKGROUND/NARRATIVE FACTS –
- Wealthy but bitter and lonely old miser Donald T. (no not that “T”) Whirling hated Valentine’s Day particularly for its sweetness (He’s bitter right?) and kind thoughts of love and caring for others. The Other Donald owned several apartment buildings in the City of Los Angeles rented to tenants at various income levels – from buildings housing expensive Hollywood “vista” suites to far more modest central city studio and 1-bedroom walk-up apartments.
- Over the past nine months The Other Donald has been receiving complaints from his clerk/property manager/chief rent collector Simon Barr Sinister that tenants were not paying their rent claiming job and income losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- T.O. Donald is greedy and unforgiving and he has angrily instructed Simon to evict any non-paying tenants immediately – NO EXCUSES!!! LEGAL AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT OF BUSINESS
- Simon a perfect henchman for T.O. Donald would LOVE to evict as many tenants as possible but other property managers have told Simon that there are pandemic-related laws preventing evictions – broadly called “eviction moratoriums” “rent abatements” “rent deferrals” or “tenant protections” – preventing evictions and immediate collection of rent from residential tenants.
- Simon does not want to run afoul of any federal state (of California) county (of Los Angeles) or city (of Los Angeles) law that would cause T.O. Donald and him to be sued by tenants and perhaps prosecuted by the government(s).
III. QUESTION – (Show Simon!!!) –
At what level(s) of government/what jurisdiction(s) are there laws for an “eviction moratorium”, “rent abatement”, “rent deferral”, or “tenant protection” – enacted to protect residential tenants in the City of Los Angeles suffering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., illness, job loss) from eviction and/or dramatic increases in rent?
For each of the four (4) levels of government – (1) federal, (2) state (of California), (3) county (of Los Angeles), and (4) city (of Los Angeles) – (a) identify the “eviction moratorium”/“rent abatement”/“rent deferral”/“tenant protection” law(s) that level of government has enacted or adopted; (b) briefly describe the provisions/protections of the law(s), focusing on those provisions/protections that block or delay eviction and those provisions/protections that limit rent increases and/or delay collection of rents; and (c) state when the law(s) will expire, absent any further extension.
[HINT (repeated): Your answer to this Question should be no more than four (4) sections … one for each level of government/each jurisdiction. (See, Sample Format document posted to Canvas.)]