In the city of Los Angeles, the current local commercial rent moratorium temporarily protects commercial tenants from eviction and unlawful detainers. This local moratorium is tied to Mayor Garcetti's emergency order period which, at the moment, does not have an end date. As currently written, the moment the local emergency order is lifted, a commercial tenant has three months to pay the landlord the entire sum of rent accumulated during the emergency period as well as begin paying full rent moving forward. This situation is untenable for the large majority of commercial tenants, especially and specifically for fitness and dance studio tenants who have been forced by government order to remain closed since mid March.

For example, if the emergency order was lifted on September 15th, a fitness studio that had to remain closed by State & City order with a lease at $15,000 a month will have three months to: attempt to get their business up and running again, pay the Landlord $90,000 in back rent, and begin paying $15,000 a month for current rent. With this example, the fitness tenant will be forced to pay the Landlord a total of $135,000 within 3 months or the Landlord can lawfully evict the Tenant.   

In addition, many small business owners have accepted government funded EIDL and PPP loans, or bank loans to stay afloat during this shutdown. These loans have to be repaid. This current landscape is a formula for disaster! The majority of small businesses will be unable to pay their landlords the total sum of rent due within three months and will face eviction while still being financially obligated to fulfill the terms of the loans they have in place.  When evicted and without a brick and mortar in place, how can businesses fulfill their debt obligations? It's impossible!

How can the government force small businesses to remain shuttered without providing them any protections whatsoever for the catastrophic economic effects this will have on these small businesses? With current guidelines, once the moratorium expires, landlords can begin the eviction process for commercial tenants at will. Once evicted, a commercial tenant will be responsible to pay the landlord for all accrued back rent as well as the rent on the remaining term of her lease and, because the tenant now has an eviction on her record, this small business owner will be unable to open her business in another location. Why have Mayor Garcetti and Governor Newsom put small businesses in such a precarious, untenable position? Why have they given landlords all the power? 

We need Mayor Garcetti and Governor Newsom to change the guidelines and provide Tenants with equity in this situation.  As small business owners, we have poured our entire lives into our businesses: our money, our time, our courage! For the last six months, we have been forced to remain closed. Match the amount of time we have been mandated to remain closed to the timeframe we are being forced to get caught up once the emergency order is lifted. Three months is untenable, unrealistic and provides not only a formula for landlords to proceed with an eviction process, but also to ruin the tenants future abilities to reopen by ruining their credit and dismantling their entire livelihoods. 

This petition demands two things: enact legislation that requires all commercial landlords to negotiate an amendment to the lease agreement, structuring a repayment scenario that works for both sides and if an agreement cannot be reached, provide a termination right to the tenant (3 months of rent paid and the rest of the lease is forgiven); and extend the current 3 month period to 12 months. This will save small businesses and protect the city from an incredible number of vacancies. It will save families, jobs and so much more. Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and the American Dream! Please help us keep both in place.