In L.A.’s high-stakes rental market, where tenants and landlords regularly go to war over housing disputes, renters have filed more than 115,000 complaints to the city Housing Department since 2013.
Now, a new dashboard shows the worst offenders.
Called the Top 100 Problem Rental Properties, the new tool launched by City Controller Kenneth Mejia shows the properties with the most housing violation cases, as well as their owners. Mejia said he wanted to pressure landlords to comply with the law — and pressure the city to punish the ones who don’t.
“This project comes at a time when tenants are reporting harassment and illegal evictions violating the City’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance, Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance and Tenant Anti‑Harassment Ordinance, but very few of the complaints end up leading to strong enforcement or real accountability,” he said in a statement.
The dashboard includes a search engine to find violations tied to specific addresses, as well as a map showing more than 44,000 properties with complaints against them. It documents 55,018 illegal evictions, 38,876 illegal rent increases, 32,015 complaints about a reduction of services and 24,179 harassment cases.
The top offender was Hillside Villa Apartments, a 124-unit complex in Chinatown where residents alleged 300% rent hikes after pandemic-era rent protections expired. In 2024, the city cut a deal to provide $15 million in subsidized rent. The complex had 192 violation cases.
Barrington Plaza ranked second. In 2023, the owners of the massive 712-unit Westside complex attempted to evict every single resident in order to install fire sprinklers and safety upgrades. The property had 166 cases.
AVA Toluca Hills Apartments ranked third, though its placement on the list is partly due to the sheer number of rentals. The 1,150-unit complex near Universal Studios had 113 violations including harassment, unregistered units and non-payment of relocation services for tenants evicted without fault.
“There has never before been an uncomplicated way for anyone to look up years’ worth of violations by address,” Mejia said. “Everyone deserves safe, stable and dignified housing.”
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