By Nathan Sewell, Building Inspector

A few weeks ago, I received a call from an owner with a property in Downtown Los Angeles. He owns a condominium unit in a large building. He said he was already behind on the mortgage and did not have the budget for a difficult tenant or a HOA problem.

He told me that the roof leaked into his unit, and he did not learn about the situation until recently – the tenant did not call him immediately. Over a few week period, the leak became worse, turning into flaking paint and then mold. The first time the owner received notice that something was wrong in the unit was through a demand letter from the tenant. The letter appeared to be ChatGPT-generated, complete with formatted bullet points and code citations in bold letters.

Among other things, the demand letter attempted to limit access by the owner to the unit to specific hours on two days per week. Unfortunately, given the circumstances, the owner cannot afford a prolonged legal fight. The matter of dispute has already moved well beyond a simple maintenance and repair issue.

This is not a slumlord story. The owner I just described would have fixed the leak the same week if the tenant had called him on day one. He has no history of complaints. He is, by every measure, the kind of owner the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles represents. But the issue this owner ran into I now see almost weekly. Tenants who would have called their landlord two years ago are showing up with documentation, code references, and sometimes a demand letter before the landlord even knows there is a problem. The information gap that had once protected attentive and responsive owners is closing fast, and it is not coming back.

Recently, this pattern has only gotten clearer. The owners I am increasingly encountering are getting blindsided, and they are not always absentee landlords. Many are careful owners – people who pull permits, register with the city or county, run clean operations, and pride themselves on doing things right. What is happening to them is not negligence. It is geometry. They visit each property a few times a year. The tenant lives there twenty-four hours a day. And since late 2024, that tenant has had A-I tools that translate everything they notice into specific code citations, formatted complaints, and the names of contingency-fee attorneys.

What You Cannot See That Your Tenant Can

Most of what I find on careful, well-run properties share one thing in common. The owner could not reasonably have known. Earlier this year I was inspecting a plumbing leak at a large, well-managed apartment complex. It came from one unit. The owner of the source unit did not know until the occupants smelled mold. By then, the neighboring tenant whose ceiling had been quietly absorbing water for weeks had already been documenting the issue. The management company tried to fix the problem but moved slowly. That tenant now has a case against a company that, by any reasonable measure, is professional and responsive.

That is the geometry I see. A roof flashing loosens during a windstorm. A bathroom fan stops venting because the duct came loose in the attic. A water heater performs intermittently underload. A weep hole on a balcony backs up with debris. The tenant lives with each of these problems every day. The owner sees them once a quarter or twice a year, if ever. A-I is what helps the tenant identify and document each item correctly when they finally do something about it like reporting the issue to the owner, but often way too late.

I see this problem going on with smaller matters too. Recently I inspected a unit where someone had installed a mini split air conditioning system without permits. It leaked, damaging the wall behind it. Easy fix in principle, but the tenant did not call the landlord. He called code enforcement after checking on the local building and safety department portal and finding no permit. The complaint became a building file before the owner ever heard about it.

The Quiet File

A second pattern is worth describing on its own. Before A-I, a tenant who suspected something was wrong with their unit had three options: (i) live with it, (ii) submit a maintenance request, (iii) or spend serious time researching their rights, usually without getting anywhere useful. Most of them lived with it. But today, all that has changed. The tenants I have encountered in the last six months are doing something different. They are quietly compiling a file before they communicate anything to the landlord. Tenants put together dated photos taken over weeks, detailed notes from every phone call, and written timelines, code citations, and a draft complaint letter. And they also have the names and contact information of two or three local habitability attorneys.

When the tenant finally communicates to the landlord about an issue, it arrives fully assembled. The owner’s response window is short, and any misstep then becomes part of a record the tenant has been building for weeks. This is not malicious. From the tenant’s perspective, it is the rational response to a system where escalation requires evidence. The implication for owners is simple – You can no longer assume the first email about a problem is the first time the tenant noticed it. By the time you hear about it, the file may already exist.

Why This Matters Right Now

Three things are converging this year that make the geometry harder for landlords. Assembly Bill 628 adds providing working ovens and refrigerators to habitability standards for leases entered, renewed, or amended on or after January 1, 2026, subject to limited exceptions. The County’s 82°F cooling mandate is scheduled to begin enforcement in 2027, with phased compliance for smaller owners. And insurance carriers are paying closer attention to claims and complaint history. A habitability lawsuit can affect renewal, premium, and in some cases insurability.

Closing the Gap

The defense against this environment is not legal posturing. It is closing the gap between what your tenants see and what you see. Owners must walk their buildings on a real cadence. Make monthly common-area checks. For occupied units, schedule periodic preventative maintenance visits with proper notice. Start regularly making smoke and carbon monoxide detector tests, air condition and heating filter changes, and under-sink leak inspections, which can serve as legitimate maintenance-related grounds for access under California Civil Code §1954. After-storm and after-heat-wave conditions, owner inspections of the systems that take the most abuse are imperative. Be sure to keep a written repair log that shows response times.

A practical response protocol: when a tenant reports water intrusion, mold, electrical concerns, heat, cooling, plumbing, appliance, or pest issues, assume the issue may have existed longer than the first message suggests. Acknowledge the complaint in writing. Schedule access promptly. Document every attempted appointment. Photograph before and after repair. Keep invoices tied to that specific unit. The repair matters. The timeline matters almost as much. In a dispute, a documented response outlasts an owner’s memory of being responsive.

The owners I see handling 2026 well are not doing anything dramatic. They have just adjusted their cadence so that the building they describe and the building their tenants experience are the same building. That alignment used to be optional. It no longer is.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Bear in mind that A-I tools are not always correct, but they need not be perfect to change what tenants notice and how they document it.

Nathan Sewell is a building inspector specializing in Habitability Inspections for rental properties across Los Angeles County. With expertise in building code compliance and building systems, he helps property owners identify code violations and habitability issues before official inspections occur. For more information about habitability inspections and compliance consulting, visit labuildinginspections.com/aagla or call (626) 214-5929.