Sherry Anne Lear Attorney At Law

06/08/2025

Los Angeles Landlords - every rental unit must post JCO notices and be registered now. This to single family homes and non-rent control units. Are you in compliance? If not, you can be fined and may not be able to evict tenants if you otherwise have legal cause to do so.

Beginning January 27, 2023, a landlord must have the Notice of Renters’ Protections posted on all residential properties in an accessible common area of the property. This Notice must also be given to tenants who begin or renew their tenancy on or after January 27, 2023.

02/08/2025

Los Angeles Landlords - if your property is subject to the Just Cause Ordinance you now must pay $31.05 per year to register your rental unit with the City. Learn more at the LAHD website:

In addition to the annual RSO/SCEP fees, property owners may also be billed for additional services provided by the Department. These fees can be paid by submitting your payment in the self-addressed envelope included with the bill, or by visiting an LAHD Walk-In Center.

01/21/2025

My heart goes out to everyone who has suffered losses from these devastating fires. For those navigating the difficulty of making an insurance claim, please consider reaching out to United Policyholders for assistance. They are a non-profit and have a lot of good resources to help.

We’ve got your back when insurance matters United Policyholders (UP) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) whose mission is to be a trustworthy and useful information resource and a respected voice for consumers of all types of insurance across the United States. We don’t sell insurance or take money from i...

01/09/2025

very very important changes to laws for Evictions in CA went into effect on January 1, 2025.
First, there is Extended Response Time for Tenants (CCP Section 1167). Tenants will now have 10 days (excluding weekends and holidays) to respond to an Unlawful Detainer summons and complaint, doubling the previous 5-day deadline.

Second, since many tenant try to add time to the Unlawful Detainer process by filing motions to such as Demurrer or Motion to Strike, new laws make those proceed more quickly. (CCP Section 1170)
Under the new rules, when a tenant files a Demurrer or a Motion to Strike an eviction complaint, the hearing must be scheduled within 5 to 7 court days (some tenants were putting these 30 days out). Additionally, landlords can now orally oppose these motions, and tenants can orally respond to those oppositions—previously, both parties were required to submit written responses ahead of the hearing. The option for oral responses is expected to expedite the process especially when a Demurrer or Motion to Strike has no obvious merit and will save time and money (relatively speaking) for Landlords.

There are still lots of other tricks that tenants can do to delay things like filing for Bankruptcy, removing a case to Federal Court and the like.

01/05/2025

Virtually every landlord who comes to me as a new client, does not have updated lease forms and has not made the disclosures required by California. These disclosures change yearly and it is hard to keep track of them on your own. Please reach out if you need to have your standard lease forms reviewed. Even if you are under a local rent control jurisdiction, you need to make required updated disclosures.

04/25/2024

Residential landlords, do you have an updated lease with all the proper disclosures? Have you made all required disclosures for existing tenants? Not updating your rental agreements can cause problems. Our office does lease and disclosure packages.

10/24/2023

Dear Landlords, there will be significant changes to the laws regarding security deposits for residential tenants going into effect in 2024. In fact, there changes every year in your duties as a Landlord. Almost every Landlord client who comes into my office has failed to update their rental agreement or make a disclosure now required (yes, disclosures do need to be made to existing tenants).

09/18/2022

I recently had the opportunity to help a client who was violently rear-ended in a car accident. She had pre-existing back issues and had already undergone two surgeries. She needed two additional surgeries and dealt with a host of other issues including panic attacks. The other driver, very fortunately, had large policy limits and my client received a policy limits settlement of $485,000.

03/12/2022

Attn: Tenants and Landlords!
The CA COVID-19 Rent Relief program will stop accepting new applications on March 31, 2022 at 5 PM. If you have not already applied, be sure to by the deadline. Apply online 24 hrs/7 days a week until closing of application at housingiskey.com, or call (833) 430-2122. The program can cover up to 100% of unpaid rent for qualified tenants.

10/10/2021

Some folks are under the mistaken impression that evictions for non-payment of rent (residential tenancies) started 10/1/2021. Please note that while Landlords can serve a 3-day Notice as of 10/1, if the tenancy existed before October 2021, then Landlords MUST apply for rental relief first and 100% rental relief will be available though March 2022. Also, some cities have their OWN laws that are still effective (like Bevelry Hills). Learn more here. https://www.courts.ca.gov/44660.htm?rdeLocaleAttr=en

08/24/2021

The CDC has extended federal eviction moratoriums through 10/3/2021. Tenants are required to fill out a very specific declaration to get the benefit of this. Los Angeles County moratorium (which limits the ability to file UDs) is set to expire 9/30/2021. As long as COVID cases keep increasing and we see breakthrough infections on vaccinated people, it is likely these moratoriums will be extended. One piece of good news is that landlords are finally seeing some financial relief, although the application process has been slow.

06/23/2021

Eviction Moratoriums -- commercial and residential - -have been extended in Los Angeles County through 9/30/2021. There is some, very limited, relief for single family homeowners who want to move into their own residences, with conditions. Rent relief programs under SB91 are being extended and I am urging my clients to apply for this as 80% of rent will be paid, which certainly is better than getting 25% and hoping to collect the other 75% via Small Claims Court.

Los Angeles County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the region’s ban on evictions and other tenant protections enacted as the pandemic sent unemployment surging. The county’s evictio…