AAGLA Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles -

AAGLA Responds To Shocking Section 8 Memo

To:    Lourdes Castro-Ramirez
         Section 8 Director
         Los Angeles Housing Authority

From: Trevor Grimm, General Counsel, AAGLA

Date: June 15, 2006

Re: May 8, 2006 Interoffice Memorandum

"OWNER'S DESIRE TO CANCEL A SECTION 8 CONTRACT-CHECKS RETURNED BY OWNERS IN AN ATTEMPT TO CANCEL"

We have read with interest your memorandum (certified copy of page one, attached) advising your staff that an owner may not cancel a Section 8 contract at the expiration of its initial, or any extended, term. Your advice flies in the face of the holding in Apartment Association of L.A. vs. City of L.A., invalidating a 2002 Los Angeles Municipal Code Section (151 .04B) to wit:

"The instant 2002 Ordinance is... flawed. Despite a landlord's recognized right to terminate or refuse to renew a Section 8 contract, Municipal Code Section 151.04B imposes a prohibitive burden on the exercise of that right... and therefore is preempted" (and, we might add, it is void).

You assert that a HAP contract entered into by a landlord prior to this date contains a provision to the effect that it may not be terminated without terminating a tenant's lease. However, you support the assertion only by pointing out:

"...section 4.b. states that the HAP contract terminates automatically if the lease is terminated by the owner or the tenant."

The statement is okay except that AAGLA v. L.A. does not deal with leases, it deals with the HAP contract and states, as do we, that an owner has a 'recognized right" to terminate or not renew it when the term expires. There is no 'automatic renewal" provision in the HAP contract and any such provision would have to comply with State law in any event. In effect, you attempt to impose a 'never-ending lease" on the Federal Government without authorization so to do.

Please advise ASAP if the Housing Authority will cease giving out bad information, as pointed out above, and correct and re-issue the June 15 memorandum in accord herewith. We are ready to file suit again if need be, to correct this problem. Thank you.