The city of Los Angeles Passed Ordinance NO. 183893, a seismic retrofit Ordinance which will affect as much as 17,000 buildings in the city. The goal of this Ordinance is to improve tenant safety, lower likelihood of building collapse, and to reduce earthquake damage. This Ordinance will be costly and the city has decided that the cost will be split between the tenant and the owner in rents controlled buildings.

Within the next 2 years, affected buildings will receive an order from the city mandating compliance with the Ordinance’s requirement. Property owner must submit permitted documents to the city within one year. There are 2 types of documents property owners can submit:

1) Structural analysis report indicating compliance with the Ordinance’s seismic resistance requirements.

2) Engineered drawings & analysis showing upgrade of the building in compliance with the Ordinance.

If retrofit is needed, owner must obtain all necessary building permits for construction with 2 years. Constructions must also be completed within seven years.

This Ordinance also includes retrofit for older buildings built before 1977, which also performed poorly in past earthquakes. Similarly, owners must submit analysis report within 3 years. If retrofit is needed, owners have 10 years to submit a more detailed report and 25 years to complete all necessary constructions.