When the Palisades and Eaton fires displaced thousands of tenants last year, landlords across L.A. jacked up rental prices while the flames were still burning. Officials were quick to respond, vowing crackdowns on price gouging.
A new report asserts that many of those threats were toothless.
Published by activist organization the Rent Brigade, the report analyzed L.A. County’s rental market in the year after the fires. It found 18,360 potential examples of price gouging in listings, but only 12 lawsuits filed so far.
Gov. Gavin Newsom put price-gouging rules into effect on Jan. 7, the day of the fires. They’ve been in place in L.A. County ever since, and they’re currently extended through Feb. 27, 2026. The protections prohibit landlords from raising rents by more than 10%, but many seemed undeterred by the rules.
In the week after the fires, one agent told The Times that their landlord client said they “doubt it’ll be prosecuted,” ordering the agent to raise the price more than 10%. A Beverly Grove condo jumped from $5,000 to $8,000. A property in Venice listed for 60% more. A Santa Monica home got a price bump of more than 100%.
“I was shocked by how many clear, unavoidable cases of price gouging there were,” said Philip Meyer, a volunteer with the Rent Brigade who co-authored the report. “A lot of folks didn’t seem to think there’d be any accountability, so they were breaking the law in plain view.”
Meyer helped design a tracking system that scrapes data from Zillow to detect price hikes greater than 10%. He said price gouging predictably skyrocketed in the month after the fires, but then it continued all year long as enforcement lagged.
“I’m not sure if people realized that price-gouging laws are still in effect,” he said.
Illegal listings were scattered across the Southland, but the report said that 42% were found in L.A. County’s 3rd District, which covers Pacific Palisades, as well as the surrounding communities where many fire victims tried to relocate, including Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice and Calabasas.
Last year, the Rent Brigade launched a campaign to inform tenants that they may have been victims of price gouging. Using the Zillow data, they sent out 2,000 postcards to addresses tied to suspect listings detailing their rights; Meyer said the goal was to help tenants contact authorities for enforcement.
The report claims that as much as $49 million in excess rent may have been collected over the last year, an estimate found by totaling up all the asking prices above the legal limit. However, the actual number is likely significantly lower, since the $49-million mark assumes all 18,360 illegal listings were rented at the advertised price.
It’s also likely that the 18,360 number is slightly lower, since data pulled from Zillow listings don’t provide information on actual leases signed — and don’t always provide the full picture.
For example, a Zillow listing could show a previous asking price of $1,500 for a home last year, and an asking price of $6,000 a year later, which would register as a 300% increase. However, the $1,500 asking price could’ve been for a single room in the home, not the entire home — in which case the $6,000 wouldn’t be considered price gouging.
However, it’s clear that thousands of landlords tried to take advantage of increased demand created by the fires, which is why officials at the state, county and city levels all vowed crackdowns.
There have been plenty of legislative efforts to help enforce such a crackdown. In February, L.A. County raised the price-gouging penalty from $10,000 to $50,000, and the L.A. City Council raised the maximum penalty to $30,000. In July, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors made it easier to punish landlords by allowing the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs to bypass the district attorney and directly fine price gougers.
Other laws were proposed, but fizzled out. A state law sought to raise the maximum fine for price-gouging and expand protections to hotels and other services, but it died in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Another state law sought to require listing platforms to remove listings suspected of price gouging, but it was vetoed by Newsom in October.
Spokespeople for the city, county and state offices that deal with price gouging responded to the report’s claims that they weren’t doing enough.
“As part of our department’s work to protect Californians following the fires, California DOJ formed a Disaster Relief Task Force, sent 753 warning letters to hotels and landlords who were accused of price gouging, and filed criminal charges against six defendants, including Los Angeles real estate agents and a landlord,” said California Department of Justice spokesperson Elissa Perez, who works with state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. “These are cases where the provable facts supported charges.”
The report claims that L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, who issued strong statements condemning price gouging, hasn’t prosecuted a single price-gouging case. A statement from his office acknowledged that no cases have been filed, but pointed to collaborations with the city and state, which have both filed price-gouging lawsuits.
City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office has filed seven price-gouging lawsuits — three civil, four criminal — ranging from individual landlords to housing companies such as Blueground and Airbnb. Bonta’s office has filed five, all against individual landlords. All 12 cases are currently pending or awaiting trial.
Ivor Pine, a spokesperson for Feldstein Soto’s office, called the report inaccurate; the report claimed the office investigated only 1,100 cases but it actually investigated thousands more, which were included in its lawsuits against Airbnb and Blueground. He also questioned the report’s methodology, adding that relying exclusively on Zillow listings can be misleading and suggest price gouging that’s not actually happening since it only shows advertised rents, not actual leases.
Pine added that enforcement efforts are ongoing and that all cases filed seek restitution of hundreds or thousands of dollars paid to victims.
